Can loud socks and powdered horchata help keep Brussels retail distinctive?
BRUZZ selected three locally rooted products on 26 August: Amélie Gomet’s limited-edition jewellery, statement socks sold by Rose and Little Planet’s powdered horchata.
In 30 seconds
- BRUZZ featured three local product lines on 26 August 2026.
- Little Planet has sold powdered horchata developed by Yannick Bloquet since 2021.
- Amélie Gomet makes limited-edition cast jewellery and offers workshops through Feu Atelier.
- Rose sells statement socks from its shop at 56-58 Rue de l’Aqueduc in Ixelles.
BRUZZ put three products in the shop window on 26 August: limited-edition silver jewellery made in Ixelles, bright statement socks sold by a long-established Ixelles gift shop and powdered horchata developed in . For people who live or work in Brussels—including staff from the EU institutions based here—the selection offers a compact guide to independent businesses beyond the international chains. It is a city story, however, rather than an EU initiative: neither the European Commission nor another EU body is involved.
The most geographically ambitious product comes from Yannick Bloquet, who introduced his Brussels version of horchata in 2021 under the Little Planet brand. BRUZZ reports that the Watermael-Boitsfort entrepreneur sells the drink as a powder to be mixed with water at home, an approach intended to reduce packaging and the environmental cost of transporting a ready-made liquid. A 375-gram pack was listed at €9.99 when BRUZZ published its selection.
Horchata connects Brussels with Valencia, Spain, where the cool, sweet drink made from ground tigernuts is part of the regional food culture. That heritage should not be flattened into generic lifestyle branding. EU law protects “Chufa de Valencia” as a Protected Designation of Origin, with production linked to specified municipalities in the province of Valencia and traceability requirements for products using the protected name, according to EUR-Lex. BRUZZ describes Little Planet as a Brussels version; the available reporting does not establish that its ingredients carry the Valencian PDO.
In Ixelles, jewellery designer Amélie Gomet takes a different route to distinctiveness. After studying visual arts in New York and Brussels, she opened Feu Atelier with another designer, according to BRUZZ. Her own pieces—small scenes cast as rings or brooches—are produced in limited editions, while customers can also request personal designs. The workshop model makes the encounter with the maker part of the product, something a conventional online transaction cannot easily reproduce.
A few streets away, Rose supplies the deliberately louder end of the selection. The gift shop, which BRUZZ says has operated for 20 years, sells pink “Brussels girls do it better” socks alongside stickers, mugs and notebooks. Its own website places the shop at 56-58 Rue de l’Aqueduc in Ixelles. The socks are less an export strategy than a playful badge of urban identity: merchandise designed to circulate through classrooms, offices and buses rather than official European corridors.
These small products land in a retail environment under real pressure. VRT NWS reported in 2024 that the Brussels Region had lost more than 1,000 shops since 2013, while the number of shops in Ixelles had fallen by 17% over ten years. The same report described rising vacancy and a shift towards hospitality, with independent businesses squeezed by shopping centres and online competition.
Yet the official regional picture is not simply one of decline. In its 2025 retail barometer, the Brussels economic agency hub.brussels examined 30 shopping districts and identified growing demand for human-scale outlets offering proximity, service and sustainability. It framed retail as “more than a place to make your purchases”, stressing its role in contact between neighbours, customers, traders, generations and cultures. That is the strongest case for treating a jewellery workshop, an idiosyncratic gift shop and a small drink brand as more than shopping tips.
Where this is happening
View on map Brussels →There is a counterpoint. Philippe Capart of the former Bortier Gallery bookshop Crypte Tonique told VRT NWS that redevelopment there felt “more mundane, more bling-bling”, while Brussels Mayor Philippe Close argued that the city could not ignore repeated bankruptcies. Their disagreement captures the larger choice: experiential retail may keep premises occupied, but food, gifts and photogenic concepts do not automatically preserve the full diversity of an urban high street.
What happens next will be determined less by a single promotional list than by repeat customers, affordable premises and the makers’ ability to scale without losing their identity. No sales figures, employment totals or public subsidies for the three featured businesses were disclosed. Their immediate achievement is more modest but visible: they translate Brussels’ international influences into products made, designed or sold at neighbourhood scale.
What to do
Brussels residents can investigate Feu Atelier’s limited-edition jewellery and workshops in Ixelles, visit Rose at 56-58 Rue de l’Aqueduc for the featured socks, or look for Little Planet’s powdered horchata from Watermael-Boitsfort. Because the article supplies no prices, opening hours, workshop dates, stock levels or ordering conditions, check directly with each business before travelling or booking. Buyers interested in provenance or sustainability should also ask about materials, production location, packaging and preparation requirements rather than assuming that every locally sold product is wholly local or formally certified.
Impact
Regional — The direct impact is concentrated in Ixelles and Watermael-Boitsfort. More broadly, the businesses contribute to the Brussels-Capital Region’s stated preference for nearby, service-oriented and potentially more sustainable commerce.
EvidenceWell established · 1 primary source + 2 official documents + 1 independent reporting sourceExplore evidence →Hide evidence ↑
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- 26 Aug 2026, 02:00
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- 27 Oct 2025, 01:00
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- 20 Jan 2024, 01:00
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- 9 Sept 2024, 02:00
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Voices & reactions
What the main actors are doing
Reported positions, summarised — not direct quotationsLocal makers and hub.brussels
The featured entrepreneurs present distinctive products, workshops and lower-waste ideas as reasons to shop locally. hub.brussels reinforces that framing by describing retail as “more than a place to make your purchases” and as social infrastructure connecting residents, traders, generations and cultures.
Retail-diversity sceptics
Former Bortier Gallery bookseller Philippe Capart characterised one Brussels redevelopment as “more mundane, more bling-bling”. This perspective warns that replacing struggling specialist shops with food, gifts and experience-led concepts can fill premises without preserving the intellectual and commercial diversity of the high street.
Municipal viability argument
Brussels Mayor Philippe Close offered a harder commercial response in the VRT NWS account, asking what the city should do when existing businesses repeatedly go bankrupt. This view prioritises viable occupancy and footfall, even when the resulting commercial mix differs from a site’s earlier identity.
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This story was assembled from verified evidence, with its sources and reasoning recorded as it was written.