There aren’t many things in the world like spending lazy afternoons wandering through Paddington’s meandering streets, especially when the sun is high and the temperature is just so that you feel the earth has cupped you to its bosom. On days like this, everything is perfect; smiling at neighbours as they pass, peering into store windows and maybe stopping every so and so for an icy drink or a coffee- it’s Australian living at it’s best. And on days like these, my favourite part comes when the winding street bends around and I can finally see the blue of The Corner Shop against the other buildings. At this moment, I experience all at once feelings of relief, impatience and child-like anxious anticipation; it’s all I can do to stop myself from sprinting to the front door and hurling myself into the racks.

The Corner Shop is the brainchild of retail matriarch Belinda Seper, whose eponymous store has taken over the East Coast, with two stores in Melbourne, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane. And while Belinda is a store that sings to the tune of my very own heart, there’s something about the corner store that not only sings the tune that plays inside me, but that picks me up and dances me into the night. Unlike its Belinda sibling stores, The Corner Shop has a kind of youthful exuberance and perfectly serene beauty that is completely captivating as far as a shopping experience goes.

Stocking both overseas and Australian designers, The Corner Shop has its shelves stocked with the likes of Amy Kaehne, Friedrich Gray, Therese Rawsthorne, Mainamania,Matina Amanita, Gail Sorronda, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Isabel Marant to name but a few. The Paddington chapter of The Corner Store continues at Sydney’s The Strand, and the experience is just as dreamy as at its William St counterpart.