Dedicated shoppers know Oxford and Regent Streets like the backs of their hands. This mini-itinerary invites you to go off the beaten path and into the past…into vintage and some unique specialty shops.

Your shopping day begins at Beyond Retro (110-112 Cheshire Street), a converted warehouse filled to the rafters with well-priced vintage goods. Continuing down Cheshire Street toward Brick Lane, you’re about to encounter a series of fabulously unique shops. At 18 Cheshire, Labour and Wait sells unusual home goods. Its neighbor, Mar Mar Co feeds your design fixation with wonderful homegoods. Turning left onto Brick Lane from Cheshire St., try to resist the delicious aromas of some of the world's finest curries in order to stay focused on your shopping mission (though you could certainly be forgiven for a quick lunchtime detour). Turn right onto Hanbury Street and make a stop at Absolute Vintage (15 Hanbury St.), where you can look through an enormous inventory for that perfect one-of-a-kind find. Blondie, Absolute Vintage's shoe-crazed spinoff is at 110-118 Commercial Street.

If you're out on Sunday, you must not miss a visit to Old Spitalfields Market, which is packed with stalls featuring a cornucopia of colorful goods. Sunday UpMarket is a new market featuring stylish clothes and delicious international food and can be found Sundays, at the corner of Hanbury and Brick Lane.