A Day at the QVB

The Queen Victoria Building does not ease you in gently. You step through the doors and the city falls away behind you. Sandstone walls, stained glass, arched ceilings that seem to stretch impossibly high. The building announces itself immediately — and it's almost too easy to romanticise everything that follows. A morning here stops feeling like a shopping trip and starts feeling like an occasion. That's just what the QVB does to you.

Annie has worked at ALQUEMA's QVB boutique for years. She knows the building the way you only can when you've been inside it in every season. So we asked her to take us through her perfect day here.

The first coffee is from Metropole. Always. Non-negotiable. It sets the morning right before the boutique opens and before the city starts to wake up. If you haven't been to Metropole consider this your sign.

Something sweet, if needed. Chocolate buttons from Haigh's, or a macaron from La Belle Miette. The choice depends entirely on the day you're having. Both are worth the detour even when you've told yourself you're just walking past.

The second coffee comes from Palace. In retail, a two-coffee day counts as planning ahead.

The QVB boutique carries ALQUEMA's current collection alongside pieces from limited edition collections. The garments are hand-pleated and printed in runs that don't repeat. There's something these pieces need to show you in person. You feel the weight of the fabric, the way the pleats catch the light, and you understand the point of them when you hold one.

Kinokuniya, when the afternoon gets long. A short walk from the QVB, one of the largest bookshops in the Southern Hemisphere. It's the kind of place where you go in for one thing and surface an hour later with three books you didn't know you needed. Annie comes here to wander, to find new ideas, and to get genuinely lost in the stories. 

After close, Old Mate's Place on Clarence Street. A rooftop bar a short walk from the QVB, and Annie's preferred way to close out the day. The kind of place where you sit down and look out over the city.

Then Theatre Royal. It sits steps from the QVB. A show isn't an everyday thing, and Annie doesn't miss it when the timing lines up. The building rewards that kind of commitment to a full day.

The metro home. The City & Southwest line runs directly from Town Hall. Annie calls it the sweet ride home. After a day that has moved through coffee, craft, books, a drink and a show, the metro feels less like a commute and less like an ending.

ALQUEMA's QVB boutique is on the first floor of the Queen Victoria Building, 455 George Street, Sydney. 

This is the first in ALQUEMA's Boutique Series. Conversations with the people inside the stores, about the places they love around them. The boutiques that carry ALQUEMA are, each of them, worth a dedicated day. 

Email us to have your boutique featured next.