Retail Spotlight

Bikini Berlin is a newly redesigned complex mixing retail, culture and creative thinking about the public space. Once a fading relic of the Cold War, intelligent ideas from its new tenants are helping to redefine the shopping mall model.

Monocle heads to Norway’s third largest city, Stavanger, to discover how this boom town’s oil reserves are spurring on those entrepreneurs looking to add variety and quality to this once-understated retail scene.

Maach Ecute is a novel retail experience in a 102-year-old former train station in Tokyo. We pay a visit to see how old infrastructure can be repurposed to improve urban life.

Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market might be a must-see for tourists but the Japanese capital’s flower market is also that rare thing – a place of beauty and big business.

A new generation of stationery entrepreneurs is preserving and reviving the art of writing. Monocle Films travels to Prague, Vancouver and London to visit three shops that share a love of paper.

Long the unsung hero of Italian manufacturing, it's high time Naples told some of its sunny stories from the factory floor. It’s been a centre for craftsmanship, shipbuilding and tailoring for generations, which means touring some of the thousands of workshops and studios around the famous bay reveals a city that makes a whole lot more than pizza.

As well as bringing bright ideas to once-faded façades, Lisbon’s mix of self-starting shopkeepers and keen entrepreneurs has helped lift the mood of a city with plenty more to be optimistic about.

With a nod to the past and a wink to the future, Monocle takes a look at the world of perfume and the new generation of expert alchemists.

Taipei has long lived in the shadow of its glitzier neighbours when it comes to retail. But now the range and quality of products on offer are firming up the Taiwanese capital’s place on Asia’s shopping map.

We visit the description-defying Tokyo institution that sells just about everything you could ever need and is loved by everyone who visits.

We love to champion retailers who make a point of differentiating themselves from other stores on the high street. Monocle films travels to Buenos Aires, New York and Budapest to visit specialist shops where "making" is at the heart of their business.

From sachertorte to strudel, Vienna is the ideal festive destination so Monocle Films took a closer look to discover the city’s best creative retailers and heritage craftsmen.

As the big media store chains disappear, Japan's most successful book, music and magazine seller has opened a project that challenges everyone. We visit the floors of a refreshed retail landscape.

Beymen is the original Istanbul department store and still sets the benchmark for retail in Turkey. First started as a small menswear line, it now has locations around Istanbul and other parts of Turkey, and is beginning a campaign of international expansion with a store already open in Cairo and a new one set to open its doors soon in Erbil, Iraq. Monocle travels to Istanbul and visits its Nisantasi branch to find out what keeps Beymen at the top of Turkish retail.

Who has come out on top in our annual Quality of Life Survey? Which cities have made it into our top 25 for the first time? Who has sneaked into the top five – and who has disappeared off the list altogether? The answers to these questions (and much more besides, of course) can be found in our July/August issue.

Monocle takes a cinematic look at the top cities in our 2014 Quality of Life Survey. We spotlight Copenhagen at number one, Tokyo as our top Asian city and Vancouver leading the way in North America.

There are few scheduled flights that make more than one stop these days (let alone three) but African Express is making a business and a brand operating one of the last milk runs in civil aviation. Our man in Africa straps into the jump seat for a jaunt around the horn.

We visit the members’ clubs where foreign journalists find a home away from home (and a good supper) in Tokyo, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

For Monocle’s Homeware Top 25 we present our round-up of the simply designed and yet endlessly useful things – from coat hooks to ceramics and cooking utensils to kettles – that make a home not just a location to escape to and enjoy, but a place to show off and share, too.

We're celebrating Monocle's seventh birthday this month. Since we launched in 2007 we’ve delivered fresh coverage of global affairs, business, culture and design – online, in print and on air. With five bureaux (plus more to come), five shops, two cafés, a radio station and a worldwide network of 34 correspondents, we’ve been busy keeping an eye and an ear on the world.

Monocle seeks out the makers who have the details sorted, from textile producers to shoelace specialists, and brings you the shops to head to and the brands to wear.

The ancient practice of agriculture meets modern city as we explore groundbreaking farms in Japan, the US and Norway. Monocle Films visits the people bringing green growth to their thriving metropolises.

We’ve handpicked the best cooking schools from around the world, including a Tasmanian cook leading guests from garden to kitchen and a chef’s guide to the markets of Israel.

Monocle films heads to Toronto, Lisbon and Thessaloniki to discover some new recipes for success.

No one is better placed to offer valuable advice on tricky projects and ambitious, world-changing actions than the people at the sharp end - precisely the kind of individuals giving the benefit of their hard-won experience here.

In issue 60 of Monocle we are looking for lands of opportunity, taking an inspirational tour of the places, people, outfits and organisations worth adding to your list of best benchmarks.