Chic wears from domestic and European designers can be found at Juniper (courtesy photo)
It’s that time of year again. We have communally checked the Large Flightless Bird box and stumbled right over the line into “The Holidays.” Yes, your bone-dry and otherworldly delightfully moist and aromatic Thanksgiving turkey was an absolute hit. Your Aunt Marge’s startling “Pea Mush” was likewise well-received, producing the usual bug-eyed attempts to swallow the stuff without wincing. Never mind. “The Holidays are Upon Us” as they say, announcing the season as one would an attacking gang of bears. The Holidays can be hectic, dear reader – but the season is what we make of it. Candlelight, mistletoe, steaming mugs of glühwein, musical laughter and heartfelt embraces, the occasional dancing chimney sweep making a legally actionable racket on the roof; you wouldn’t mistake this for any other time of year. And as you prepare to venture into the frontiers of wintry gift-perusing, it’s good to know there is a nearby town called… Summerland. Founded 140 years ago by spiritists, Summerland is possessed of its own welcoming magic. Ringing with the season’s warmest sentiments, this seaside hamlet on the bluffs awaits your visit. Here’s a catalyst…
Field + Fort is a curated retail destination with a menu. Count to 10 and ponder the implications. Field + Fort’s retail space is just the sort of alluring mayhem that boosts the gift-bestowing imagination to a higher plane; bedding, professional-grade kitchenware, swank comestibles, epicurean pantry items, candles, organic teas and coffee… “gifts,” in short – a literally indescribable variety of them, such that wandering the Field + Fort space is to lose track of time – until, that is, the tummy starts bellowing for attention. No problem. Field + Fort is also a snazzy refueling station whose menu is sensibly divided into Breakfast, Salads, Sandwiches,Feasts, and Sides – that is, from Two Over Medium Eggs with Braised Veggies to a Whole Rotisserie Chicken withRoasted Cabbage and Potatoes and Green S’hug. Okay? At Field + Fort, Gifts and Gastronomy pair perfectly.
The Heidi Merrick Showroom in Summerland also awaits. Saturday and Sunday – stroll in at your leisure between the hours of 11 am to 4 pm; on a weekday you will need an appointment. G’head and pick up the phone. Heidi Merrick originally hails from Santa Barbara but – as success and a client list of Hollywood’s tastefully discreet would have it – is now based in L.A. These sophisticated designs and fabrics are not to be found languishing in any sun-blanched shop window. Featured in such taste-making mags as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue Brazil, ‘tis the season to take the Heidi Merrick plunge and surprise the daylights out of that friend or loved one you used to believe unflappable where gifts were concerned.
Imagine Artful Things is more than just a store; it’s a destination for unique finds and delightful surprises. It’s not just a store, it’s an experience akin to exploring a museum, where the unexpected awaits – from diamond earrings to rubber chickens. It’s a place where visitors, local and international, find that special something they didn’t know they were looking for in The Village’s charming atmosphere.
1470 East Valley Road
Montecito, CA 93108
imagineartfulthings.com
Summerland’s Home Crush lives up to its name – if “crush” can be taken to mean “infatuation.” Suitably housed in a California bungalow perched above the dazzlingly azure Pacific Ocean on Lillie Avenue, Home Crush has what you’re looking for in home décor and fab feng shui: furnishings, lamps and fixtures, pillows, gourmet-ware, garden accoutrements. From a gorgeous and functional $30 brass-finished Alir kitchen strainer, to a Double Dimitri Outdoor Daybed whose slatted teak frame won’t be mistaken for a chaise lounge. Is this place for homeowners or designers? Exactly.
