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MUMBAI SHOPPING
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Women Designer's Wear |
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This is the upmarket salon in Mumbai. It specialises in chic designer
and ready-to-wear women's clothes. Designers include Abraham & Thakore,
Kotwara, and Ensemble founder Tarun Tahiliani. It has a select
jewellery collection and a sampling of designer shirts for men.
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Adarsh Gill
sells elegant evening wear fusing Indian and western styles but you'll
need to have a wallet as thick as a supermodel's waist to do anything
but look.
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Ecstacy
next to Tata Garden, has unique, elaborately embroidered outfits
created by Mumbai designer. This is the place to shop if you're
invited to an Indian wedding and want to upstage the bride.
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Silk & Saris |
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Mumbai established itself as Urbs Prima in lndis on the back of the
cotton trade and it's still the country's major textile market. Look
out for locally produced muslin, silk saris from the central
Maharashtrian town of Paithan, cotton brocade shawls from Aurangabad
and textiles decorated with distinctive Warli tribal designs. Apart
from humble cotton, it now produces fine wools, silks and synthetic
fibres.
If you're buying a silk sari, it helps to know a bit about both the
silk and the sari. Saris are generally 5.5m long, unless they include
the material to make a blouse (choli), in which case they're 6m. Sari
silk is graded and sold by weight -in grams per metre.
To get a taste of everything under one roof, the best place to look
for any kind of textile is Mangaldas Market in Kalbadevi or nearby
Mulji Jetha Market (also known as MI Market). If you're not quite up
for a full-on bazaar experience, try trawling the silk and sari shops
lining Maharshi Karve Rd between Churchgate and Marine Lines train
stations. They include major stores like Kala Niketan and Roop Milan.
Shamsheth Lane, two streets north of the Jama Masjid in Kalbadevi,
specialises in lace. |
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Jewellery |
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It is the centre of India's large diamond industry and a major
exporter of gems. The main retail centers are Zaveri Bazaar for gold
and diamonds, and nearby Pydhoni for silver. Many Indian women still
put most of their wealth into jewellery so there's plenty of shiny
stuff available. It ranges from simple glass bangles and classical
necklaces to the kind of ornate folk art and elaborate costume
jewellery that requires strong neck muscles and the poise of a
princess to wear.
If you are more interested in decorative items than counting carats,
there's wide selection of jewellary in the market opposite the Novelty
Cinema on Grant Rd, bangles glone in the markets of Bhuleshwar and a
small smattering of street vendors selling so-so jewellary along
Colaba Causeway. At the other end of the scale, there's cluster of
upmarket boutiques in Om Chambers at Kemp's Corner and a series of
showrooms on Hughes Rd., just behind Chowpatty Beach. The stores
listed below are for those who wants to spend some serious money.
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Perfumes |
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Islamic attar (essential oil) perfume shops are found scattered along
Mohammed Ali Rd, clustered in Bhendi, Null and Zaveri Bazaars.
The Inshaallah Mashaallah has a huge range of perfumes and helpful
staff that can guide you through the olfactory chaos. It boasts that
it has the largest collection of garden flower perfumes in India and
you can try the likes of jasmine, opium, lemon grass and sandalwood. A
12mg bottle costs around Rs 200 for a standard whiff and rises as high
as Rs 12,000 for rare sandalwoods.
The Attar Ahmed Dawood has several hundred perfumes that you can test
and sniff, plus incense bark from the agarwood tree.
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Footwear |
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There's a large number of fairly mediocre shoe stores lining Colaba
Causeway. For a much better selection try the stores clustered around
Kemp's Corner or the huge number of shoe stalls lining Linking Rd
between Bandra and Khar. You can get everything from Kolhapuri
chappals and loafers to high-heeled sneakers and white steel-tipped
cowboy boots. |
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Boutiques |
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There's a cluster of hip boutiques on Bhulabhai Desai Rd at Kemp's
Corner, wedged between the flyover and the junction with Nepean Sea
Rd. Pieces by Indian designers sell here for half the price of off-theshelf
gear back home. The clothes are trendy and western oriented, but with
a healthy dash of local style thrown in. Bandra's Linking Rd is also
worth a stroll, though the clothes here tend to be familiar western
labels rather than innovative local designs.
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