Nisantasi is the district Istanbul dresses in. International houses, Turkish designers and the city’s older jewellers share a few blocks around Abdi Ipekci Street, and the pavements are wide enough to make window shopping pleasant.
It is not only shops. The area holds some of the better patisseries and coffee houses in the city, and the apartment architecture from the early twentieth century is worth looking up at while you walk.
From The Soul Hotel it is about twenty-five minutes on foot up through Taksim, or ten minutes by taxi. Most shops open at ten and close at eight, later at weekends.