When the girls were in Paris, Esther and I were chatting about the different perceptions we had about Japanese design. Esther, coming from a background in architecture views Japanese style as clean, minimalist, muted colours and general zen-ess, whilst, with my background in animation, I think of Japanese style as bright, funky and crazy. Japan seems to be one of these countries where both of these extremes can exist in perfect harmony.

In the elegant St. Germain I found a little Japanese kids’ clothing shop called Berry’s Berry which definitely reflects more my idea of Japanese style than Esther’s. It could never be described as understated and minimalist! Flanked on the one side by elegant Serendipity, a kids furniture shop and Talc an understated wonderful French kids’ clothes shop, Berry’s Berry is cheap, bright and very cheerful with an twist!

When you enter the shop you immediately realize that it could not possibly be a European designed shop. I found checked shirts, stripy leggings, cute printed t-shirts, crazy trucker hats, velvet all in one suits, flared track suit bottoms with bold prints.

I love it! The clothes are priced around the H&M mark so really reasonable for some funky bits and pieces. Apparently the collection changes completely every 2 weeks so it is worth popping in to check what is new! At the moment the St Germain branch is the only shop outside Japan but they should be opening up an online store soon.

- Emilie