The past few years have been lean ones for me. Between going to grad school and not working too much, and then having my Masters and still not working too much, I've been forced to adapt to an extremely tactical gift-giving schemata for the holiday season. I carefully balance my funds once October hits, allotting myself enough to buy one or two small gifts per paycheck. I put a lot of emphasis on finding perfect gifts not because I'm materialistic at all, I just really love giving presents that are a bit out of the ordinary. You will never, ever see me at some "One Day Sale" or some such beating down the doors at the mall at 7am in November. To be perfectly honest, I don't even pay that much attention to what people say they want. My holiday pleasure comes from giving gifts that people don't realize they want and need until the second they open them. This is my preliminary list of gifts I wish I could get/gifts I wish I could give
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| General Knot & Co. Donegal Lambswool Hopsacking Necktie, $108 |
General Knot & Co. specially curate vintage fabrics, and then the ties, bow ties, and pocket squares are made by craftsmen right here in the USA. Since vintage fabrics are rare and often available only in small quantities, each piece is unique and has a lot of character. I love the spectrum of browns and reds in this particular tie, but any of their pieces would make something very special of a seemingly ordinary tie gift.
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| Feather Bow Ties from Our House Vintage and Design, $45-$60 |
Keeping with the neckwear theme, my very good friend Victoria of
Our House Vintage and Design has a really cute collection of feather bow ties, earrings, and collected vintage finds. The feather goods are all handmade from start to finish in her San Francisco studio. These make an unexpected and perfect gift for the edgy and whimsical person in your life. The bow ties also come in necklace form!
Our House also sells quality vintage goods like planters, housewears, and clothing if you're looking for something extra rare.
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| Black Badger White Corian/Titanium and Black Hazard/Titanium Rings, $300-325 |
Petaluma Supply Co. has proven to be a true oasis of Made in USA/handmade gift lust for me. I could probably write a love song for them and then put it on YouTube and become the next Lady Gaga... but instead I'll just ease into exposing you to all of their amazing wares, (slowly lest your brain explode from awesome-overload). These rings are really neat for people who aren't into jewelry, because they're super durable, not traditional looking at all, yet extremely simple. Each ring takes 3-4 hours to "build," as they say, and the color goes all the way through the ring, so there's no chance of it scratching off.
Black Badger rings are made by hand in Sweden by a very talented fellow with a Masters degree in Industrial Design. At around $300 they're a little more than I'm accustomed to spending on gifts, so make sure you only get one for someone you like a LOT.
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| Field Aesthetic Dopp Kit, $35 |
In the course of traveling about the Northeast quite a bit working for Dubarry, I noticed both males and females with travel goods that were less than graceful. There's truly no excuse to carry your toiletries in a ziploc freezer bag. However, for people such as myself who prey on unsuspecting gift-receivers by giving things which they need but would never think to buy for themselves, Dopp kits make an amazing present. This one from
Field Aesthetic is handsomely constructed from re-purposed military tent canvas, making it much less expensive than a leather one, but still very hardwearing and handsome. As a relatively un-femme female, I would love this for myself as a giant makeup bag OR toiletry bag. Also a bonus, all Field Aesthetic goods are handcrafted in Vermont.
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| Compass Necklace by Love Nail Tree, $34 |
I'd like to confess that I have been lusting for this necklace from
Victory PDX for months. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that I have the worst sense of direction and am constantly getting lost. I'm a sucker for accessories with utility.
Love Nail Tree makes these necklaces in Los Angeles, but Victory has a nice variety of beautiful handmade jewelry in case you don't have the same problem as I do in regards to getting lost.
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| Terrapin Stationers Olive Bicycle A6 Note Cards, $22 |
Whether you want to use them as note cards for your gifts, or give them as gifts on their own, you really cannot go wrong with these cards from
Terrapin. These are engraved with an olive bicycle and include envelopes with vintage maps lining the inside. They have a ton of designs available, or you can easily contact them for custom work. Family run and handcrafted in New York F***ing City for almost a century, they have some of the coolest stuff around for the discerning stationery/calling card hoarder in your life.
The list goes on. My current Field Notes is busting with shop and product names of things that I don't want to forget. There's denim, cologne, wall fixtures (seriously), and most recently a growing compendium of equestrian apparel that's manufactured in the USA. So chew on all this awhile, but I will certainly be back in a week or so with another explosion of amazing stuff that you most certainly will NOT find in your local shopping mall.
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