4 Best Shopping in Kitai Gorod, Moscow

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.

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.

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.

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.