Issue 51: The High Noon Gift Guide
Your guide to shopping for the coolest person you know from the coolest people you don't.
October is mere days from being over, so it’s time to start planning those holiday gifts!! Last year, Friend of High Noon Spencer Whaley did a takeover of the Roundup, giving us our first High Noon Gift Guide. For HNGG 2.0, I wanted to broaden the circle. What follows is a gift guide featuring several High Nooners with impeccable taste, including many of the guest voices you’ve read over the past year and a half.
I won’t waste your time waxing poetic on gifts and giving (though you know I could) and just get right into it. Without further ado…
***The 2021 High Noon Gift Guide***
Since this is my party after all I get to go first ;)
I love this color-blocked Isabel Marant sweatshirt dearly. Unfortunately, it’s sold out now on-site, but there are probably some floating around on TRR/Vestiaire/Grailed.
O Thongthai has some of the sickest jewelry around; I’m especially enamored with this sterling silver signet ring set with malachite.
Finding shorts that are the right cut on me is notoriously tricky, but I think these heavy cotton shorts would be perfect for the guy in your life with a Chalamet frame.
This vintage Banana Republic barn coat hits that perfect mark of old lived-in luxury/utility wear you keep at the country house.
And finally, I already bought the set that had six cups sorrrry, but we could match with this Soviet-era fish-shaped porcelain vodka drinking set (a string of words I relished typing!)
And now, over to the homies. What are we buying, kids!?
Jane Drinkard recommends the NYC-based artist Mona Palmer's acrylic, laser-cut mirrors for any cool girl. “My best friend May, who notoriously has great taste and keeps me informed on hot trends, discovered Palmer's work and I have been gifting them ever since. Consider the cute strawberry or butterfly or something more art-historical like Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.”
Mika Cribbs swears by these vibey press-on nails from LA-based beauty brand Lavaa. “Even tho I used to hit the nail shop a lot, I’m so much happier with press-on nails because I can change them whenever I want, they’re way more affordable, and I honestly feel like I get more compliments with these nails on than when I was getting acrylics!”
Anna Yung suggests quilted puffer jackets. “They’re functional for both warmish and cold weather, are great layering pieces and are very sleek. Mine is vintage GAP, but this one by COS is comparable.”
Brock Colyar doesn't want to brag but... “People are always complimenting my eyelashes. And let me tell you: It's not because I was born with them. Apply a little flick of this lash serum before bed every night (if you can remember), and I swear you'll wake up 2 months later with gorgeous horse lashes. Give it to your favorite going-out girlfriend (with apologies that you're not trying to say anything about her so-so lashes), with a copy of this book. After both, she'll never be more ready to flirt.”
Have a member of r/New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens in your life? Griffin Wynne suggests hitting your local public transit merch shop. “There's a famous Nora Ephron essay about the perils of ‘purse culture’ which culminates in her buying, and subsequently falling in love with, a plastic yellow NYC Metro Card tote bag from the MTA store. I channeled this recently, when, upon a dreary Saturday, I took a friend to the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (beloving called SEPTA) museum and gift shop in center city Philly. I debated about purchasing a SEPTA fanny pack, mug, hat, and bag of my own when I saw — and subsequently fell in love with — an oversized washed out blue crew neck with big white letters reading SEPTA akin to something a sorority girl would wear (though hers would likely be CAPE COD or MONTAUK.) For city dwellers, self-proclaimed environmentalists, and anyone who's ever loved reading their book on the bus, local public transit merch is the perfect present. It's homey but not too on the nose. Tacky but in a good way. And it gives comfort in knowing the best parts of a city are often the most overlooked.”
Alana May Johnson has a gift guide of her own, and kindly highlighted some stand-out pieces just for us. “I want everything Marland Backus makes but I've limited myself to two necklaces for now. Cafe Forgot usually has them in stock in addition to the MB site and APOC. Also, my friend Sarah Nicole introduced me to these Le Feau de L'eau candles and they immediately became a favorite. The containers are gorgeous and they all smell fantastic, but the best one is Le Feau Chartreuse.”
Myka Kielbon recommends the Ceres earrings made by Baleen, a jewelry store in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. “I'm obsessed with their sustainable, minimal, and somehow affordable pieces. Everything is handmade in a workshop near their brick-and-mortar retail location.”
Regis Heijnkamp says the best gift for the season is a swatch of the fabric that wrapped the Arc de Triomphe in Cristo & Jeanne-Claude’s recent installation. But if acquiring that proves too difficult, go for a camping chair! “Since it is something that will last for a long time that people often realize they need last minute, but don’t have when they go on holiday, they are the kinds of things that can really make a trip. They are supportive of something that’s not a city trip. They are supportive of nature trips and we all spend way too much time of our lives in cities, so my friends love to give each other something that gets us out of the cities and into nature.” Some chic choices include this durable funky boy, this low-slung leisure chair, this classic bamboo & canvas silhouette, or this overstuffed option for colder months.
For the party host in your life, Lily Goldfarb suggests this instant ice-maker. “I feel like having ice constantly readily available is peak luxury. Imagine the iced teas!” Or for something more artisanal, a set of these handmade ceramics by Stephanie Dearmond is sure to brighten any kitchen.
Sticking with the kitchen theme, Tenlie Mourning recommends this pizza oven as the ideal unexpected gift for someone who loves to cook and host. “It rocks and is just so fun to make pizzas at home.”
Spencer Whaley stands by the High Noon ethos that encouraging your friends’ pretentious proclivities is a good thing. “As a self-described ‘literary hottie,’ (literate, loves plaid) my go-to gift for any of my ‘coolest friends’ is a subscription to whatever high-brow literary magazine (Harper's, N+1, NYRB) best suits their taste/political affiliation. Pretentious? Sure, but I prefer the coolest people in my life to be. As for me, I'm dying for a full-sized bottle of Frederic Malle's Rose & Cuir, so I can finally stop buying the sample size every month on eBay. It's humiliating.”
For Katie Bingol a good material gift that she can hold onto for years to come is the ticket. “I love something tangible that gives me a reminder as to where I was in my life, or who I was hanging around. Something that I currently love receiving is anything to do with journaling. I have a daily journal that helps me in a few different ways. Decorating it can be a slow process. Recently, my best friend gave me some rubber stamps with colored ink pads. A new way to fill in the pages is not only exciting to me, but thoughtful too. I think the coolest thing I've given someone was a vintage postcard from their birth city in Mexico. On the front was a picture of the inside of an old theatre building back in the early 1900s.”
Like Katie, Shai Goodman recommends a personalized gift from the heart. “I recently got a gift from a friend of a photo of us in a frame that I loved. Really sweet gesture and the frame was so rad.” Framed & Matted will provide full-service custom framing online for any size image.
Finally, Lucy Dolan-Zalaznick suggests a search on The Real Real for a printed Missoni scarf for a suave holiday gift, like this striped number, or this zig-zag patterned one. “Put the price limit to $50 and you can find some amazing scarves for great prices! And it’s good for the environment to shop second hand :)”
So there you have it. That’s your official HNGG 2.0 wrapped up. Next week, it’s November, baby! NYC and London and Paris may do it in September, but here in the HN metaverse, November. Is. Fashion Month. In the next four issues, I’ll be hitting you with four key fashion mega-trends, so tell your favorite clotheshorse to subscribe before the first one drops next week.
xoxo SCREMES