Shopping in the town of Mykonos was a very intense experience for us, especially at night. The crowds of people make walking around quite difficult. In HIGH SEASON. Jonathan loved this intensity. I struggled with it at first, but I soon got caught up in the mood and to really enjoy just walking through the narrow cobblestone streets looking for anything that caught my eye, from a $100,000 piece of jewelry to a locally made pair of fisherman’s pants.

The fact of the matter was that shopping in Mykonos was really quite good.  There are certainly some generic places that have the standard $10 kaftan, but there are also a lot of stores that stock legitimate French and Italian labels like Replay and Diesel, plus other up market international brands including Aslanis, Azzaro, Armani, Biotherm, Boss, Bulgari, Cacharel, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Chopard, Dona Karan, Jean Paul Gaultier, Joop, Kenzo, Lancome, Lancaster, MaxFactor, Missoni Payot, Roberto Cavalli, Rolex, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent and more.

Apart from the clothing shops and restaurants, there are some great art shops, and as you might expect, lots of swimwear shops.

Mykonos is actually a fairly big shopping destination, so the shops have good quality merchandise. You can certainly spend a lot of money here if you’re in the mood. I wasn’t in a particularly extravagant frame of mind, but I did buy a kaftan that was antique batik, and I absolutely love it. Plus, I got some cute little Grecian style dresses for Zoe and myself. 

The narrow cobbled streets are buzzing with people. Not surprisingly there’s a very European feel to it.  It can be quite elegant as well. But by and large, people are nicely dressed.

One thing I was determined to do while we were here was buy some sandals for Zoe.  One of my friends in Sydney on one of her trips to  Mykonos, had bought her daughter some handmade tan leather sandals with straps made from little beads. My friend told me where the shop was, so I walked around looking for it. I couldn’t actually find it, but I did find a similar shop run by an amazingly creative woman. This woman was a genuine artist, and her entire shop was filled with handmade sandals, beads and tokens.

Rather than buy something pre-made, I asked the woman if I could commission her to make a pair from scratch. She agreed to make me a pair in 24 hours, and she sat with me for an hour while I painstakingly chose the individual beads and theirpositioning.  God bless this woman, she stayed up all night finishing them, and they really are a work of art!!!  The craftsmanship and detail on them is astonishing. When Zoe grows out of them, I’m going to frame them and hang them on the wall!

There are quite a few sandal shops in Mykonos. Here is a link to one of the largest.

Mykonos Sandals

2 Venetias St, Scarpa, Mykonos. Greece

Tel: +30 22890-22451

www.mykonos-sandals.gr/en/default.asp
          

We also had a wonderful experience in the Chopard shop on Enoplon Dynameon Street (+30 22890-27561).  On a previous trip to Israel, Jonathan had met a guy at the Hilton in Tel Aviv, and two things that must have come up in the conversation were Jonathan’s love of watches, and the fact we were headed to Mykonos.  Anyway this guy actually knew the owner of the Chopard shop in Mykonos so he called her to tell her we were coming.  When we arrived on the island we went to her shop and met her. She was the most delightful lady, and we ended spending two hours with her, drinking wine and looking at her amazing jewelry in the store. When we finally left, she told us that we could call her if there was anything we needed while we were on the island.  If only all shopping trips were like that!