I recently had a woman on one of my tours whose friends had assured her she must go shopping while in Mexico City. Then they named off a few high-end, international brands and she got a little confused. “What’s the point?” she asked me, “Why would I buy things I can get anywhere else in the world? I’m in Mexico City for something unique.” That got me thinking about this post.
A lot of people want to shop while here in the capital, but I assume most want local designs and originality. No one wants what they purchased halfway around the world to be available half a block away.
I am admittedly not a shopaholic, but I have done a lot of research on shopping for other publications and for clients of mine coming to Mexico City. All the places below are independent shops or markets where you do some Mexico City shopping and find one-of-a-kind items, either designed by Mexican designers and craftspeople or from the Mexico of yesteryear. In Roma you can find a string of shops along the axis of Orizaba street with Colima and Tabasco.
I am up for suggestions, so if I miss something send me an email or find me on Instagram and tell me where I screwed up.
La Lagunilla Market – Centro Historico (Sundays Only)
What’s for Sale: Trinkets, antique housewares, antique furniture, handmade crafts, Mexican kitsch from the 50s and the 60s, vintage clothing
Price Range: Low to High
The La Lagunilla market is an outdoor shopping bonanza every Sunday in Colonia Guerrero. Once you make it past the aisles of overstocked clothing, sunglasses, and outdoor tattoo parlors, there are several blocks jammed with antiques, both valuable and worthless. It’s a flea market junkie’s dream, but prices are wide-ranging, each vendor with a different idea about what their items are worth and who they are willing to sell them to.
La Canasta / Artes de Mexico – Roma
What’s for Sale: Quality crafts from across the country at reasonable prices
Price Range: Mid to High
La Canasta is the shop run by Artes de Mexico, a local magazine that has been highlighting the regional arts and crafts of Mexico for over 20 years in their pages. Here you will find a wide selection of different crafts from across the country as well as a library of their magazines for purchase (they are in Spanish with English translations in the back). While not as big as Ciudadela (below) the crafts here are better quality while still not being completely outrageous in price like you will find at an upscale boutique selling similar items.
Ciudadela Artisan Market – Centro Historico
What’s for Sale: crafts, crafts and more crafts
Price Range: Low to High
Ciudadela is a large covered market that sells Mexican crafts from around the country. A sample of what you might find are woolen stuffed animals from Chiapas, pottery from Puebla, Oaxaca carvings, rebozos, embroidery and lots and lots of baubles and trinkets. Usually, crafts are cheaper if you buy them in the region they were made, but prices here are quite reasonable if you don’t have time to fly around the country.
Tenderete – Roma
What’s for Sale: silkscreened t-shirts, funny erasers, handmade jewelry, notebooks, ceramic mugs
Price Range: Low to Medium
This is one of my favorite shops in Colonia Roma, with about 90% of the stuff inside designed by Mexicans. There is some particularly nice silver jewelry always on sale and plenty of gift ideas for kids and adults. The stuff on display generally has mid-range finishes to it — meaning that some things look a little more homemade, but most have a real professional polish to them. Their new, bigger space on Guanajuato means even more items to ooh and aah over.
Carla Fernandez – Roma
What’s for Sale: High-end unisex fashion
Price Range: High
Fernandez is one of Mexico’s hottest clothing designers right now and she has won deserved accolades for her work. She incorporates indigenous styles, as well as traditional weaving and dyeing techniques in her ultra-modern unisex collections. Fernandez works hand and hand with indigenous communities around the country — I guarantee that you won’t find styles like these anywhere else. She has several locations throughout the city.
Trama – Roma
What’s for Sale: Handmade bags, t-shirts, patches, buttons, mugs, jewelry and shoes.
Price Range: Low
This is another great little shop in Colonia Roma. Trama is an artists’ collective, which means 100% made in Mexico. It also means no high-end items and nothing that looks mass-produced. Each item there is completely unique, with a few gifts adult-only sassy as well as hanging mobiles and stuffed animals that kids would like. The prices are extremely affordable and the staff is always friendly.
