Gifts: For design n00bs, chefs, readers, deal hounds, flatware freaks, Italians

Lamps, knives, tats, new books, coffee moka makers, flatware, even deals on 1stDibs

Hey all—FREE letter today—design items I think make good gifts.

Gift giving for someone with a love of or interest in design is easier than buying design items for yourself, to me, because items purchased for other people are… smaller. (I assume no one buys their friends couches.) They are not logistically challenging. They are just nice.

Because design is endless—think of the number of things in your kitchen that you just have and maybe don’t believe in and which you could… upgrade… and wonder if there are a dozen good options for, like a corkscrew or a board… there are infinite options. And so the list of stuff we half need and want to upgrade doesn’t often get closed. So many of us are… in want of an upgrade.

Below: Books, smalls, kitchen crap, trinkets, things that might even work for yourself down the line. My philosophy on buying is: every dollar you save you should put towards something you buy that is very expensive and which you “need.” You should probably not buy something just because it is on sale. But in the design space we have like 1,000 things to upgrade. If you ask me. If you don’t buy anything, nothing will change. Your life will retain all of its meaning. If you do buy something, you will just have nicer things to look at or to give to friends. It’s that simple.

Housekeeping:

• If you have a health-conscious person on your list, check out my

  SNAKE SUPER HEALTH
  gift guide as well:

Gifts: For health psychos, onlookers, normal people and all points in between

• And subscribe to that newsletter. (I have two newsletters. Subscribe to both newsletters.)

• You can also give a subscription to my newsletter to someone you love (I mean really love) as a gift. (Click)

Some links go to affiliates (nice explainer here by

Emilia Petrarca

). They help keep this issue of Snake free.

---

Books:

Books are an ideal gift for obvious reasons (they’re books) and they also demand much less loyalty than an actual design purchase. I write often about how design tastes, as a whole, need time and experimentation to grow. We need reps—we need to go through 7 couches probably before we find the one. But this is difficult and for some people not realistic… another way for taste to grow though is to read very widely and look almost… randomly for references and study things past what you like. That said as gifts they should be based in reality.

For the head: Architectural Record’s Book of Vacation Homes. Recommended to me by

Laura Fenton

of

LIVING SMALL

, whose Substack is required reading if you like this one. I met Laura at the NYT Substack thing a few weeks ago and she described the book to me as the best book, the one… the one! I bought one for myself the next day and concur... I have been leafing through it. It’s a few decades old, leans to mid-modern... the details are so nails… lots of second-tier (or should I say very successful) architects… lots of right angles. In the real world there is a real dearth of pics of actual people’s houses; here there’s a lot. With these pics you get a better idea of how to do it. Few books like this, among the more underappreciated collections of architecture and interiors out there. Link up top is to new ones; many decent used copies for scant $ on eBay. Thank you Laura!

For someone at the start of the shit: Mid Century Modern by Cara Greenberg—this is, as I have mentioned before, the definitive introductory book about MCM. I put it on my gift guide every year because it is simply that elemental. It offers a dove’s eye view of the school’s major pieces, gives basic unalterable info about each item and ultimately places a style that many people think they’re too good for in its proper—timeless—context. Get this book and understand how Generation X thinks. If other design styles (Italian, deco, French, and on) had this type of literature built around them then the Boby Trolley would be as popular in America as an Eames or a Tulip.

For the Italian: Books by Ettore Sottsass—effectively a collection of writing from… the greatest old head in the history of design (or definitely the most radical old head in the history of theory). This one gets deeper than the festschrifts that show mostly pics, it includes writing by him (it’s not bad), some stuff from his late-career magazine (Terrazzo; no one ever talks about it; original issues go for about $1,500, they’re good) and… comics. Think Sottsass read Nancy? If you need a visual book: a nice deal on his Poltronova edition, and a book that collects his glass works are also good options. (Bookshop.org is sold out of his fatty on Phaidon.)

For the young: Magazine collections are great, Nest best of, Domus by the decade (I like ‘70s but they Bookshop has them all—‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s)—a collection of old magazines is the next best thing to actually collecting old magazines; I’ve written about the Nest collection (design media today is about two standard deviations behind what they did in the ‘90s) and consider it a must-own for anyone under, I don’t know, 60… who wants to freak a little bit their taste. It is better than discussed or can be expressed in a sentence. It’s just so necessary, a whole world. Domus Magazine was founded by Gio Ponti and is still going strong, their archives are so rich and bountiful it is ape-crap. I like the 1970s era the most (my preference) but one cannot go wrong with any of this stuff, I would rank the 1930s as next best.

For someone with a brain: The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather—the Dr. Archie story begins with a detailed description of his office, the furniture therein, etc. Ultimately how someone’s place is designed is how they are; this is explicated in emotional terms in this story here.

---

Smalls:

Kitchen stuff (Alessi corner)

I think kitchen items make great gifts. If you have a nice teapot life is better. If you give someone a nice teapot they will think about you as they drink a nice dandelion tea at night before they go to bed. Or a nice Iraqi tea at the crack of 9:30 AM. I like Alessi well enough; they do the job, are beautiful and are easy to find. My picks:

Alessi kettle—this is the Alessi kettle (you’ve seen it, shaped like a dune), a strong basic option for someone who wants… point of view in their kitchen. Designed by Michael Graves but it’s not the Graves kettle, it’s the kettle. $195; there’s another one with a bird on the spout (gargoyle style) for a bit more and which is Graves’ perverse and overpowering and breathtaking oeuvre.

