The best shops in Lisbon
Loja das Conservas
‘Fish for sale in an art gallery’ is how the indefatigable staff describe the kaleidoscopic selection of canned tuna, octopus and sardines. It hardly sounds like a pretty proposition – fish in brine or oil – but the cute, oblong, super-pocketable tins (wrapped in designs going back 100 years) make the most delicious and appropriate gift from this seafood-crazed city. Rua do Arsenal 130 (facebook.com/lojadasconservas)
Under the Cover
A stone’s throw from the beautifully landscaped Gulbenkian park, this shop sells international magazines of captivating variety. ‘It’s just things we want to know more about,’ shrugs curator Luis Kuna – a too-modest description of this world-class fiesta of temptations. A guide to the forgotten workmen’s eateries of Istanbul sits next to phantasmagorical photographs of underwater free-divers by Francesca Rivett. ‘We take into account the paper too,’ says Kuna. ‘The design, the smell; the physical aspect of reading a magazine means everything to us.’ Rua Marquês Sá da Bandeira 88B (underthecover.pt)
Fora Sunglasses
This tiny showroom is run by a gang of young local designers committed to making affordable and coolly appealing sunglasses. Inspired by classic and revival designs (Seventies Dior; anything worn by Steve McQueen circa Bullitt), each pair is traditionally hand-cut from sheets of tortoiseshell and black acetate, and then delicately shaped and filed. And yet the glasses are uniformly light and the lenses 100 per cent UVA/B. Hyper-utilitarian and sexy, they are unique to the city and all cost less than x150. Avenida Álvares Cabral 28A (fora.pt)
Teresa PavAo – Objetos de Arte
The small showroom of the prize-winning ceramicist Teresa Pavão is tucked away behind the cathedral. The building was once an old bakery, and on the original marble and wooden counters sit examples of Pavão’s recent signature designs: white clay embedded with fragments of 19th-century Japanese bowls; gleaming tiles subtly inlaid with the fossil-like imprint of the spine of a sardine. There are delicate handmade scarfs and crisp linen shirts here too, but tomorrow it might be different. Rua de São João da Praça 120 (teresapavao.com)
Galeria Tereza Seabra
Part exhibition space, part workshop and store, this former 18th-century blouse factory is filled with characterful modern-European jewellery. You will likely find a couple of designers working at their desks to the thrum of John Coltrane. Young Swedish jeweller Anna Norrgrann’s pieces particularly stand out (shell-like fine metal, sheeny with hidden colours). But the work by owner Tereza Seabra is profoundly gorgeous, recycling 19th-century Portuguese coral with shimmering-new rose gold. Rua da Rosa 158-160A (terezaseabra.com)
Soul Mood
‘They prefer less, and better,’ says the sales assistant about the Lisbon women who shop for clothes and accessories at this boutique, set in a demure square in the heart of Chiado. Items dangle singularly from the high ceiling like acrobats on wire. Here are pared-back, asymmetric pieces by Sarah Pacini and Hannes Roether – but it’s the super-pliable leather bags that are the draw: a huge, huggable black clutch; an eye-catchingly soft cross-body saddlebag. Original and simple, they are handmade in store, and not sold online or anywhere else. Travessa do Carmo 1 (soulmood.pt)
Maison Nuno Gama
Fittings for made-to-measure tailoring in the atelier of Portuguese menswear designer Gama are a hoot. One wall is lined with tuxedos in dandyishly vibrant silk, while another leads to a lively barbershop. Gama has a fondness for embellishing the inside of the most soberly elegant wedding-suit jackets with personalised embroidery inspired by the romantic folk art of Portuguese émigrés. ‘I love a good blazer, it’s fundamental to me,’ he says, ever-busy in his studio at the back, where the walls are lined with books by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Rua do Século 171 (nunogama.pt)
Yoyo Objects
This family business and passion project restores rare but important Portuguese modernist furniture from the 1950s to 1980s. Its three young owners – a graphic designer, an industrial designer and an architect – work in an adjoining studio. But enter the shop and they’ll appear, eyes flashing with enthusiasm to point out a bargain stool by José Espinho, or a rosewood chair by Antonio Garcia, made for the lauded 1970 Osaka Universal Exhibition. Strictly speaking, this stock belongs in design museums. Rua do Arco a São Mamede 87A
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Stay here: CASA AMORA
Along a pretty street burnished with quintessential Lisbon tiles, in the creative neighbourhood of Amoreiras, is this townhouse with a handful of bedrooms. From its garden (a high-walled grotto of crumbling bricks and ivy) voices ever-burble, with guests eating wobbly custard tarts for breakfast and staff recommending local restaurants and walks, all under the shade of a tremendous avocado tree. The decor is elegant retro, the palette pointedly calming – appropriate given it’s so close to some of the best streets for shopping, including the Avenida da Liberdade and Rua de São Bento for crazily opulent and must-see antiques. It’s also only a short walk from the best gelateria in the city: Nannarella. Doubles from about £70. Rua João Penha 13 (whitelinehotels.com)
MORE OF THE BEST SHOPPING IN LISBON
A Vida Portuguesa is packed with retro knick-knacks in bright, spirit-lifting packaging. Possibly the only other place that outdoes it is the celebrated Conserveira de Lisboa, which exists solely to meet your tinned-sardine needs. Indeed, Lisbon has a number of shops that only sell one thing: Caza das Vellas Loreto has been making candles since 1789; Luvaria Ulisses stocks nothing but gloves; and Pelcor reveals how, ever since the advent of the screw-cap wine bottle, making stuff other than corks out of cork has become a big deal. By contrast, there is endless variety at the LX Factory, in the shadow of the Ponte 25 de Abril, packed with cafés, bars and shops. It faces stiff competition from the Village Underground, which is smaller but cooler and more seriously artsy, and, across town, from Embaixada, where Portuguese designs are displayed in a former palácio.
Local know-how
Maria Ulecia, artist and hotelier
'Explore the Baixa area around rua do Marquês de Ponte de Lima and rua de São Cristovão, where there is an unspoiled mix of new ventures and abandoned places.'
'Sail the River Tagus with Marlin Tours, a young team with beautiful boats.'
'On Friday evenings, go for a drink at the tiny, just opened AMO Brewery.'
'For regional delicacies given a twist by creative chefs, go to Boi-Cavalo, Os Gazeteiros in Alfama, or Leopold at Pátio de Dom Fradique inside the castle.'
For more information and to plan a trip to Lisbon, see visitlisboa.com
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