Taller Lu’um – San Rafael
What’s for Sale: interior decor pieces – rugs, lamps, ceramics, and sculpture
Price Range: High
Taller Lu’um is a collaboration between traditional, rural craftsmen and young Mexican industrial and interior designers. The pieces in their showroom and catalog are of excellent quality and one of a kind. The prices reflect that. In addition, these pieces incorporate traditional techniques – Huichol beadwork for example, or Oaxacan weaving. Part of the proceeds goes to continuing the non-profit part of this project which benefits the artisans.
San Angel Art Market – San Angel
What’s for Sale: paintings, furniture and knick knacks of all kinds
Price Range: Medium to High
The range of the work at the San Angel market is wildly variable. That said, there are some real gems if you take the time to wander around. Plus, you can usually buy directly from the artist, sometimes even while they work on a piece in front of you. The San Angel “antiques” market in the building next to the open-air portion of market in the park is mainly mass-produced kitsch, not real antiques.
MAP Museum Store – Centro Historico
What’s for sale: Traditional crafts and handmade toys
Price Range: Low to High
This the store for the Popular Arts Museum and so therefore there are a lot of toys, ceramics, textiles, anything that could be included in that definition. You can get everything from a keychain to a full dishware set. This is probably the very best place price wise, selection wise, and quality wise for traditional crafts that I have seen here in Mexico City.
Happening – Roma
What’s for Sale: decorative ceramic pots, handstitched kids’ tents, sunglasses, hipster shoes, and handcrafted jewelry
Price Range: Medium to High
Happening is another store with several locations throughout the city including Colonia Roma and Colonia San Angel. They sell mainly interior decor items, although there is a good selection of shoes and jewelry along with a few one-of-a-kind t-shirts. Again, around 90% of what they sell is created by Mexican designers. The designs are modern, no traditional crafts here.
Parque Pushkin Flea Market – Doctores
What’s for Sale: Records, old jewelry, 1950s drink trays, antique toys, lots of glassware
Price Range: Low to Medium
This flea market is a little more intimate than La Lagunilla and you will be more likely to get folks to bargain with you. There are fewer furniture and big tickets items, and more stuff for collectors like baseball cards or barbie dolls. The market is all outside with no covering so assume that if it’s rainy it’s not happening. It’s only on Saturdays.
Escalina – Roma
What’s for sale: clothing, jewelry, home decor items, textiles
Price Range: Mid to High
Escalina opened in 2024 and is a mix of antique collectible and modern upscale clothing and jewelry. Tiffany lamps, brightly colored caftans, antique tea sets, handwoven tablecloths from Peru and Chiapas. They have a little bit of everything and while many things are Mexican-designed it’s not specifically Mexican in its design or style.
Downtown Shops – Centro Historico
What’s for Sale: High-end textiles, luxury jewelry, upscale crafts, local chocolate
Price Range: Medium to High
The Downtown shops have some of the same things you can find in the Ciudadela but in high-end versions. The alebrijes shop, Parakata, is gorgeous as well as Remigio which sells these really stunning fabrics and huipil-type shirts. These prices are much higher than you will find in markets in the respective regions of Mexico, but supposedly the quality is higher. You decide whether it’s worth the price tag.
Bazar Fusion – Juarez
What’s for Sale: specialty teas, handmade jewelry, kitschy antiques, locally designed shoes, unique silkscreen t-shirts, homemade journals
Price Range: Medium
Bazar Fusion was once a weekend bazaar but now has a permanent home in the Colonia Juarez. Each room within this Porfiriato-era mansion is a separate store owned mostly by local designers and fashion brands. I generally hate the way the salespeople here follow you around, but if you can stand the attention, it’s a great place for a unique gift or souvenir.
MUMEDI – Centro Historico
What’s for sale: things for the home, collectibles, a tiny bit of clothing, souvenirs and gifts, all contemporary design.
Price Range: Low to High
Quirky contemporary designs in a wild range of styles, but with that particular Mexican touch of lots of color and iconography. Frida Kahlo t-shirts, hand bags from recycled materials, games for kids, wind chimes. This is the gift shop of the Mexican Museum of Design, so it’s a little bit of everything except traditional crafts or textiles.
