6 Shops Worth the Detour in Chicago
You’ll want to gatekeep these.
June 23, 2026
Published by IN COLOR
There are two kinds of women in Chicago during the summer.
The first has an itinerary.
The second has comfortable shoes.
Be the second.
The city has a funny way of rewarding women who wander. One boutique becomes three. Lunch accidentally stretches into cocktails. You leave with a linen napkin you absolutely did not need, a coffee table book that somehow feels life-changing, and the unwavering belief that your apartment is only one vintage brass candlestick away from becoming the woman you've always imagined yourself to be.
This is that kind of day.
Space 519
900 N Michigan Ave, Gold Coast
Every friend group has one whose house smells expensive.
Their olive oil comes in bottles you'd mistake for sculpture. They serves olives in vintage bowls they "found years ago." Even their hand soap has better taste than most people.
They shop at Space 519.
It's impossible to walk through the store without mentally redecorating your kitchen. One minute you're admiring woven leather handbags. The next you're convincing yourself you deserve Italian pantry staples, hand-thrown ceramics, and a marble serving board that costs more than your first apartment's coffee table.
At The Lunchroom—or The Lago Room if you've made the drive north—the salad arrives looking like someone actually cared. The rosé is cold. The tables fill with familiars who understand that shopping is rarely about buying anything.
The time is spent simply remembering who you are when you're surrounded by beautiful things at Space 519.
Eskell
1709 N Damen Ave, Bucktown
The front door opens into a world where beautifully tailored clothing hangs beside handmade jewelry, sculptural ceramics, natural fragrances, leather accessories, and thoughtful objects that somehow make everyday rituals feel a little more intentional. Nothing competes for your attention. Instead, every piece seems to belong to the same conversation.
It's the sort of place where you walk in looking for a dress and leave thinking about the mug you'll drink your morning coffee from, the handmade earrings you'll wear more than you expected, and the linen notebook that somehow convinced you to start writing again.
You circle the store once, then twice, because every lap reveals something you missed the first time.
Long after you've forgotten what you packed for Chicago, you'll still remember what you found at Eskell.
P.O.S.H
613 N State St., River North
Have you ever noticed that the women with the most beautiful homes rarely buy matching sets? Their plates don't belong together. Their silver is slightly tarnished. Their glasses were collected over decades instead of ordered overnight. Every piece feels as though it arrived with a story instead of a receipt.
P.O.S.H. explains why.
Walking into P.O.S.H. feels less like entering a store and more like stumbling into the storage rooms of a centuries-old European hotel. Every shelf rewards curiosity, and every object makes you wonder where it's been before it found its way to Chicago.
Somewhere between the vintage serving platters and the worn café cups, you begin imagining your own table a little differently.
Buy one thing.
Just one beautiful piece.
Then let the rest of your table spend the next twenty years finding it.
Scout
4519 N Ravenswood Ave, Ravenswood
You could spend an hour in Scout without buying a single thing.
Not because there's nothing you want.
Because you're too busy studying how everything found its way into the same room.
Every room feels like a conversation between objects from completely different lives. An antique cabinet. A relic chart. Neon signage. On paper, none of them belong together. You'll probably walk in convinced you're looking for a side table or a lamp. An hour later you'll find yourself mentally rearranging your living room around an oversized celestial map you never knew you needed.
You'll leave without it.
Then spend the next three days wondering if it's still there.
Jayson Home
1885 N Clybourn Ave, Lincoln Park
Nothing at Jayson Home feels like it arrived in a shipping container last week.
That's what makes it so compelling.
A twentieth-century Belgian faux bois planter that once grew strawberries. An Empire marble-top commode whose drawers have been opened thousands of times before yours. A vintage radiator console table with enough character to anchor an entire room. Even the newest pieces seem to have been chosen because they'll still matter twenty years from now.
Walking through Jayson Home feels like wandering through the house of someone who's been collecting for decades instead of decorating for a season. The rooms unfold slowly, layered with Belgian linen, Astier de Villatte ceramics, Trudon candles, vintage furniture, oversized olive trees, handwoven baskets, and stacks of design books left open as if someone had just stepped away for another cup of coffee. Nothing is rushed. Nothing feels overly precious. Every object has earned its place.