It’s an Aotearoa Christmas
Bring joy to everyone with beautiful, locally made gifts that tick all the fashion boxes.
Ididn’t set out to make this a set of purely New Zealand fashionably festive goodies, but when my initial research started throwing out such great local stocking fillers, I figured I may as well stick with it as a theme. Aside from some very pretty little pieces of jewellery (all star-shaped, to tie in with a Christmassy theme) which I guarantee will be fail-safe gifts for fashion-lovers, there’s plenty of pieces that are practical, stylish and tap into our Kiwi designers’ signature aesthetics – from heavenly scented soaps by Ingrid Starnes and Kate Sylvester, both wrapped in statement seasonal prints, to Ruby’s generously sized cosmetics bag in its latest covetable floral, and Karen Walker’s reusable bamboo coffee cup, where 15 per cent of the purchase price goes to the SPCA. Everyone girl needs a chic hat this summer – one of my top picks (but be fast, these sell out as fast as they’re restocked) is Marle’s Oma hat, a daringly oversized update on last season’s top-selling Nonna bucket hat. Christmas is also a great opportunity to update your summer sleepwear – I’m obsessed with the newly released sets from Kowtow (beautifully ethical and sustainable) and Karen Walker (created with luxury Aussie lifestyle brand Papinelle). For those with little ones, Juliette Hogan, Twenty-Seven Names, Zambesi, Nom*d and Trelise Cooper have all collaborated with new startup Great Full to create designer baby gear with 100 per cent of profits going to Starship.