Top Three Shops in Buenos Aires for Travelers: Authentic Style Hecho En Argentina

A new generation of purpose-driven merchants is making good on Argentina's reputation as a byword for handmade and well-made, scouring the Pampas and Patagonia for the country's most distinctive native-spun wares, and breathing fresh life into the word "authentic." No luck at San Telmo's crafts fair? Add these addresses to your short list.

1. Facón

Martín Bustamente's lovingly sourced mercantile is a personal paean to "argentinidad," representing both heritage artisans (Mapuche carpenters, Colla weavers) and millennial makers (industrial lighting designers, abstract painters). The traveled mix, arranged wabi-sabi in the rooms of a storybook Palermo casona, includes hand-illustrated provincial coats of arms and serving trays chiseled from fallen Patagonian timber. An in-house vinoteca stocks favorite Argentine bottles—and makes a fine excuse to cuddle up with one of La Sucursal's jumbo-knit floor pillows.

Facón; Nicaragua 4880

 

2. Panorama

Porteña tastemaker María Lee opened Panorama with a mission to showcase the best of Argentina's sartorial talent (cue Le Bas's convertible leather backpacks, Made in Chola's wool felt sombreros, and Romero's coveted palm leaf basket bags, handwoven in the country's northeastern hinterland). Lee gamely mixes ruffled blouses, beaded bombers, and whimsical prints, uniting a lot of color and texture in a small space. Somehow, the overall effect is harmonious.

Panorama; República de la India 2905

 

3. Arte Étnico Argentino

With deforestation threatening natural and cultural ecosystems in the Argentine Monte, master woodworkers and handloom weavers are steadily abandoning their ancestral crafts. Ricardo Paz and Belén Carballo have spent the last three decades championing the region's endangered folk artists and recuperating their practical but poetic designs, executed without machinery or electricity. The couple's studio-gallery is a trove of salvaged Andean textiles and low-slung "matera" chairs—hewn from native chañar wood for the express purpose of sipping mate around a fire.

Arte Étnico Argentino; El Salvador 4656