Alessi fake Moka—loyalty is important in relationships and with barbers (redundant) but it has no place in stovetop coffee preparation. Prolonged reliance on one Moka pot shouldn’t mean you only get a Bialetti to replace or complement what you have. Ideally you get many different kinds, a loyalty to the technology but not the design… Why be wierd? This one, for Alessi, is by Jasper Morrison (British) but is sine curved and minimal (and silver) enough… $100. Another (this one) by them is a bit louder (shinier, red handle) and works for a more advanced giftee; this by Richard Sapper (the God of teapots actually) is the 9090 and is priced higher but… makes a case that his is the best there is. It’s so good. There is also a teapot/kettle by Sapper that speaks to Graves’ design but is harsher, way more 1931… just so very good…

• These espresso CUPS and saucers are priced better than I expected and work/slide into any aesthetic. Four, with saucers, $60, porcelain, plain, white, minimal, as good as anything.

---

Chef’s knife

Chef’s knife: Miyabi Koh 6” chef’s knife—not my area of expertise so I asked my friend

Sakura

(her Substack

The Bunny Diaries

is legit excellent) and she says this (in 8” long) is her go to affordable knife. All her friends have it now on her recommendation. Here is a photo of her knife in action:

Eat the heads for selenium and energy

She doesn’t remember what she did with the fish. If you have a good chef’s knife you almost don’t need anything else. If your friend doesn’t have one then they want one. Accessible too, only $130. Who knew? Her upgrade pick would be something from Japanese Knife Imports (scroll through their web-site, it is bonkers). Sakura’s butter knife pick (Opinel) is here. Thank you Sakura.

---

Cutlery/flatware

Probably for someone you know very well. Lots of these on Ssense.

Three picks

Dolce & Gabbana flatware (gold tone, too)—both from stainless steel, one “gold” one “silver,” they are among the most austere flatware options on Ssense (which is wild considering D&G’s design history)… super minimal, look like almost nothing. The head is big, though, and there’s a logo engraved here; it’s four for about $280, so a premium buy/maybe for a friend who lives in Miami. Quantities are low.

Pleasantly surprised by these Georg Jensen sets, also on Ssense, both for like $100; a couple of different designers. The first, Silver Cobra, is stainless steel and curved and deranged, very expressive, more than anything at any restaurant here. The second, Bernadotte, is just very plain (but embellished) and sits close to the platonic ideal of 1970s rich Connecticut asshole family tableware. So good. Both are so competently priced, crazy.

The best buy would have to be this Arne Jacobsen set from the Georg collaboration (1957). To be sure, it is available to buy all the time and everywhere, and is sort of on sale here ($102 from 120)… what can I say? If you want a set-it-and-forget-it set of flatware it’s hard to improve on these. Like, really hard. It’s that simple. This is in the top 10 of flatware designs here; it’s stupefying these aren’t in a majority of people’s homes.

• Other decent buys on the site include this Mono modern setting (silver IMO; black’s a bit cute), priced similarly. I don’t love them (preference) but they’re great if you want a nice LOUD set.

---

Alarm Clocks

Decent gift, though really only a good gift for someone who travels. Otherwise you are saying, “hey, Reggie, maybe wake up earlier.” This website (Mashburn?) has Braun’s classic travel alarm clock but in white. Never see it in that color. Otherwise maybe just get a Michael Graves mantel alarm clock (not including a link or a photo, I have flirted with demoncy today enough).

Other items on 1stDibs

Not truly retail items, though 1 of 1… and all… somehow… are competently priced. Who knew they had deals on this stuff here.

• Versace Medusa tie (striped, low key), $52 (wild when thought of in relief of his work)

• Gucci Tom Ford earmuffs $2,245 (feels like a steal IDK, I bought the three pairs I own for like $2,500 each)

• Bauhaus & Modern Mexico book by Ana Elena Mallet $280 (classic.. rare; in Spanish)

• David Hicks Style and Design book $300 (one of the best covers ever) feel free to buy for $12 on eBay

• Gino Colombini for Kartell ashtray $80 (Snake’s Lock of the Week—pictured— reminds me of the ashtray sold in the Jim Walrod auction in ‘18. I always have loved this shape. Just beautiful.)

• Amelie table lamp by Fontana Arte, $160 (so fascinating, so palatable; also very new, from 2002; Demonlover vibes)

• Seletti yellow Muse LED light, $191 (quite brutal and simple and at a price much below much stuff on 1D)

• Gaultier skinhead jeans (jeans that have skinheads on them), $1,000 (I don’t understand why the girl doesn’t have a Chelsea haircut? But I appreciate the sentiment here I suppose)

  • He also made a pair of jeans (1992) with men’s faces on them? I can’t recognize anyone, I think Gene Hackman is on the knee? Are these all French sitcom stars? Clothing on 1stDibs is truly endless…

• Generic ‘70s Italian metal lamp, $150 (actually not Italian but a Philips desk lamp from that same era; more expensive on eBay as it happens)

• Guzzini overhead pendant $218 (modernist and quite accessible)

Thanks for reading.

Snake