Businesses

Shopping in Sydney is less “power mall” and more roaming between villages, each with its own personality. Around Newtown and Enmore you get tattoed-bookshop energy: vintage racks, vinyl dens, ceramics studios, community-run co-ops and bookstores that stubbornly refuse to be tidy. Over in Surry Hills, the vibe tilts toward polished but playful – design-y homewares, local fashion labels, sleek barbers, and cafés that happily let you loiter with a flat white while you decide whether you really need another linen shirt.

If you want shiny, swipe-right retail, the CBD and Pitt Street Mall bring the flagships and glossy department stores, plus Queen Victoria Building for heritage arches and stained glass with your impulse purchases. For something more coastal, Bondi and Paddington boutiques specialise in “I just threw this on” resort wear, gallery-style homewares, and skincare labs that smell like eucalyptus and good decisions. Scattered through it all are queer-owned salons, bookstores, florists, and design studios – the kind of spots where the staff clock you in 0.3 seconds, compliment your tote, and suddenly you’re talking local drag nights and where to get the best dumplings.

Standouts to plug into your map: the warehouse-style vintage and curated thrift along King Street and Enmore Road; Surry Hills’ cluster of Australian fashion labels and barber shops along Crown and Riley Streets; Paddington’s Oxford Street strip for galleries and boutiques; and Bondi’s side streets for surf shops and airy, plant-filled concept stores. Sydney rewards wandering – duck down laneways, look up at the old signs, and follow the rainbow stickers in the windows. That’s usually where the good stuff is.