Sing Blackbird

For years Sing Blackbird was the shop where you came for cake and left with a dress. Diana Dodik and Natasha Arana opened it around 2012 on Sanderstrasse with a second hand kit brought over from New York, and the cafe half of it became a Reuterkiez fixture.

The clothes have since taken over. It now runs as a vintage shop first, and the edit has tightened around 1990s and 2000s originals: low rise flares, crop tops, striped shirts, the kind of thing that comes back every four years and is better bought old.

How it is laid out

White walls, good light, and the racks sorted by colour rather than by size or decade. That sounds like a gimmick and is not: it is genuinely faster to shop when you are looking for a shape and a shade rather than a label. Womenswear leads heavily.

Stock comes from wholesalers as well as their own sourcing, so alongside the obvious 90s pieces there is older, well kept vintage that has clearly been stored properly.

Practical

They open in the afternoon, not the morning. Published hours vary between sources, so plan for roughly one or two in the afternoon until seven or eight in the evening, and call ahead if you are crossing town for it. Prices are moderate, in the middle of the Neukoelln range.

Go if

You are building a summer wardrobe out of things nobody else has. You shop by colour. You want 90s and 2000s that are actually from then.

Skip it if you need menswear. That is not what this shop does.