Multi-brand stores, concept stores, and department stores in Saint-Petersburg

A guide to the best multi-brand stores, department stores, and concept stores in Saint Petersburg

The department store is anything but a popular retail format in Russia. There're actually only two in Saint Petersburg: DLT and Au Pont Rouge. DLT is a branch of the Moscow-based TSUM. The department store carries luxury heavyweights of the caliber of Valentino, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, and Marni. That said, younger brands like Alexander Wang, Acne, and Stone Island also made it to the DLT brand array.

If you can afford yourself a ₽100,000 overcoat and your interests go beyond European heritage fashion houses, pay a visit to Au Pont Rouge. This department store stocks collections of the so called 'new wave' fashion labels: think Astrid Andersen, Nasir Mazhar, Marques’Almeida, and the like. The third floor of the department store is home to off-price items.

Before the advent of Au Pont Rouge, Day Night had offered the most comprehensive range of clothing, footwear, and accessories by conceptually-minded labels. As one would expect, the price point is high, save for the outlet department where Miu Miu shoes are sold for less than ₽8,000.

Baddesign139, located on Staro-Nevsky Prospect, is the store run by Olya Marquez, the lead vocalist of 'Alai Oli'. Baddesign is a retail space divided into two rooms that stock clothing in the best tradition of avant-garde 'dark fashion'. The array of brands carried by the store changes all too often with well-established brands being more of an exception, which is perhaps to the advantage of the place like this.

Lofts, or 'Etazhi', is touted as the Saint Petersburg hipster paradise. Such notoriety notwithstanding, Lofts host quite a few of hidden retail gems. Among them are Mylnaya Belka and Otdel, that are both Russian designer specialist stores. Lofts are also home for 8-store, one of the first Saint Petersburg showrooms for local fashion labels. Gate31 would appeal to 'uniform dressing' enthusiasts. At the intersection of Moika embankment and Nevsky Prospect, just left of the 'Volkonsky' confectionery, is situated Museum, a multi-brand store that carries mostly South Korean labels occasionally interspersed with domestic ones. LEN Studios is most likely to win the hearts and minds of women who favour loose-fitting pieces that are made of organic fabrics and come in natural shades. If you happen to be in Petrogradsky district, pass by Cultsome and Voyage Voyage located just next to it. Those somewhat fed up with South Korean imports are well recommended to visit 16station: the team behind it garnered a nice selection of iconoclastic Russian, Ukrainian, and Georgian labels. Among them are ZDDZ, Yulia Yefimtchuk+, and Outlaw Moscow, to name just a few.