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Holds Anything
At last, a CD holder that a fractious puppy can’t knock over. This sturdy glass-and-steel cabinet was made in the Southwest, but it was inspired by French medical cabinets of the twenties and thirties and can house a serious CD library – 184 cases to be exact. And it’s not only for music buffs: The steel shelves are removable, so film freaks can use it for videos, BIBLIOPHILES FOR BOOKS ($575).
KEVIN HART & CO./31 North Moore Street/212-966-1963
A Vision Wrapped in a Puzzle Inside a Lucite Case
By the time they’ve been around for nine years, most magazines are pretty predictable. But each issue of Visionaire (Stephen Gan, James Kaliardos, and Cecilia Dean’s protean art-and-fashion un-magazine) has a different theme and takes an unusual form: a deck of cards, a Louis Vuitton portfolio case, a light box, a silver compact. Now the threesome have created Visionaire 30 – The Game. It’s a puzzle of sixteen wood cubes that, when placed in the correct configuration, form one of six different images. The Game was inspired by the Louis Vuitton Cup (the qualifying round of races for the America’s Cup) so there’s a version for the seven participating countries, each nation represented by its painters, photographers, and image-makers, and each game comes in a silk-screened Vuitton Lucite case. Alex Katz, Nan Goldin, Mary Ellen Mark, Steven Klein, David LaChapelle, and Elizabeth Peyton are the artists we get to play with ($150; limited edition of 6,000 hand-numbered copies).
LOUIS VUITTON/116 Greene Street/212-274-9090
Lightmotiv
Julie Nelson is a London-based sculptor who went from creating non-functional ceramic forms in college to assembling 3-D props for TV and movies to designing lighting. At various times, her work has been described as sculptural, architectural, fluid, inspired by the body, and influenced by fifties organic modernism, but what really sets her ceramic lamps apart from others is that they’re as splendid just sitting around as they are when lit (“Cavity,” $400; “Ellipse,” $440).
RESIDE AT MXYPLYZYK/123 Greenwich Avenue, near 13th Street/212-989-5094
Bigfoot Look Gets the Boot
These après-ski boots won’t make you look like a snow bunny who stepped out of a sixties movie: They’re the antithesis of the furry bigfoot and space-agey looks. Napapijri, the Italian skiwear company with the unpronounceable name (it was taken from a small village on the Arctic Circle), makes them of rubber and water-resistant Cordura nylon. They’re lined with fleece and have a removable thermal-felt inner slipper for added warmth, Velcro closures
for easy on-and-off ($120).
PARAGON SPORTING GOODS/867 Broadway, at 18th Street/212-255-8036
Baby Basics
They’re cute (but not cutesy), they’re practical (but not boring), and they solve the niggling problem of baby-shower and newborn gifts. Little Chums by Best of Chums cotton baby sets cover the basics – long-sleeve T-shirt, leggings, and cap. The embroidery makes them special ($39; sizes 6 months and 12 months).
COZY’S CUTS FOR KIDS/448 Amsterdam Avenue, near 81st Street/212-579-2600; and 1125 Madison Avenue, near 84th Street/212-744-1716
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