Last time we favored people with a sweet tooth, this time, however, it’s the meat-eaters’ turn! We will introduce Prague’s best bitcher store, where it is totally worth to queue and not only to try their awesome hamburger. We will tell you about one of our favorite Czech books, which presents the most iconic objects of the last century, and for nature lovers, we will show such outdoor furniture and accessories that will make their jaw drop. Let’s go!
Lucie Komárková
Lucie Komárková started her line in 2015, using only the best fabrics like wool, cotton, and silk to create these feminine silhouettes. The majority of the fabrics come from Czech producers, but to keep up the high quality, they order fabrics from Germany and Italy as well, but the design and production are completely done in their studio in Prague. The designer told us that she is designing her clothes for impulsive and nostalgic young women who are strong-minded enough but haven’t lost their inner child. No wonder that many women also come to Lucie for their wedding dresses as well. The spring-summer collections (’Marionetta’ and ’Everything is Blue’) is often using pastel and ice-cream colors, while the fall-winter collections (’Uniform girl’ and ’Horizon’) consist of more powerful and awareness-raising shades. Our favorite is the ’Marionetta’ collection, we would be happy to lose an arm and a leg to own any of the pieces. If you want to see the clothes in person you can go to the Kvartýr shop & studio in Prague, or order online from their webshop.
Studio Najbrt – Naše maso
Meat-eaters! Listen! When we were in Prague and stopped by our favorite cafe, and we saw the Prague Superguide, we didn’t know that it will guide us to one of the best places to eat in the city. Nonetheless, this is what exactly happened when we found the tiny butcher store of Naše maso. The name of the place actually means ’our meat’ and it is not only a classical butcher store but also a delicatessen of some sort, that is way beyond the butcher stores we are used to at home. While we are used to only get different kinds of sausages with a huge slice of white bread (which we love of course) at the butcher store, in Naše maso we could choose from steak, beef tartar, pastrami sandwich, and hamburger. They are very proud of the high quality of what they are providing and we don’t only mean the quality of the food. They commissioned their interior and identity design to one of the most known graphic design studio, the Studio Najbrt. They are not only famous for this butcher store, but other places like Dva kohouti or Lokal and they have also created something abiding designing the neo-renaissance Café Savoy.
The Naše maso is classical and industrial at the same time, the wrappings, the signs are all fresh and playful (the font they use is: Brown), and this applies tot he staff as well – we can tell you this out of our experience. The illustration on the wrapping papers and the product labels were created by Yweta Kroupová. We have the feeling that this place is very well put together, and if we could we would teleport it to Budapest as it is. If you ever go to Prague, make sure not to miss out on this, but be prepared for a swarm of people, because we are not the only ones to discover this amazing place. But one thing we have to say: it is worth to wait in line!
EGOE
When we found the super professional website of EGOEwe couldn’t believe our eyes that this is a Czech brand. Actually, three, because the profile of the company consists of three sub-brands that are working in the same direction: all three of them positions the relationship between human and nature into their focus. Let’s see them one-by-one: ’Life’is the one responsible for the outdoor furniture, ’Move’ is the sport tools, skis mostly, and ’Nest’is every single object and tool that one might need during camping, especially if you want to do it in style. Seeing the NESTBOXwe immediately got in the mood to travel around Europe: this is a car supplementary product, which we can choose regarding the size of our vehicle and in an instant, we can turn it into a trailer with a hot plate, sink, and a mini-fridge.
Those who want to go out in nature, but don’t want to leave the comfort of the cities behind, the Leva collection is more than recommended. This completely blown us away because the term outdoor furniture is not even close to describing what this is. Even though it is a simple ’kubus’ ’cube-like structure’ that we can arrange in any way we like. If we want to, we can even move out to nature because thanks to EGOE we can have anything we could want or need (table, bed, folding-screen, grill).
Příběhy věcí
For those who want to know more about the Czechoslovakian object-culture, we recommend the ’Příběhy věcí’ (’The story of objects’) book, edited by Petra Nováková. It is unfortunate that we haven’t found an English version of it so far, so this book is recommended for those who speak the language in the first place. This beautiful, grande book is the collection of iconic objects from the last 100 years, regardless of how simple or ordinary these objects are, such as the innovation of the 60’s the nylon tights (which they called ’silonky’ in this area), or the passport itself and we can also get to know the iconic objects of Czech designers like the elegant glass set designed by Ladislav Sutnar in 1930, and we can also read about the design and information system of the metro line of Prague. On the cover, we can see the Czechoslovakian Playmobil figure while working,’Igráček’ from 1976. We found the book at the museum shop of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, but we didn’t have enough space in our luggage to take it with us, so we ordered it from the publisher. It is real time-travel not only for retro lovers.
Lípa
From the list of our favorite design stores in Prague, we shall not leave out Lípa, where those can find something they like, who prefer very clean, nature-inspired, unique products. The name itself means linden, and in the case of many of their products, the flower of the tree appears in an abstract form. We could best compare it to our PaUZa design store representing slow living because they are both Scandinavian-like a little bit, but while PaUZa is using more of the grey and white tones, Lípa is also offering more colorful accessories. Primarily they are selling home decor pieces, they have wonderful textiles like table cloths, pillowcases, carpets, and blankets, snow-white porcelains with plant graphics, wooden accessories like cutting boards, trays, saucers, plates. But linden does not only show up on the surface of their products, but we can find linden syrup, tea-mix, and honey as well on the shelves.
And besides all of the above, they are selling soaps with 100% natural ingredients and soy candles. We would like to draw your attention to the handcrafted chocolate with different kinds of flavors, that are made by the Mana chocolate manufacturer from the town of Lípa. If you would like to bring home a unique souvenir from Prague, you should definitely pay a visit here.
In our weekly series, we are presenting such Czech, Slovakian, and Polish brands and design spots, who we think are worthy to join our mental design map. It is a teaser guide for those who are curious about other things than the usual tourist sights.
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Revolutionary sites
