Mitali Fashion Shop in the Karoviertel in Hamburg offers everything from incense sticks to jewellery and wall cloths.
Located in the middle of the Karoviertel on the Marktstraße, only a stone's throw away from the Rindermarkthalle and the Schanzenflohmarkt, it is a top address for fans of Buddha and Indian culture.
Despite the many colourful scarves, the Indian Mitali Fashion Shop looks a little inconspicuous and hushes up. Even people who have been living in the area for years have certainly walked past the Indian shop countless times without noticing it. But behind the dim, narrow entrance on the ground floor a small, different world opens up. A bit like a children's film in which you slip through the wardrobe into a fairytale landscape.
In the narrow, barely man-wide corridors, which are filled from top to bottom with clothes like Goa slabber trousers, jewellery, bags and wall cloths, you feel like being wrapped in cotton wool.
Once you've dared to go inside, you'll notice that the Mitali Fashion Shop is much bigger than it looks from the outside. In a labyrinth of corridors you will find ponchos from Nepal, hip bags, hats and of course saris - the traditional dresses of Indian women.
Fans of henna and incense sticks also get their money's worth here. As a real hippie shop, Mitali of course also stocks countless shirts and wall cloths with peace signs, typical Indian elephant motifs and mushroom pictures. During the rummage the most different smells of the incense stick packs blow around one's nose.
So bewitched, in the world of the Mitali Shop you quickly forget that you are actually in the Karoviertel in Hamburg, and not somewhere in India. Time also seems to stand still somehow due to the warm atmosphere created by the owner. Between the colourful fabrics and countless mandalas, you can always hear their sympathetic Indian-Hamburg singing when they joke with their colleagues or customers.
You can feel immediately that even after 30 years they still have a lot of fun getting to know people from all over the world and releasing them from their shop with a good feeling.
Atmo tip: A visit to the Mitali wall cloth cellar. If you go down the tiny spiral staircase, you feel as if you were in Mini-Goa. With black light, floating beats and 0% daylight, even more wall hangings are waiting to be discovered than wall decorations, couch or picnic blankets. The bright colours of the black light cloths make the narrow corridors a short trip to India's famous party location - and thus a must for Goa fans.
Ideally, an excursion into this small Indian world should be combined with a Saturday trip to the Schanzenflohmarkt, because the atmosphere of rummaging around fits in perfectly.
In order to find the Mitali Fashion Shop on Marktstraße, the best thing to do is to look out for the colourful cloths and illuminated banners in front of the shop.
