Chic gifts for your difficult-to-buy-for girlfriend
She has the candle, the scarf and the good olive oil. Here is how to find something she will still be using next spring.
Some people are easy to buy for. They drop hints in October, keep a list on their phone and light up at anything wrapped in brown paper. Then there is the other kind: the person with impeccable taste, a tidy flat and no visible wants at all.
The trick with a difficult-to-buy-for girlfriend is not to out-guess her taste. It is to give her something that becomes hers through use, rather than something she has to find a place for.
Choose something she will carry
A gift that travels with her gets seen, touched and remembered. That is why we think a journal makes the best present of all, provided it is one she would have chosen herself. You can design one in the Studio in about five minutes.
- A leather she would wear: think of the colour of her favourite bag or boots.
- Paper for how she thinks: lined for lists, dotted for sketches, plain for everything else.
- A talisman that means something, even if only the two of you know what.
Make it personal, quietly
Initials embossed on the back cover say far more than a name across the front. It is the detail she will notice on the train, a week after the wrapping paper has gone.
The best gifts are the ones that slowly stop feeling like gifts and start feeling like hers.
And if you are still unsure, give her the choice. A gift card lets her design it herself, and you still get the credit.