32 Best Shopping in Moscow, Russia

A series of shops and boutiques inside a 19th-century arcade, this shopping emporium sits on Red Square, across from the Kremlin. GUM, which stands for Gosudarstvenny Universalny Magazin, or State Department Store, now stocks only a handful of Russian brands in the upper-level stores. On the first floor you will find an arcade of upscale boutiques, including MaxMara, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, and La Perla. Also here is the elegant Bosco restaurant, which overlooks Red Square and has a summer terrace. Cheaper eats are available at fast-food outlets on the top floor. A "historic toilett," with pre-revolutionary interiors made of marble and Murano glass, is located at the first floor (Lane 1).

Founded in the 18th century by the order of Queen Elizaveta, daughter of Peter the Great, this firm (also known as Lomonosov) sold porcelain to the Russian royal families before the revolution. Dining tableware and collectible sculptures come in styles that include a classic cobalt fishnet design as well as prints inspired by Malevich, Kandinsky, and other members of the Russian avant-garde.

Specializing in traditional Russian linen, this old store stocks beautiful embroidered christening gowns as well as table linens, rag rugs, and fine cotton lace collars and cuffs from different parts of the country.

What was once a central market selling food and utilitarian household items is now an upscale mall, offering everything from furniture to fashion to imported gourmet delicacies. Upper floors house fashion collections from Vivienne Westwood, Helmut Lang, Elizabeth and James, and others; you may want to keep an eye out for offerings from such Russian designers as Alexander Terekhov, Alena Akhmadullina, and Andrei Artemov. The food market on the fifth floor is especially enticing, with organic vegetables sitting alongside such rarities as lavender chocolate from France and Japanese wasabi-flavored chewing gum.

Historic, sumptuous, upscale—this turn-of-the-20th-century grocery store is the star of ulitsa Tverskaya, and even if you're not feeling hungry, the spectacle makes it well worth a visit. An art nouveau interior in a late-18th-century classical mansion sparkles with chandeliers, stained glass, and gilt wall decorations. Among the fine products here are cognac, Armenian berry juices, Russian chocolate, and candy of all sorts. This is one of the best places to buy freshly baked goods, caviar, and sturgeon. You'll find favorite Russian rye breads and a wide variety of croissants, brioches, and seven-grain loaves. A separate souvenir department offering traditional crafts such as lacquered boxes and toys is located at the back of the store.

In this large, old-fashioned store you can find Gzhel china, linen tablecloths, nesting dolls, ivory work, wooden toys, and national Russian costumes at reasonable prices and without the hard sell.

These boutiques are inside the Church of St. Maxim the Blessed and the Church of St. George on Pskov Hill. They carry a fine selection of handicrafts, jewelry, ceramics, and other types of native-Russian art.

The Historical Museum's art shop Naslediye (Heritage) deals in many sorts of souvenirs, including jewelry, T-shirts, handmade crafts, replicas of museum pieces, and Russian- and Ukrainian-style embroidered shirts, Gzhel ceramics, and more. Wooden bowls and spoons decorated in khokhloma style—with bright oils painted on a black-and-golden background—fill the shelves. The store is next to entrance number 1 of the museum; enter Red Square through the Resurrection Gates.

Artemiy Lebedev is probably the most successful graphic designer, style guru, and blogger in Russia. At this outlet you can find wittily designed apparel, accessories, and office supplies that make great gifts. They're also a revealing look into the concerns and obsessions of Russian intellectuals. Enter the coffee shop and go down the spiral stairs.

One of the most popular shopping malls among Muscovites is in front of the Kursk station and is yet another symbol of modern Moscow. Everything is under one roof, including numerous mass-brand clothing stores (H&M, Camper, UNIQLO, Zara, Karen Millen), a perfume "supermarket," a huge grocery store, and the Formula Kino movie theater. You can also find a trendy Italian café and a sushi bar here.

Chasy is "watch" in Russian and this small shop offers a wide choice of Russian men's brands, such as Raketa, Komadirskie, and Sturmanskie—Yuri Gagarin was wearing this last one when he became the first person to venture into outer space in April 1961.

Part of the Soviet showpiece that's now called the All-Russian Exhibition Center (abbreviated VVC in Russian), the elegant, white Pavilion No. 66 stocks a huge range of crafts, including Turkmen embroidery, earthenware pots from Suzdal, and carved stone animals from Perm. Enter the VVC through the main entrance and walk straight to the People's Friendship Fountain and continue walking a little more on the right side of the road.

This bustling outdoor market surrounds a covered circus-shaped hall. Inside are meats, spices, vegetables, pickles, flowers, and pyramid-shaped displays of goods from Central Asia, especially dried fruit in extravagant quantity and combinations. In the outdoor stalls you're likely to come across porcelain Uzbek tea sets, woven baskets, and hand-knit wool socks.

