5 Best Places to Shop in Belltown, Seattle

Aesthetes and architects haunt this shop, which is stocked with all things design. Rare, international architecture, art, and design books (including titles for children) mingle with high-end products from Alessi and Iittala; sleek notebooks, bags, portfolios, and drawing tools round out the collection. This is a great shop for quirky, unforgettable gifts, like a pentagram typography calendar, an Arne Jacobsen wall clock, or an aerodynamic umbrella.

This tiny store tucked inside the Ace Hotel has a careful selection of urban street wear that includes hard-to-find designers like Nudie Jeans Co., Barbour, and Fred Perry—it's sophisticated while still maintaining an edge. Kuhlman is best known for creating custom clothing, often from superb European and Japanese fabrics.

If the person next to you on the bus isn't wearing North Face, they're probably clad in Patagonia. This popular and durable brand excels at functional outdoor wear—made with earth-friendly materials such as hemp and organic cotton—as well as technical clothing hip enough for mountaineers or urban hikers. The line of whimsically patterned fleece wear for children is particularly cute.

Find locally made fashions from eight in-house designers and some 60 local designers in this charming Belltown storefront, including a popular obi wrap dress that seems to flatter everybody and stylish jewelry and accessories.

If punk rock is more to you than anarchy symbols sewn on Target sweatshirts, then stop here. Punk and its myriad subgenres on CD and vinyl are specialties, though they also stock rockabilly, indie rock, and hip-hop. It's a nice foil to the city's indie-rock-dominated record shops, and a good reminder that Belltown is still more eclectic than its rising rents may indicate.