Gift Fair Finds

Last week, the New York International Gift Fair arrived at the Javits Center with, as usual, a handful of terrific new products. Here’s a quick look at a few of my personal favorites. The Brooklyn-based distributor neo-utility was showing this elegant stainless-steel pen by Düller and the German designer Dietrich Lubs, of Braun fame. It’s […]

Last week, the New York International Gift Fair arrived at the Javits Center with, as usual, a handful of terrific new products. Here’s a quick look at a few of my personal favorites.

The Brooklyn-based distributor neo-utility was showing this elegant stainless-steel pen by Düller and the German designer Dietrich Lubs, of Braun fame. It’s available as a ballpoint pen, a fountain pen, and a mechanical pencil.

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The product-design company notNeutral (which is run by the architects of Rios Clemente Hale Studios) recently teamed up with Intelligentsia Coffee in an attempt to create the perfect line of coffee cups. In the above photo you can see a few of the new designs, as well as the molds used to make them (in the back); a few different looks at the cappuccino cup are below.

wcappCupwCoatrack_1079_LGAreaware was showing this coat rack made of beech wood, steel, bronze, and copper by the New York design studio Rich Brilliant Willing. Areaware’s Noel Wiggins described it as “Memphis meets structuralism.”

Matrix-centerpiece-5Gaia & Gino has new crystal lines by Constantin Boym (above; macaroons not included) and Jaime Hayon (below).

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As usual, Artecnica is playing with unorthodox materials–as seen here in its laptop case (above) and “stretch bag” (below) made of torn-down vinyl billboards.

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Speaking of unorthodox materials: TerraSkin makes shopping bags and other paper products from stone! Specifically, it’s a mix of about 75 percent calcium carbonate–most of which comes from construction-industry waste–and 25 percent polyethylene. This results in a heavy-duty paper that is durable and needs less ink to produce crisp colors (as seen in these Diane von Furstenberg bags).

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Lastly, what trip to the Gift Fair is complete without a cute pet domicile? This cardboard cabin comes from Canada’s Loyal Luxe, one of the exhibitors at A+: The Young Designers’ Platform. According to a brochure, it’s perfect for cats, small dogs, rabbits, and ferrets.

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