The Gift Edit arrives
This year’s Gift Edit is live, with thirty pieces chosen by our stylists and gift-wrapped as standard. Cashmere, leather and merino, wrapped in paper and twine, delivered on time if you order by the dates at the bottom of this page.
The stylists in all five boutiques spent September choosing the thirty, and the brief was simple: things you would be glad to receive and would still be using in five years. Here is how we chose them, what is under $100, and what to order when.
How the edit was chosen
Every stylist put forward ten pieces, with a sentence explaining who each one was for. We then argued, at some length, over a long table in Marylebone. A piece made the final thirty only if three stylists from different cities agreed on it, which knocked out a few favourites and kept the edit honest. Anything that needs a precise size, such as trousers or tailoring, was left out, because nobody wants to guess an inside leg.
What remained falls into three groups: small things that slip into a stocking, accessories that make a winter coat work harder, and a few larger pieces for the people you know best. Every one of the thirty can be exchanged for a different colour in any boutique until the end of January, so the guessing carries very little risk.
Under $100: stocking fillers
The Merino Sock Set is a box of three pairs in a merino blend, in mixed colours, at $45. It is the most practical present in the edit and, every year, the most reordered. Socks are not glamorous, but good merino socks are the thing people quietly wear until they wear out.
The Cashmere Rib Beanie is knitted from Mongolian cashmere in Ochre, Ink or Oat, at $95. Ochre is the one our stylists recommend for anyone who mostly wears dark coats. The Leather-Palm Knit Gloves, at $80, pair a merino knit back with a lambskin palm, so you can hold a coffee or a steering wheel without your hands slipping. They come in Ink and Umber.
The best gift is something the person would never buy for themselves but uses every single day. Gloves and socks win that test every year.
— Sadie Park, stylist, Chicago
For the people you know best
Just over the $100 line, the Oversized Lambswool Scarf in Loden Check or Ochre is the piece most stylists named as their own favourite. It is big enough to wear as a wrap on a cold platform, and soft enough, being British lambswool, to wear against the neck all day. At $105 it is the present we suggest when someone asks for something just a little more generous than a stocking filler but does not want to guess a size.
For a larger present, we chose two bags. The Soft Leather Crossbody is cut from nappa leather in Umber or Ink and sized for a phone, a wallet and a paperback. The Structured Leather Tote, in vegetable-tanned leather, is the one for someone who carries a laptop and a lunch. Both are eligible for repair, so a strap or a stitch can be mended in any boutique for years to come.
The wrapping
Every Gift Edit order is wrapped as standard, at no extra cost. We use an unbleached kraft paper made from recycled fibre, tied with a natural cotton twine and finished with a plain card that you can write yourself or ask us to write for you. There is no glitter, no plastic ribbon and no tissue that ends up in the bin.
In the boutiques, our teams will wrap any piece you buy, not just the thirty, while you wait. On busy December Saturdays that can take ten minutes, so the coffee bar in New York has become a popular place to wait. If you are sending a present directly to someone else, tell us at checkout and we will leave the invoice out of the parcel and put the card on top, so the first thing they see is your handwriting rather than a delivery note.
Delivery dates
Last order dates are the part of a gift guide most people actually need. Here they are, for delivery before Christmas:
- Standard delivery: order by 17 December.
- Express delivery: order by 21 December.
- Click-and-collect: available in all five boutiques, usually ready the next day.
- Gift receipts: included in every Gift Edit parcel, without prices, so exchanges are easy.
If you miss the express cut-off, every boutique stays open for collection and in-person shopping until 24 December. And if you are still deciding, start with scarves and knit accessories.
