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Times are harder than ever for the kinds of cool small shops we love here at Blackbird Spyplane — shops the Cool Clothes Ecosystem depends on. Rents are crazy. Price competition online is brutal. The resources required to do e-commerce right are so enormous it’s like operating a second store. And that was before all the chaos and confusion around tariffs and de minimis exemptions set in.
But over the last few years we’ve also seen lots of promising developments. Fantastic new shops are opening up and killing it. Others we’ve long admired are not only doing their damn thing but opening new locations, picking up new lines, taking bigger swings. And just the other day, Ssense — an e-comm behemoth whose infamous discounting and algorithm-driven buying put a severe strain on smaller shops and had complicated consequences for small designers, too — filed for bankruptcy protection. Maybe there is such a thing as too big, and blitzscaling on their Am*zon s--t got the best of them in the end.
All of which brings us to right now. Two years ago, we published our blockbuster guide to the 35 Slappiest Clothing Shops across the Spyplane Universe. It was a vital resource, but so much has happened since then — so much is happening right now — we knew it was time we put together an updated, expanded, revamped, straight-up monumental list. That’s what we’ve got for you here.
We’ve upped the recon, saluting the 50 best shops around the world. Many of these stores are, like Spyplane HQ, in the U.S., but lots of them are in other countries, too. What all have in common is they’re run by people with excellent taste, distinct visions, and a blessed core mission of connecting Cool People Who Want to Wear Cool Clothes Made with Skill, Sauce and Ingenuity with Cool People Who Make Those Kinds of Clothes.
Per our sacred vow to you, our guide contains zero affiliate links.
Lots of these stores are having their summer sales now, with fall clothes incoming. As always, visit them in person, if you can, on some C.I.R.L.O.C. s--t, because copping slappers in person >>> copping slappers online. But almost all have webshops, too, and owning slappers you got from cool shops online >>> not owning any slappers at all.
Enjoy!
— Jonah & Erin
We put ♂♀ symbols after each shop below to indicate whether it carries men’s clothes, women’s or both. A 🆕 symbol indicates that the shop is newly opened, or recently opened a new location. A ♻️ indicates that they carry vintage. The various flags throughout let you know where the shops are. To find stores in a specific country, search for its flag. If you are the type of metaphysical big-brained don who interrogates & rejects these kinds of earthbound distinctions? Go ahead and ignore all the symbols.
The list is unranked and alphabetical — except for the Best Clothing Store in the World, kicking things off: