TT Vol. 77

Comp Shopping, Patek Philippe x Tiffany & Co., KIDS GIFTS & Designer Advent Calendars

Tourist Trapp

Dec 12, 2021

Clockwise from Top.

Comp Shopping

Raquel and I had some time this week to do some holiday comp shopping, where we went around to see who was selling what for gifting this year. A few stores stood out as busy - Aimé Leon Dore was packed, and even had a line to get in one day. So was Noah, just a block away, which doubled the size of their store. Uptown, Belgian Shoes couldn’t keep up with its foot traffic. Bode had a real Christmas vibe, and is selling $65 ornaments and a velvet santa hat. ABC Home mis-charged Raquel, giving her a 70% discount. The Row was surprisingly quiet, what with the enormous lines around the corner at Ralph’s Coffee. Our favorite experience? Checking out Homer, Frank Ocean’s luxe jewelry store, which is located in Chinatown’s mini diamond district, was staffed by two completely diffident teenagers, and sells super expensive pieces straight out of a 90’s rave.

Patek Philippe x Tiffany & Co. Watch

Tiffany & Co. continues to experiment with limited edition product drops - this week announcing a “double signed” version of the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711. It was all over Ruba’s IG:

Not a lot of retailers have the authority in the watch world to put their name on a watch face like this - Tiffany & Co. is one of the few to be able to work with the Rolex’s and Patek’s out there.

Extremely limited, high priced product like this - only 170 units were manufactured - are a great fit for Tiffany, and make much more sense than the Supreme collaboration product released last month. We’d like to see more jewelry/watches like this, and less t-shirts.

Kids Gifts

We love wooden toys as gifts for kids. They feel much more timeless than plastic, and with the right look they can be nice design objects for the bookshelf once the little ones grow up. We got a bunch of stuff from Bajo: Noemi loves cars, and Bajo makes some really fun, bright sports cars. Candylab Toys also has some great options. We got her an ice cream truck, as well as this Cotswolds SUV. AAAND, it’s never too late to hook the kiddies on a new product category. Parchie makes some adorable children’s watches, if you don’t want to get them a Patek Philippe Nautilus quite yet.

Luxury Advent Calendars

A TikTok video of a Chanel Advent Calendar (on Poshmark for $1850(!)) unboxing went viral, it got picked up by bigger news outlets like the New York Times and BOF. More and more luxury brands produce items like this, including YSL ($300) and Dior ($550).

Designer brands have seen lots of success slapping their logos on everyday items like this - see this $95 Prada water bottle. It’s actually surprising that brands have not gone further for Q4 products like this. Why no Loro Piano stockings? A search for “luxury menorahs” was wholly unsatisfactory. There’s clearly demand out there for holiday products, even if there is risk of going viral.

Links.

Karl Lagerfeld’s estate is being auctioned off at Sotheby’s.

Gen Z’s faux Birds Aren’t Real campaign.

This restaurant review went viral this week.

Leo Messi playing living room soccer with his kids.

The best movies set in NYC.

All is not well with the Nike sneaker design team.

Chris & Raquel

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