Part gallery, part shop, Via Alley is my favourite treasure seeking spot right now. Located in convenient Darlinghurst this store features everything from clothes, jewellery and original art to home wares. I can guarantee you will find sweet gifts for your sweetest friends and a few trinkets for yourself too. Many of the products have been imported from all over the globe and can't be found elsewhere. There are not numerable portions of anything in the store as so many of the pieces are originals and one offs so things sell out quickly but this also means every man, woman and their dog won’t be sporting your clever jewellery and t-shirt.
The beautiful arched interior and cool mood lighting frames all sorts of trinkets but does not have the cluttered feeling so many similar boutiques do. Nor is the space intimidatingly trendy, one can spend as long as they like trawling through the pieces of bliss without being made to feel as though its high school again and your the geek whose umbrella just everted itself in the main quadrangle. No, this store is warm, cosy and inviting and you will want to stay and spend way longer than you probably should.
Via Alley has also set up a website stocking all sorts of goodies which one can purchase from the convenience of their home. But be warned the invisibility of the credit card and via alleys reasonably priced collection of products is a lethal combination for anyone not wanting to eat rice for the next few weeks. But every cloud has a silver lining and if one does overspend on the site or in store at least that rice will be eaten amongst inspiring things which have been made and selected with care.
My favourite find was an adorable and incredibly affordable figure called a TO-FU head which was decked out in cubism gear. Another was the oh-so sweet black jack trio rings by Made by White. These beyond cool items are the tiniest portion of what Via Alley has to offer. So check it out because this store both in the real world and in the cyber world reminds us that shopping isn’t always superficial and mass marketed. In Via Alley faith can be restored in that amongst all the crap there are vibrant people creating equally vibrant things.