Berlin's 20 best shops Upgrade your wardrobe with our pick of Berlin’s top retail destinations

Berlin’s shopping landscape is a jumble of wildly diverse elements unified by a nod to innovation, individualism and experimentation. Mainstream and avant-garde shops live happily side-by-side, bringing character and variety to the city’s streets.

A bargain vintage store selling DDR kitsch can nestle comfortably among some of the city’s most expensive boutiques. Even with the influx of big-name international brands and the coming-of-age of the local 1990s avant-garde, Berlin’s progressives continue to hatch new schemes to keep things interesting, and the independent shopping scene remains lively and strong.

KaDeWe

 The Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) is, at over 100 years old, a Berlin institution. The largest department store in continental Europe, it stocks quite an impressive range of high end designers, and has recently tried to get rid of its stuffy image by bringing in upbeat, fun younger labels such as Alice+Olivia and London shoe brand Buffalo. The food floor at the top is still the main attraction, and the rooftop café with its glass roof is the best place in town for a post-shopping cappuc

Voo

Voo may be discretely hidden in a courtyard off Kreuzberg’s busy Oranienstraße, but this concept store is fast becoming a fashion landmark for those in the know. The expansive space, with its scratched walls and bold lighting may be typical of Berlin derelict chic, but the eclectic designers whose clothes they stock are wide-ranging in nationality, from Scandinavian brands Uniforms for the Dedicated and Cheap Monday, to the Parisian label Surface to Air, Australian label Something Else and Berlin locals Don’t Shoot the Messengers

cino