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Pre-order: shipping from December 13, 2021

Antwerp has been a real shopping city since time immemorial. Shopkeepers play an important role in its history: as key figures in social life, as builders of architectural gems, and as driving forces for the transformation of shopping streets and the growth of Antwerp's reputation as a fashion Valhalla. City guide Tanguy Ottomer talked to shopkeepers who have seen the city change before their very eyes. He wrote down their memories and delved into archives in search of stories and photographs to paint a picture of life in the main shopping districts of twentieth-century Antwerp.

Shopping in the City of the Past is about the grandeur of the fashion palaces and department stores of the fin de siècle, but also about the cozy atmosphere at the butcher and poulterer in the Wilde Zee. It's about the interbellum, when Carnotstraat was everyone's favorite shopping boulevard, and about the golden sixties when you found one shoe store next to the other on Offerandestraat. But there is also a lot of attention for the more recent history of the 1980s and 1990s, when there were still plenty of cars driving on the Meir and the Antwerp fashion scene was still in its infancy. This book is not only a nostalgic ode to the shopping culture of yesteryear, but also a wonderful trip down memory lane for all those who were young in the twentieth century.

Professional Antwerp resident Tanguy Ottomer (°1981) has developed his company BeroepsBelg into a successful guide operation that offers various original city walks. His idiosyncratic, enthusiastic and spontaneous approach earned him a lot of praise, including from The New York Times, The Financial Times and CNN, which proclaimed Tanguy “one of the 7 savviest tour guides in the world”. He was named the best tourist ambassador of Flanders by Tourism Flanders. Tanguy previously wrote the books in this series 't Stad vanpast'. Lost pearls of Antwerp , Going out in the City of the Past . The bustling Antwerp of yesteryear and the City of the Past 3. Doing business in the Antwerp of yesteryear . He is also the author of Handelsbeurs Antwerpen: Past & Present.

Discover the shops in Antwerp of yesteryear, such as ° a corsetry in the Hoogstraat ° the fashion houses of the belle époque in the Nationalestraat ° the alternative nineties boutiques in the Kammenstraat ° the food specialty shops in the Korte Gasthuisstraat ° the shops where the Antwerp Six were born in and around the Nieuwe Gaanderij ° the luxurious department stores on the Groenplaats ° the established values and the first retail chains on the Meir ° the furniture shops with beautiful shop windows in the Carnotstraat ° the shoe shops in the Offerandestraat ° and much more.