Clothes shopping in Colombia can be a real nuisance, apart from if you have a huge budget and love overpriced and/or designer clothes. I have found it really tricky to find clothes for work that, due to this heat, need to be lightweight, preferably cotton and obviously not revealing as so much of the women's clothing here is. Here is a summary of where I found affordable and/or suitable clothing that wasn't all synthetic and diamantéd.
- Chipichape: This is where I bought most of my clothes from and, although towards the higher price range, they have some good shops with cotton clothing and nice designs. Stradivarius is good because it's relatively cheap compared to, say, Tennis which I really like but is very expensive. Another winner is Gef who do mostly plain cotton clothing with nice designs but also have some dresses and more patterned clothing. It's not exactly cheap but is probably what you are looking for for this heat and they do have some plain tops and shorts for around COP$25,000 (£9). These shops are in most shopping centres (Unicentro, Palmetto etc) but Strativarius is only in Chipichape I believe.
- Unico: This is a shopping centre probably unknown to most foreigners here. It is right up in the north and is almost entirely outlet shops with up to 50% off. It has most shops like NafNaf, Esprit, Gef, Punto Blanco, Americanino, Tennis etc etc, and one that is from Manizales called Color Siete which had good prices and I really liked their designs, similar to Esprit, quite European. It also exists in other shopping centres like Unicentro but not at a discounted price.
- Jardín Plaza: A great shop here is Ticket which sells really nice designs and is not expensive at all. Most strap tops are between COP$25,000-35,000.
- Josh: I was looking for some leather sandals (most shoes here are synthetic) and this is definitely my favourite shop for leather in terms of designs and value for money (most leather sandals cost between COP$130,000-170,000). Shops like Vélez sell their leather goods far too expensively, although Josh is still expensive for Colombia relatively speaking. But there is a Josh outlet with most things half price on the autopista (Calle 10) so be sure to have a look before going to one in a shopping centre.
- Croydon: Not the best name for a shop! This is a cheaper shoe shop and we went to the one in Unicentro and I bought some plain white canvas lace-up pumps for COP$49,000 (around £15), and they seem pretty well made. I actually bought the male version as I preferred the style and male sizes start small here (I am a 37 here and in the UK I am a 5).