Shopping in Sydney can be fun as well as rewarding

Press, 2 September 1980, Page 22

Shopping in Sydney can be fun as well as rewarding

By

Mollie MacKehzie

Shuttled in with sightseeing, . . shopping is an obvious pastime for , visitors to Sydney. Tourists make .- ■searching comparisons over which is the best duty-free shop: the one that gives a bottle of Scotch away with every $25 purchase, or the one with the most comprehensive range of Leggo or transistors? The answer depends on personal taste. Yet few can remain unstartled to find while purchasing their quota of dutyfree liquor, that a one-litre bottle, of best brand whisky is available at not much over sAust4, with gin only half that price. The duty-free factor is an essential, almost obligatory, part of the tourist package. Equally compelling are the great and famous stores which, this season are not at their sparkling best, fashionwise. There’s been a sad tendency to copy the gloomy, dark colours which Northern designers see as synonymous with their hemisphere’s dirty, winter condition. Because these colours just don’t apply to the sparkling climate down-under, the purply heathers, browns arid black, are out of context. No style quite rises above a general impression of depression throughout the showrooms. The best time to see David Jones’ .“ w'indows is in the spring when display artists shed all such bonds and primp the models with pastels, primaries and primroses. What an uplift for eye and soul! Always a bright spot in DJ.’s is tire emerald and white dining room where shoppers lunch elegantly served by black-uniformed waiters. The same

degree of style extends to the store's ? fine art gallery. My choice of the gal- ’ lery’s museum pieces with price tags, given the right circumstances, would be Jacob Epstein’s sculpture in gilt <• bronze at $7OOO. Another art lover ■ might feel a need for an inlaid French. ■, desk or commode with a longer set of digits on the ticket! This connoisseur collection also boasts an ancient marble < bust with no nose, antique coins and ~'.s Victorian green glass paperweights from .“ Stourbridge at $2OO each. ; ?.<'•> "■ Strolling the arcades of boutiques, b. discovering the old lace shop in a Pad- ■ >. dington terrace, creaming the antique • . spots of Oxford Street, ai-e but preludes to the all-stops-orit chic and glamour of Double Bay. Here the elegance of Paris blends with the atmosphere of Pacifica. y The new shops and streets and cool, T green square provide a home for imports , of every kind in food, furniture and fashion ’ . , - • South Dowling Street’s antique hyper- \ market has over 200 stalls under one . roof. Though it is open all week, the . proprietors are more likely to be in *’ attendance at week-ends because many have regular businesses elsewhere. For -* doll collectors, one stallholder stocks f nothing else but precious old china-head • beauties at most competitive prices. The f specialist in Art Nouveau or Art Deco > glass is catered for at another unique > stall. In the main, there’s something for s all tastes. It’s quite a hike from Oxford Street, 5 so if your boots aren’t made for walk- * ing, hail a cab. In Sydney, taxis are J reasonably cheap and rather fast. . .