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Best of Johannesburg; search or filter for all 21
Maboneng, Johannesburg
The site curates and reissues South African bubblegum/disco, kwaito and jazz vinyl under its own Afrosynth Records label, cataloguing music from the 1980s-1990s with a searchable archive by year and artist, and distributes through the Rush Hour Records store.
Best for Reissued south african vinyl records
Johannesburg
Bantu Records is an independent Black-owned vinyl store in Johannesburg specializing in jazz, hip hop/R&B, soul/funk/disco, house/electronic and Afrobeat, with dedicated pages for artists including Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Kippie Moeketsi. It also sells branded merchandise such as t-shirts and caps.
Best for Black-owned African jazz and soul vinyl
Milpark, Johannesburg
The roaster that describes itself as South Africa's first Fairtrade-certified coffee roaster, founded in 2005. Bean There buys direct from small-scale farmers across seven African countries, roasting single-origin lots at its Johannesburg flagship.
Best for South Africa's first Fairtrade roaster, sourcing direct from African farms since 2005.
Bean There opened in 2005 as South Africa's first Fairtrade-certified coffee roaster, at a moment when the country's specialty coffee culture barely existed. The company built its identity on paying farmers directly rather than working through intermediary exporters, a structure it argues keeps small-scale growers' operations sustainable rather than merely compliant with a certification label. Its single-origin lots come from seven African countries — Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda — sourced through those direct grower relationships rather than blended commodity stock.
The roasting profile leans medium-dark, aiming for what the company describes as a bold, full-bodied cup: dark cocoa, toasted caramel and earthy spice notes rather than the lighter, brighter roasts common among third-wave African-focused roasters. That's a deliberate positioning choice — Bean There markets clarity of origin alongside richness, rather than chasing acidity-forward profiles.
Two decades on, the roaster operates a flagship space at 44 Stanley, Johannesburg's converted-warehouse retail and dining precinct, alongside its original fair-trade sourcing mission. The through-line from 2005 to today is the direct-trade structure itself — not just a marketing claim, but the mechanism by which the company sources every bag it sells.
Melville, Johannesburg
The shop at The Bamboo Centre, Johannesburg is a collaborative retail space shared between about 21 independent South African designers, selling women's clothing and jewelry from brands including Athena A, BMC Fine Jewellery, Campbell Armoury and Isabel de Villiers.
Best for Independent designer clothing and jewelry
Parkwood, Johannesburg
Located at 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, Johannesburg, the store is described as a specialist arts bookstore, skills-sharing hub and community of creatives, selling books on art, architecture, design, photography and South African titles, and also offers framing services.
Best for Art and design books
Johannesburg, South Africa
David Tlale built his couture reputation from Johannesburg with runway-scale showpieces before translating that eye into ready-to-wear dresses, coats and tailoring sold directly through his own shop. Collections such as the Bhabha line carry the same structured silhouettes that made his catwalk work internationally known.
Best for South African couture-influenced ready-to-wear
Parkhurst, Johannesburg
Based in Cape Town, the brand sells dresses, tops, bottoms, knitwear, swimwear, bags and jewelry plus a menswear line, made from natural fibres in neutral tones, with current collections named "The Red Hour" and "The Compass Collection."
Best for Natural-fibre womenswear and accessories
Sandton City, Johannesburg
The Instagram profile for JAMAA lists retail locations at Artcaffé Market on Rhapta Road and at Village Market, both in Nairobi. Its story highlights feature brands including SHEKUDO, mille collines, Crystal Birch, BeachCult and Adele Dejak.
Best for Curated fashion and jewelry
Johannesburg, South Africa
Jenna Clifford has designed bespoke jewellery from Johannesburg since 1992, staying a family-run operation that deliberately limits output rather than scaling into mass production. Beyond custom commissions, the studio also remodels inherited pieces into new designs, keeping old stones and sentiment in circulation.
