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Blossom Dearies
Even if the bulbs on your windowsill won’t be forced, these cheery cotton-terry towels will prop up your belief in the arrival of spring. They’re made in Italy and add splash to Nancy Koltes’s monochromatic little NoLIta linen shop (hand towel, $18; bath, $38).
NANCY KOLTES AT HOME/31 Spring Street/212-219-2271
Sight Savers
The contact-wearing population is fading fast, but for those not ready to take the laser-correction plunge, there’s good news. Interior designer Irit Dar, founder of ID Studio, has devised a stylish compact- lens case, something of an oxymoron. Her i-pod is made of sturdy plastic (so it will survive the kids) and comes in great Pucci-ish color combinations ($13).
RANDOM ACCESSORIES/169 Thompson Street/212-358-9079
This One’s Just Right
If Goldilocks comes to mind when you’re shopping for end tables – that one’s too tall, this too short – consider the Kick Table. A tiny lever lets you set it at just the right height (from 13 to 20 inches), while two small wheels let you pivot it 360 degrees. This lacquered-acrylic-and-enameled-steel table is the clever idea of Toshiyuki Kita, a Japanese-born, Italian-trained designer who’s a whiz at combining Eastern and Western elements in ingenious ways ($550; also in blue or black).
MOSS/146 Greene Street/212-226-2190
Tray Chic!
One way to ensure that your hors d’oeuvre get the attention they deserve is to serve them in exclamation-point and question-mark trays. The ceramic servers were designed by Miguel Calvo for Bookan (French slang for “noise”), and this newish company prides itself on always keeping in mind a “smiley and elegant design away from a … pure didactical functionality.” We’ll ignore the French penchant for philosophizing: These servers are just fun ($45).
TOTEM/71 Franklin Street/212-925-5506
Just in Time
Talk about smart. Scroll Seiko’s new “h” watch and you’ll get the time in 38 cities in different time zones – from Anchorage to Jeddah to Wellington – as well as the respective country code for overseas phone calls and the numeric day, month, year, and day of the week (great when you land in Australia). If that’s not enough, the “h” is a stopwatch, timer, and alarm clock with five alarms (think wake-up call, meetings, reminders, whatever) and has a full-panel dot-matrix LCD screen. (Translation: You can actually read it.) Oh yes, it’s also smart-looking ($175; in blue and beige too).
FLIGHT 001/96 Greenwich Avenue, near 12th Street/212-691-1001