It's Giving. Part One.

Really Good Gifts Suggested By Really Good People.

Ok, ok - at this point in December do we really need another Gift Guide you may well be asking, but trust me - yes, you do. This is a good one. So good in fact, I am going to ebb it out over the week like an advent calendar: only beginning on the 7th December and ending when it ends.

Personally, I have a totally inconsistent gift giving style. I only give presents when I find something I know the recipient will genuinely love. Much like this Substack - I cannot be forced to deliver - I am either inspired or I am not (I am a Generator after all) so, I always love to know what other people give to help me out me when I’m in gift giving rut and so this year I thought it would be fun to ask some of the best gift givers I know:

Kim Sion is a Creative Consultant, ceramicist and my muse for life. This week she launched THE most perfect shoe collection with Le Monde Beryl and in the glory days of her fabulous shop, A Bag Full of Kim (RIP) I was never short of gifts for any occasion. Kim recommends gifting this beautiful travel hairbrush from Buly which she loves to personalise with a nick name. “It comes in a velvet pouch and is a lovely thing to have in your handbag. It’s useful and personal and comes in exquisite packaging. You cannot go wrong.”

I was very flattered to be asked by the wonderful Kerrilynn Pamer to participate in the Cap Beauty Gift Guide with my friend Kat Chan. You can find the most beautiful, thoughtful gifts for everyone you know on Cap, the curation of products is perfection and I was excited to ask Kerrilynn for her own personal recommendation: “My favourite gift to send to my best friend, who happens to live on the frigid East Coast, is a box including all that California has to offer: persimmons, passionfruit, lemons, limes, pomegranates and guavas. A truly bountiful gift from the land of sunshine.” Dreamy.

One of the best gifts I gave myself this year was to go on retreat in Portugal with the incredible Nadia Narain. Nadia is a gifted teacher, facilitator, author and all round magical person whose new book, Glimmers co-created with her equally magical sister Katia Narain Phillips, is released in January. “ We all have way too much!” she replied to my email, and instead suggested adopting an elephant or booking a massage with Katia or a practitioner you really love.

My brilliant friend Bianca Raggi is a very talented stylist and incredible gift giver. Bianca suggests giving an antique bottle opener, carved Italian soaps from Saponificio Artiginale Fiorentino or a beautiful pair of socks from Schostal. Perfection.

I’m wrapping up part one with a recommendation from one of my favourite people, Jo Ellison who gifts us all every week with her excellent How To Spend It. “ I really want that book by Diane Keaton, Reservations documenting interiors shot at various hotels and motels in the late seventies (published 1980). It’s virtually out of print so requires some judicious sleuthing to find. I’ve been revisiting all of Keaton’s side hustles since her death last month - and her photography was the nicest surprise of all. She was the ultimate work in progress. What a talent. What a loss.”

Stay tuned for more…