Best for Bespoke jewellery and heirloom remodelling
Johannesburg, South Africa
Nicola Smith throws and glazes Kilnhouse's tableware in Johannesburg, working three signature ranges — Spilled Milk, Lines in Sand and Speckle — defined by contrasting raw and glazed clay surfaces. Mugs, carafes and platters are hand-finished individually, with custom and sculptural commissions taken alongside the standing collections.
Best for Handmade glazed stoneware tableware
Johannesburg / South Africa / Online
South African womenswear brand — bold African prints, contemporary silhouettes, and founder Palesa Mokubung's visionary design.
Best for Bold African print womenswear
Johannesburg, South Africa
Mark Whitehorn has run his Johannesburg goldsmith studio since 1988, building repeat clientele on bespoke rings, bangles and signature pieces like the Mini Daisy necklace. The workshop still handles one-off and custom orders alongside its standing collections.
Best for Bespoke gold jewellery
Johannesburg
Mr Vinyl, operating since at least 2013 at S14, 44 Stanley Ave, Johannesburg, sells new and pre-owned vinyl records across genres from rock to jazz along with turntables, amplifiers, speakers and cartridges. It also offers record grading, a professional vinyl flattening service, and buys customers' records.
Best for New and pre-owned vinyl and turntables
Johannesburg
Rosebank Art & Craft Market, at 50 Cradock Ave, Rosebank, Johannesburg, describes itself as probably Johannesburg's largest and most well-known craft market, selling beadwork, jewelry, leather goods, textiles, baskets and woven goods from traders across multiple African countries.
Best for African beadwork baskets and craft goods
Soweto, Johannesburg
Soweto Book Café's Instagram bio describes it as a bookshop, library, hub and information centre that also runs a book club and hosts book launch events. It also describes itself there as a tourist attraction.
Best for Books and community book events
Risidale, Johannesburg
Studio Loubser traces back to 1992 as Liz Loubser Designer Jewellers, merging into its current form in 2017 while staying in Risidale and working in gold, silver, platinum and found objects. The studio takes clients through full bespoke commissions — engagement rings, brooches, one-off pieces — and runs its own jewellery-making classes.
Best for Bespoke gold and platinum jewellery
Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Located at 14 Reserve Street at the corner of De Korte in Braamfontein, The Commune describes itself as a Pan-African, socialist and feminist bookstore and coffee shop that also stocks records focused on African music, and hosts book launches, talks, film screenings and DJ sets.
Best for African-focused books and records
Johannesburg, South Africa
Thebe Magugu designs womenswear from his Johannesburg studio that draws directly on South African heritage, including a line of lobola dresses referencing Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, Venda, Ndebele, Tsonga, Swati and Pedi dress traditions. The label's Faculty Press arm publishes essays on African design history alongside its seasonal collections.
Best for Contemporary womenswear rooted in South African heritage
Hyde Park Corner, Johannesburg
Founded in 2007 by designer Tiaan Nagel, the label's main studio is at 235A Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, with a flagship store at Hyde Park Corner offering made-to-measure womenswear, styling consultation and bespoke tailoring, plus works by African artists and makers. The Summer 19/20 collection drew on South African studio pottery.
Best for Made-to-measure womenswear and tailoring
Johannesburg, South Africa
Since 2005, Veronica Anderson Jewellery has showcased handmade work from a rotating group of South African goldsmiths and designers rather than one house style. Its bespoke service also reworks existing jewellery into new pieces, treating old gold and stones as raw material for redesign.
Best for Handmade jewellery from South African designers
Parktown, Johannesburg
Viviers Studio, founded in Johannesburg in 2019 by Lezanne Viviers, makes avant-garde, made-to-order wearable-art garments in limited editions using materials such as boiled wool, described by Vogue Italia as "precious fabrics richly decorated with designs, beads." Collections are organized by seasonal themes such as "Needle Point" and "Scarab," and the studio has been covered by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Best for Avant-garde made-to-order wearable art fashion
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