And then there is The Well in Summerland – a home and garden concept space featuring outdoor and home furnishings, art, one-of-a-kind stone basins; the stuff of a California dream home where “indoors” and “outdoors” are, for much of the year, a state of mind. The owner’s travels in garden destinations Italy, Bali, and France explain the approachable and literally unique beauty to be found here. The Well makes it easy to expand your beloved home by adding a new wing called the out-of-doors. Furnish it, appoint it, cherish it. As for Juniper – what can we say? Woven silk blouses, leather jackets, singularly striking jewelry, Hannukah and Christmas table décor, and a bevy of domestic and European designer offerings that may include at any given time Cinq a Sept, Whiting & Davis bags, Zofia Day jewelry, and many more. Owner Marie Ferris expertly stirs up a fashion inventory that intermingles California whimsy with an edgier East Coast frisson.
Getting Down to Shopping in the Upper Village
Milk and Cookies… Batman and Robin… the best things in life are couplets. So it is that our own woodsy little census-designated paradise (not to wax sentimental) boasts not one, but two cozy rendezvous for mingling, gabbing, and cadeau-curating. Montecito’s flagstone-bedecked Upper Village is a cozily contained arboreal walkabout – a palate-cleansing counterpoint to Coast Village Road’s linear, whitewashed Mediterranean glamor. The Upper Village’s artist colony vibe and flagstone embrace give it a literal town square feel. And should you find yourself completely flummoxed this season on the subject of “gift-giving to a loved one who has everything,” the Upper Village’s longstanding Imagine Artful Things Inc. is the cure for what ails you. “What do they carry?” Um… hard to explain, but the closest approximation is “everything.” Imagine in the Upper Village is the sort of purveyor one happily struggles to describe. Italian Wolf Faux Fur Vest? Yup. Watermelon Tourmaline necklace? Naturally. A foot-long, five-pound cast bronze and aluminum Airstream Trailer? Uh huh! Individually unique Incalmo glasses produced using a blowing-and-fusing technique that dates to the Middle Ages? Indeedy. So… we could go on like this for a while. Imagine is less a “store” than a cornucopious menagerie of surprise, delight, and eye-widening wonder. Believe it. The friend or loved one who “has everything” pointedly does not. Imagine can fill those gaps, and spectacularly.
Also in the Upper Village, the aptly named Wunderkind was founded by Philip Manghisi who, at 19, brazenly marched into Jeffrey New York and was in short order made a key member of the buying team. From there the precocious, much-fêted fashion fireball moved from strength to strength, and now brings us the (somewhat eponymous) Wunderkind. With spaces in Scottsdale, Arizona, and our dear Upper Village (yet another couplet), Wunderkind offers a mélange of lovingly gathered designer ready-to-wear, luxury shoes and handbags, fine jewelry, eyewear, home accents, and contemporary collections. The luxury consumer discovers in Wunderkind a warm experience as charming as the nom de la paix “Upper Village” suggests. Manghisi’s eye for stunning sartorial individualism has never failed him. Nor will it fail you this gift-giving season, as you seek a one-and-only for your dear recipient. San Ysidro Village – an inviting collection of cottages backed by the manageably majestic Santa Ynez Mountains – is nearly a village within the Upper Village.
The Jenni Kayne Collection optimizes simplicity to a new summit of stunning, soft-spoken elegance. Clean, unfussy lines lavishly endorse the wearer in a warming spectrum of earthen tones and deliciously tactile fabrics, while Jenni Kayne Home brings this quietly luminous aesthetic to furnishings and accent pieces, rugs, throws, and an array of home décor that knows a whisper outperforms a shout when one is intent in turning a house into a home worth hunkering down in.
What the literally-named William Laman Furniture Garden Antiques doesn’t boast in its title it more than expresses in its credo. Though happily contrary to the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” the line nevertheless assures the customer that this home and garden destination deals in functionalbeauty. “NOT WHAT YOU NEED, BUT WHAT YOU WANT.” A more compelling come-hither is hard to imagine. The Upper Village is a flagstone charm offensive that just happens to offer in its sun-dappled environs Everything You Want; which is of course inseparable from Everything You Need. ‘Tis a season of love and giving. Let’s get started…
If you need a little more help on what to look for this season, click this link for more gift ideas!
