On the Gift: Notes for the Season

A gift is a prediction. When you choose something for someone else, you are making a claim about who they are and what they will value. A good gift is one in which this prediction is correct or, in the best cases, one that reveals something to the recipient about themselves that they had not fully understood before.

Leather goods make particular kinds of gifts. They are personal in a way that electronics or books are not they are worn on the body or carried in the hand, they become part of the daily routine, they are present in the most ordinary moments of a life. A bag given twenty years ago can still be in use today. A wallet can outlast a relationship, a job, a decade.

We are often asked for advice about gifts. Our honest answer is always the same: choose the best quality you can afford, in a color that feels right for the person, and do not overthink the style. A simple, well-made object in the right color will serve better than a fashionable object in the wrong one.

And if you are uncertain, if you genuinely do not know what they would choose, come and talk to us. We have been having these conversations for forty years. We are reasonably good at them now.