Shop Crawl: From opulence to organics, take a stroll through the cobblestone lanes of the Distillery District and pop into these shops

Couture chapeaus
At the Saucy Milliner, owner Kelly Dunlap hand blocks each and every hat using the highest quality of lush couture millinery fur felt available — it gives a soft luxurious finish. Dunlap’s collection of wooden hat blocks is a collection she’s been gathering for years, including vintage blocks from the ’20s, for an authentic Gatsby or Downton Abbey silhouette. The Saucy Milliner sports a selection of handmade ready-to-wear hats ($225 to $375), cocktail hats and perchers ($350 to $650) and beautiful made in Scotland Harris Tweed hats. Be on the lookout for her Queen’s Plate Couture Collection, as well, which she will be designing and building in the U.K. in the early spring.
The Saucy Milliner, 10 Case Goods Ln.

Organic goods
Shauna Podruzny created Blossom Lounge as an organic apothecary but expanded it to include goods that represented things she loved. Top-selling collections, both in store and online, are Ilia Beauty ($20 to $50 range) and Alima Pure ($15 to $45) organic colour cosmetic collections and One Love Organics ($25 to $75), a skin care line with natural ingredients. “A brand is a strong international contender when it has high-quality ingredients and doesn't just promise to deliver but can back it up,” says Podruzny. If you’re shopping local, don’t overlook the FoxHound Collection (Nova Scotia), LoveFresh (Toronto) and Sahajan (Toronto).
Blossom Lounge, 24 Tank House Ln., Unit 101

Handmade arm candy
Hoi Bo’s wares all have thoughtful design and supreme quality, as each piece is carefully handmade in small batches by owner Sarra Tang and her team. “Having my own production studio allows me to constantly be innovating my work from a conceptual level rather than superficially just reworking colour palettes, etc,” says Tang. Tranquil and elegantly simple bags, like the Wet Wax Boxed Market Shopper ($168) and the Wet Wax Mini ($195), are effortlessly chic, and rings, like the Brass Sheath ($148), will have onlookers fawning over your hands. “My work is less about the final object — rather, it’s about the process it took to get there,” says Tang.
Hoi Bo, 15 Trinity St.