The truly fashion conscious can be maddening to shop for but we’ve got a Christmas gift idea sure to please the pickiest fashion queen.
When trying to come up with great gifts at duckduckgift we’ve pretty much decided that buying clothes as fashion gifts for women is a hopeless cause. Even if you know her exact size in a brand (and you probably don’t) and have a good idea of what she needs and already has (you definitely don’t) there’s every chance that she still won’t like what you get her.
Thankfully there are a few touchstones important to all who live in the fashion world. A subscription to vogue, a killer pair of boots, and the New York Fashion Week.
Besides the season’s hottest fashions New York is also known for having unique and memorable gift bags for its attendees. If your giftee wasn’t able to make it you have the perfect opportunity for your gift. We’ll help you find the bag, the fillers, and possibly the extra touch that will make this fashion gift for your girl both memorable and welcome.
The Bag
The New York Fashion Week gift bag is not just a disposable piece of plastics, but nor is it a huge gift in itself. This gives you two ways to play this gift:
- Cheap Replica If you don’t want to blow your gift budget on the container search for an inexpensive Mercedes-branded tote bag. They can be found on MBParts.com or Amazon.
- The Bag is the Gift If she has a weakness for handbags anyway you can make the bag itself the gift. Coach, Dooney & Bourke, or her other brand of choice, handbags are like shoes – it’s hard to have too many.
The Filler
Some of the fillers in the gift bag will be exciting (the minimergency kits) some won’t (FiberOne Brownies). Nonetheless you need at least a majority of the contents of the real gift bag to fit the theme. For each item I’ll try to give you an idea of where to find it and how hard to try to get it. Even though 100% completeness would be ideal to fit the theme of the gift there are a few items that will be both hard to find and not very good gifts in themselves. Others are fun gifts in themselves as well as fitting the New York Fashion Week gift bag theme. Here’s your shopping list:
- 500 ml bottle of Fiji Water -About $2.49 at your local grocery store. Medium priority – you might as well have this in the bag, it’s easy to get.
- Box containing 6 FiberOne 90 Calorie Chocolate Brownies – About $5 at your local grocery store. Low priority – I would leave this one out unless you are going for 100% reproduction. She won’t be particularly excited to get these.
- 8 oz TRESemmé Heat Tamer Spray – About $5 at drugstore.com or a brick and mortar drugstore. High priority – A good item to include this fits the fashion theme better than the brownies.
- 2 oz Arizona A.M. Awake Fast Shot
- 2 oz Arizona Rx Energy Fast Shot – About $3 at a grocery store. Low priority
- Maybelline Great Lash Very Black Lots Of Lashes mascara – About $2 from drugstore.com, Amazon, or a drugstore. High priority – This fits the theme well and is cheap, get it.
- Pack Mentos Up 2 U gum – About $1.75 at a grocery store. Medium priority
- Nozon Nasal Sanitizer Moisturizing Antiseptic – About $13 at a drugstore. Low, low, low. This is kind of gross.
- Pair Lifeway Kefir plastic sunglasses – $? – Lowest priority. These will be almost impossible to find, but that’s because they weren’t very nice and apparently everyone who got them threw them away. She won’t miss these.
- Ideeli $25 credit – $25 – Medium. This was a conditional “Only if you are not a member yet” credit, making this a gift card is more expensive, but this fashion gift card makes the package more significant gift if you want to up the wow factor.
- UNICEF Trick-or-Treat donation box – Free from UNICEF – Medium priority. If you read this article while they are still available get it, otherwise it is not the end of the world if your bag doesn’t include this.
- DHL travel mug – $5 from DHL. Low priority – this is the opposite of exciting.
- Michele Mele “Cha Cha” CD – $0.99 as a download of the title song, $20 for an album – Medium priority. She may or may not actually like Michele Mele, you can include a certificate for the download to complete the theme without burning through too much of your gift budget.
- Ms. & Mrs. for American Express “Minimergency Kit for Fashionistas” – $14-25 from amazon or the company website. Medium priority. These are kind of neat, but they ultimately break down to drugstore supplies which she probably already has.
That Certain Something
Depending on how much effort you put into the bag and the fillers you may want to just call your job done but there are a few way s to take this gift bag to the new level.
“New York Fashion Week” by Eila Mell is about the New York Fashion Week, about the clothes the people and the pageantry. This isn’t part of the official gift bag, but including it ties the package together. You want to make sure that she knows your didn’t just get the fiber brownies because that’s what all the cool kids are getting this Christmas…
The book is subtitle ‘The Designers, The Models, The Fashions’ but it could really be called ‘The Photographs and the Gossip’ and it would be just as accurate. Some of the interviews are a little long, but the book is filled with great behind the scenes photos of fashion week in addition to the runway shot and there is no topic safe from the gossip. It’s everything we love about the fashion world in a single glossy package.
Wrap it Up
There you go. We hope you make some lucky girl incredibly happy this Christmas and may all the gifts you receive in return be just as well thought out.
This is a guest post from Eric Baldwin of duckduckgift.com. Eric blogs the eternal quest to find thoughtful gift for the people we care about