‘I have a gift cupboard at home’ | Market wire

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My husband is Australian and for the final 4 Christmases we’ve gone to a good friend’s home in Sydney. It’s very totally different over there to Christmas in Paris. I’d by no means celebrated during the day for a begin. In France, we have now a dinner at night time with all of the household and then you definitely get on together with your life. And we don’t even have it at Christmas. We’ve got a huge household and a lot of people take holidays at that time, so it’s often held within the weeks earlier than or after.

In Australia, we go to the seashore or keep at home and sit across the pool and have a barbecue. My good friend’s household are Catholic, in order that they do it correctly. You usually have seven to eight glasses in entrance of you and the household simply retains pouring in several varieties of alcohol. Foodwise, it’s turkey, tons of veggies, foie gras and, for dessert, ardour fruit pavlova.

I’ve a good friend who loves Hermès and ice cream. When she had a child I purchased an Hermès silk careé, printed with ice lotions. I mentioned it was child’s first Hermès

I’m a very organised gift-giver. This sounds so lame, however I’ve a present cabinet at home. I feel it’s as a result of my job implies that I’ve entry to a lot of stuff. If I’m ordering items for a project, say, glassware or crockery, and I feel it will make a great present, I’ll order a little more and put it within the cabinet. There are additionally a few items that [I have received but] I don’t need in there, like candles. I simply don’t get the idea of candles and so they’re not so good on your health. If somebody provides me one, I at all times suppose, “Wow, you really don’t know me!”

For my buddies who aren’t essentially into design, I like to provide them one thing that’s a bit surprising, that I hope they’ll recognize and will doubtlessly flip into worth. I like exhibiting them new designers. I’ve given a lot of items by James Shaw, the British designer who works with recycled plastic. He does all types of bizarre objects — door handles, drawer knobs, candlesticks, vases.

I additionally actually just like the Australian model, Dinosaur Designs. I do know the proprietor and each winter I’m going to the store in Sydney and stock up. They’ve shops in London and New York too. Koibird is a actually good place for small items. The choice is great. And Dover Avenue Market — I’m obsessed. I’m going during the gross sales.

Ichendorf, the glassware model, is de facto cute for items, so there’s at all times some of that within the cabinet. It’s blown glass and inside the glass are vibrant little objects — flowers, fish, creatures. They promote it in SCP in London. It’s not very costly, so I buy tons of that and at all times keep one for myself.

For particular presents, I like to provide one thing personal. The Australian buddies we go to at Christmas are initially from France and the daddy may be very into the household tree. Final yr, we gave him a lovely metalwork Parisian road signal, embossed together with his household’s names and an previous Parisian street identify. That was fairly enormous — he cried. I’ve a good friend who loves Hermès and ice cream. When she had a child I purchased an Hermès silk careé, printed with tons of ice lotions, and I had it framed. I mentioned it was child’s first Hermès. For one more good friend with a new child, I made a cell with wind chimes and much of different little issues I discovered within the studio.

I like being given jewelry. The best present I’ve ever obtained was a wedding ceremony present from my husband: a necklace with a gold shell crammed with totally different colored stones. It was fairly epic. I put on a lot of necklaces. I just like the French model, Goossens, which does gold-plated items and isn’t so costly. For me, although, it’s about the place one thing comes from. Somewhat than simply shopping for from a enormous model, I’d at all times want a good friend give me one thing they’d found themselves in a flea market.

Julien Sebban is a Paris-based architect, designer and founder of the multidisciplinary studio Uchronia, recognized for its playful and experimental strategy.

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