On a recent impromptu visit home to Singapore, I went to one of my favorite haunts - Arab Street. I normally come here to either pick up some jewelry findings and stones, or to get fabrics. They have the most lovely laces and my favorite sarong kebaya shop is located here ...
This little shop selling Turkish water pipes and lights conjures up Aladdin's cave doesn't it?
One of my fav shops that sells sarong kebayas ...
One of the many shops selling gorgeous fabrics ...
I was about to head home when I noticed a few groups of people wandering down this lane ... Haji Lane... so I decided to venture down, and I was immensely pleasantly surprised to find that they had revamped this area, and turned these historical pre-war shophouses into charming little boutiques!
A beautifully decorated shophouse now housing a design company ...
Some of the shops are located on the 2nd floor. I thought this one was particularly clever as they tried to attract you to their shop upstairs by decorating the stairway and leading your eyes up to the actual shop!
This shop - Soon Lee - is I think one of my favorites in this lane.
I love the way the entire shop is decorated, with little tin soldiers, lovely shelves and dressers for accessories and clothes, even my fav magazines and books
... utterly charming!
I could hardly resist this shop when it looked so welcoming,
and more importantly, it sold jewelry!
I was totally surprised when I walked in and was greeted by the designer herself.
Her designs are so whimsical, much like the designer,
and she is so lively, she perks you right up!
And her jewelry ranges fm outrageously quirky (with peranakan spoons on chokers) to super versatile pieces you could wear everywhere.
Her website: http://www.hadasity.com/
Just when I was lamenting about how I wish Singapore had pockets of areas like the East District in Taipei, and voila! I stumble upon Haji Lane parallel to Arab St in Singapore. One thing about Singaporeans - when they set their mind to do something, they generally do it well. Now, if only I could one day own a boutique as pretty as Soon Lee or Hadasity ..
And if only there were more pockets of such charming areas in Singapore ...
this is soon lee's other outlet called Rockstar at orchard cineleisure - http://rockstar-soonlee.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHey! That's the place you got yr converse fm right? Have you bought anything else fm them before? I saw this beautiful cuff bracelet which is supposedly designed in France, and I was awfully tempted! Go check it out!
ReplyDeleteBtw, I think I like this store at Haji Lane cos it's in such a quaint shophouse and finding it is like finding a secret treasure ... kwim?