Shopping in Reykjavik

Shopping in Iceland's capitol is a real experience. You won't find a Gap store or a mega-mall. But you do find tiny, delightful shops packed with hand-made and incredibly creative goods. And the kronur is currently in a freefall against the dollar so this is a good time to shop there.

Iceland may be still right next to nature, the water that comes out of the tap is melted glaciers, and fishing is a major industry but it is also on the cutting edge of technology. The power they harvest from the geothermal activity just below the surface of the island is the greenest on the planet and they are busy selling it to the US—in the form of know-how. You gotta love the Icelanders. They have it going on. But today, I bring you my two favorite shops in Reykjavik. Even if you don't have the wherewithal to take a trip to Iceland, you can still shop there because the place is so wired that even tiny stores offer goods for sale over the Net.

Kraum

Kraum was my favorite store, by far. It's a collection of woolens, jewelry, purses, furnishings, and clothing, from more than 60 Icelandic artists and it is all displayed beautifully in the oldest house in Reykjavik. It's more modern museum where you can buy the displays than average store. And in keeping with this idea, the shop also does museum exhibits.

This shop is a bounty of strange. The sweaters are nothing like the traditional Icelandic stuff (which are also very beautiful). The aesthetic is ultra-modern meets rock, lava, sheep, and sea. The dresses knitted from local yarns drape, cling, and flow in an unconventional, all-natural goth. The shoes from horse leather are high-fashion. There is a series of jewelry where local lava and other stones are melded with silver, a necklace made of silver and fur, and a series of bags made from the most incredible fish leather.

Each and every item in this place made me wonder if there is a design school in Reykjavik that encourages incredible innovation. But I think it may be just that Icelanders—whipped at breakneck speed from desperately rural to cultured urban in the last 30 years—just see things differently.

This is an incredible shop and if you are ever in Reykjavik, I encourage you to bring your credit card and do some damage to it. In the meanwhile, though, Kraum does sell through their Web site. Though there is no English on the site, there are lots of photos and, if you call the store, all the shopkeepers speak excellent English and tell me they will happily pack up and sell over the phone. (Use Skype! It's cheap. Iceland is four hours ahead of us.)

Kulusuk Art

 



Kulusuk Art—a shop that imports traditional Eskimo creations from Greenland—was small but incredible. They sell online but if you find something you love at the Web site, you might want to call to place your order and get a little background on the items because the Web site is in Icelandic.



I got one of these carvings for my son Cole because this is just the sort of thing you marvel over when you are 12 and still treasure when you are old and grey. And he loves it. I told him it was a talisman to keep him safe when his mother is away. He liked that. But it is really a carving of one of the spirits the Tupilak Greenlanders believe in. Someone started carving one to explain these spirits to a foreign visitor in the 1880s and that started a fad, which has since become a traditional art. You can see photos of the artist who create the goods in the shop here.