Sydney's Paddington District

The Wonders of Down Under

By Amy Farley
Travel + Leisure | December 2005

Sydney's long-established shopping enclave Paddington is getting a dose of youthful vigor, now that a crop of fashion-forward boutiques has planted itself along Oxford and Glenmore on the area's once desolate northern edge.

• Stocked with hard-to-find cult cosmetics such as Hei Poa body oil from Tahiti and Mudlark's goat's-milk soap, Kit Cosmetics (140 Oxford St.; 61-2/9360-7711) is Oz's answer to Sephora, with an artisanal twist.

• The flagship of Australia's hottest design team, Sass & Bide (132 Oxford St., No. 4; 61-2/9360-3900) sells flirty tanks and bohemian dresses in unabashedly feminine fabrics.

• Come As You Are (126 Oxford St., No. 5; 61-2/9331-3350) is filled with an international assortment of designers, including boldly patterned men's pants from Italian-based Ra-Re and Michiko Koshino's tribal-inspired Yen Jeans line.

• Scanlan & Theodore (122 Oxford St.; 61-2/9380-9388) specializes in brightly printed yet sophisticated dresses for the martinis-after-work set. • Men's stovepipe pants and customized T-shirts are all the rage at Roy (2 Glenmore Rd., No. 8; 61-2/9331-3144).

• Up-and-comer Kirrily Johnston (6 Glenmore Rd.; 61-2/9380-7775) has a romantic clothing line (think Empire waists and lots of soft pleats), but don't miss her hip-­hugging lingerie. • With styles ranging from de rigueur skinny pants to flares and boot cuts, streetwise Tsubi (16 Glenmore Rd.; 61-2/9361-6291) is the spot for jeans in a city of denim connoisseurs.