AGO Projects – Reforma
What’s for Sale: High-end crafts and folk art from across Latin America as well as contemporary art pieces from artists of the Americas, some of which incorporate traditional techniques like weaving or ceramics.
Price Range: High
A collection of art pieces and folk art curated by owners Rudy F. Weissenberg and Rodman Primack, AGO Projects is also an art gallery with rotating expositions of contemporary artists from around the world. Their design-centered space is an eclectic mix of furniture, home accents, and objets d’art that are whimsical and beautiful. If you have the money to spend, this is an incredible place to start a collection of Latin American craft art.
180° Shop – Roma
What’s for Sale: skateboards, t-shirts, dresses, cult classic-y books, boots, dress shoes
Price Range: Medium
These guys are about half and half when it comes to strictly Made In Mexico stuff; they include plenty of international brands in the floor display. But then again, you can find things like the super-specific Miscelánea guidebook to Mexico City’s Centro Historico or a sweater that says PUTA in giant letters across it — that is stuff you can only get here.
MODO shop – Roma
What’s for sale: whimsical, funny, kitschy contemporary Mexican design. Everything from postcards to coffeemugs to stationary, but all independent designers and artists
Price Range: Low to High
The MODO Museum gift shop is an extension of the museum in a way, fun, quirky, light-hearted, and irreverent. This is the not the place for any kind of serious, traditional craft, but you will find all kinds of things that represent modern Mexico, in particular Mexico City. Lucha libre nightlights, photo of cityscapes, handmade journals, funny pins and more.
Bomboti – Polanco
What’s for sale: high-end interior design pieces, gorgeous one-of-a-kind pottery and blown-glass, avant-garde fashion from Mexican and international designs, unique table settings, handwoven rugs and more.
Price Range: High
This shop is brand new in 2023 and comes from a collaboration between a local architectural and interior design firm and a local visual artist. The showroom is in constant flux, with rotating pieces from well-known Mexican and International artists and designers (who live in Mexico) and has swoon-worthy pieces that can be shipped home for you for a fee.
Esrawe studio – Roma (by appointment only)
What’s for sale: Singular pieces by Hector Esrawe a local furniture and interior designer as well as an architect.
Price Range: High
The Esrawe studio is a by-appointment-only visit that can also include a peek into their design studio that sits behind the showroom, giving you insight into the creation process of the Esrawe team. The pieces here sit on the border of interior design pieces and art installations, each with a specific backstory. These are items that collectors will find in no other location in Mexico City.
ONORA – Polanco
What’s for sale: Traditional Mexican crafts reimagined in modern and contemporary ways. Household goods, textiles, and interior design pieces.
Price Range: Medium to High
Started in 2013, ONORA is a collaboration between Mexican artisans from around the country and two businesswomen both with backgrounds in design. Their hope is to preserve Mexico’s craftsmanship while bringing it into the modern era.
Taka Karei – Roma
What’s for sale: sleek, modern, soothing interior design pieces and furniture
Price Range: High
This shop always catches everyone’s eye as they pass, maybe because of the sleek, simple lines that blend the creative vision of the two owners, one an architect and the other an industrial designer. Most items in the showroom are furniture pieces with a harmonious vibe that are not easily packed into a suitcase, so expect to ship your treasures from Taka Karei home.
Originario – Roma
What’s for sale: Contemporary furniture, pottery, and household goods inspired by the colors and traditions of Mexico.
Price Range: High
This shop is meant to be a showcase for contemporary Mexican design and was founded by interior and furniture designer Andrés Gutiérrez. Set amidst color-coded rooms in the Colonia Roma, it’s shopping that’s also an unforgettable sensory experience.
Utilitario Mexicana – Juarez
What’s for sale: tortilla presses, handwoven rugs, pewter plates and cups, metal pitches, juicers, bags with cutesy sayings, ponchos
Price range: Medium
Supposed to resemble the old school “everything under the sun” Miscelanea shops, Utilitario has a range of items that would be easily found in any Mexican kitchen or living room. While you can certainly find cheaper versions of most of their products for sale in local markets, their slightly more upscale and diverse selection of things will have you hard-pressed not to bring something home.
What else could you do beside shop? Take in a museum or head to the Chapultepec theme park.
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