This Russian celebrity designer is known for his humorous reinventions of traditional Russian fashion—think enormous fur accessories and enlarged folk art patterns. The store is located on the second floor of a building decorated with designs based on red-and-gold khokhloma (lacquered and painted bowls). The tiny bar downstairs becomes a hot spot at night.

This large covered hall is next to the outdoor Veshchevoy Rynok (literally, "Market of Things," which is certainly an apt name). Inside are rows of vendors hawking homemade cheese and milk products, honey, flowers, and produce of all kinds. Against one wall are sellers of pickled goods, an understandably popular form of conservation in this land of long winters; you may want to sample some of their cabbage and carrot slaws, salted cucumbers, or spiced eggplant or garlic. Many Moscow chefs buy ingredients here.

This huge, well-laid-out mall has a European theme that expresses itself in the form of a conspicuously vulgar sculpture of a euro sign in the front of a department store. You'll find branches of Britain's Marks & Spencer and Topshop as well as Spain's Bershka and Zara here. Affordable Russian brands So French by Sultanna Frantsuzova and Kira Plastinina both have stores here.

This former industrial complex is now a center of design studios, showrooms, advertising agencies, and workshops for all sorts of creative types. There's a two-level market full of shops offering handmade souvenirs, jewelry, urban fashions, books, and music.

Gourmands flock to this 24-hour grocery store that supplies Moscow with high-quality imported foodstuffs. Among the wide array of deli foods are wild boar sausages, vinegars aged for 50 years, chocolates from Belgium, fish from Norway, ham from Spain, and special local dairy products—the cheese department is a memorable sight in itself.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan houses this compact icon shop. In addition to icons, you can purchase religious books, silver crosses, and other Orthodox religious items.

In terms of choice and value, this is really the best stop for those looking for traditional Russian souvenirs in Moscow. Matryoshki (nesting dolls) come in a variety of styles here, and the stalls are also stacked high with amber, lacquer boxes, linens, used books, and Soviet memorabilia (such as authentic army belts and gas masks). Connoisseurs may find the real treasures in the antique aisles, such as Soviet porcelain figures or fully functional 19th-century music boxes. The flea market is open daily 9–6, but many stalls are only open on weekends. It's best to go early.

This cozy, old-fashioned candy store, which will weigh out chocolates for you, has a good choice of Russian brands, including Krasny Oktyabr. The pryaniki are festive gingerbread cookies shaped as hearts, human figures, and animals with colorful frosting and inscriptions in Russian, such as "To my best friend" and "To my mother-in-law."

Russian-made chocolates make a great, unexpected souvenir from Russia, and those from Moscow's Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) factory are the best. You can buy various kinds of individually wrapped candies—Krasnaya Shapochka (Little Red Riding Hood), Mishka Kosolapy (Little Clumsy Bear), Alyonka (whose wrapper features a girl wearing a scarf), and Yuzhnaya Noch (Southern Night). Most of them retain Soviet-style wrappers. The chocolates are widely available in supermarkets and kiosks, but the best assortment, including gift boxes and chocolate animal figures, is at the main store, just north of the Arbat district.

Tucked away in a side street, this store specializes in valenki, Russian-made felt boots, which it stocks in children's and adult sizes. You can also buy ribbon-trimmed felt slippers and fleece-lined clothing. A small valenki museum is next door.

It's worth seeking out this out-of-the-way shop for their plentitude of handmade crafts. The choice of souvenirs, jewelry, and dolls by Moscow craftspeople and artists will make you dizzy.

This small store sells quirky contemporary crafts from local artists, including unique felt jewelry, toys, clocks, greetings cards, and T-shirts.

This underground shopping mall offers standards like Aldo, Benetton, Tommy Hilfiger, BeeFree, Motivi, and MEXX. Set under the main square adjacent to the Kremlin, the mall attracts crowds of Russian out-of-towners, who stroll, photograph the intricate cupola that extends aboveground, and window-shop.

MaxMara, Nina Ricci, Givenchy, Kenzo, and Bally boutiques and an antiques store are in this chic, glass-roofed space, a top contender for the most luxurious shopping passazh (arcade) in town.

This pleasant souvenir shop sells the best of locally produced folk art, including palekh (colorful, lacquered wood with folklore designs), chess sets, cocktail glasses, coffee sets made of amber, and copies of Faberge eggs (including earings and pendants).

Located on the ground floor of Novinsky shopping center (just behind the U.S. Embassy) this quirky store with a name that translates as "Humpty-Dumpty" sells modern art turned into gifts and souvenirs. Works of renowned contemporary Russian designers and artists appear on T-shirts, cards, and cups. Imitation Soviet schoolchildren's star badges fashioned from fake gemstones are a distinctively Russian jewelry gift.

TsUM (Central Department Store), a historical rival of GUM, has upgraded itself to an expensive emporium with collections of nearly all the top European designers. Although TsUM is nowhere near as stunning as GUM architecturally, it usually has the larger choice.