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Adventures in Shopping
Lauren duPont travels the global highways and byways in search of sensational–and seriously original–holiday gifts.
Talking about gifts makes me nervous. The last time I did it in the pages of Vogue, I casually said that I thought scented candles weren’t really acceptable. Little did I know. Even now, people I’ve just met ask me if I really think they’re so terrible. I’ll walk into dinner parties and smell a trace of Diptyque’s Feu de Bois, which has been hastily extinguished, then hidden. The truth is I like them–Diptyque’s Baies, ideally–but I still think they’re not the most imaginative present. To my mind, travel is always a good method for finding a unique gift. Here, then, are the ten things I’d like to unwrap this holiday season, found both home and abroad.
DE VERA BRACELETS
Gift-hunting is always fun if you’re browsing somewhere really beautiful. That’s how I fell about De Vera in San Francisco. I love the Venetian glass beetles; the old Japanese bronze turtles; and, most of all, I love that you can find delicious new Federico de Vera–designed jewels among the antique pieces. This bracelet just does it for me. The stones work through the whole color spectrum, a rainbow on your wrist.
WICKER CLUTCHES
Nina Griscom’s store on Lexington Avenue in New York is the best; she finds everything she sells on her various sojourns around the globe. These clutches are made by the crafts-people who work for Queen Sirikit of Thailand. If you could make a Nantucket basket bag cool, this would be it.
LITE BRITE NEON
I’m obsessed with Lite Brite’s custom-order neons, from Brooklyn; they’re kitschy and whimsical. It started when a friend decided to order a yellow peace sign; then another got a neon for her actor boyfriend that spelled out his name…
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