Bespoke christmas gift idea

Fashion and beauty

Annalisa Barbieri, author and fashion and beauty expert

THERE ARE few things more seductive than a present that shows you really know someone. Who, for example, would guess that I would love a world atlas? No one; which is why I'm still not sure where Bouvetoya is.

Beauty products always make good presents, but no matter how much you spend, never buy a woman face creams. They invariably have the words "anti- ageing" or some such and there'll be tears. Posh bath products are always lovely to receive, but tend to disappoint. Foam fades, doesn't it? Two products that have never let me down and which will fill the lucky recipient with glee are Space NK's bath tablets, pounds 21, and superbly smelly Aromatherapy Associates bath oils, pounds 25. What I like about both is that you can buy them according to the mood you wish to bestow, ie the bath tablets come in "Laughter" (which makes the bath water green), "Stillness" (lilac), or "Enrapture" (pink). The Aromatherapy Associates bath oils, meanwhile, f come in nine "flavours", such as Morning Revive or De- Stress Mind. (The miniature bath oil collection, pounds 22, has one of each.)

Every man I know is gagging - gagging - for the new Clarins Men collection (from pounds 9.50). Particularly they covet the Fatigue Fighter, pounds 24, which is a cross between a slap in the face and a mini face-lift, perfect for the Christmas season. If there is a teenager in your midst buy them loads of miniature Charles Worthington Take Aways hair products, none of which cost more than pounds 2.25, so said adolescents can put even more stuff in their hair. Take Aways come in great colours, and a bunch of them together look very fetching.

A present that sounds really boring but that will be well received is Top Shop vouchers, from pounds 10. Young girls won't need any encouragement and older women will rediscover the utter magic of this shop (avoid school holidays and, yes, the changing rooms have individual cubicles).

Because buying fashion for other people is not easy, one tends to stick to boring "generic" items. This is OK as long as you go luxe - get the sort of thing they would never buy for themselves. A pure men's cashmere dressing gown is one of the first things I think about. Bonsoir does one for pounds 350. Toast has a women's dressing gown in silk/cashmere for pounds 375. If you need to buy socks for a man, say Pantherella or Dore Dore to yourself. Both cost from the pounds 7 mark-up.

My absolute top tip is the Manufactum catalogue. I regularly drool over this, as it has all sorts of fabulous presents (home stuff, as well as fashion and beauty). This is where you can buy Zimmerli Swiss cotton underwear which is utterly simple but expensive (a pair of knickers costs pounds 15) and lovely chamois dressed deerskin gloves, from pounds 36.

The ultimate present, however, is bespoke perfume from Lyn Harris, pounds 1,200. I recommended this once to a male reader for his girlfriend, and she wrote back in the New Year to say it was the best gift she'd ever had. The wonderfully indulgent process of having a scent made just for you is as much fun as the actual perfume. And utterly unique. Buon Natale!

Stockists

1. Chamois gloves, from Manufactum (0800 0960937 or www.manufactum.co.uk)

2. Zimmerli underwear, from Manufactum, as before

3. Bath oils by Aromatherapy Associates (020-7371 9878 or www.aromatherapyassociates.com)

4. Bespoke perfume by Lyn Harris (020-7221 1545 or www.millerharris.com)

5. Bath tablets by Space NK (0870 1699999 or www.spacenk.com)

6. Socks by Pantherella/Dore Dore, from department stores nationwide

7. Men's dressing gown by Bonsoir (0870 1203529 or www.bonsoirbypost.com)

8. Clarins Men, from department stores nationwide

9. Take Aways hair products by Charles Worthington (0845 0708090)

Women's dressing gown (not shown) by Toast (0870 2405200 or www.toastbypost.co.uk)

Top Shop vouchers (not shown), from branches nationwide

Interiors

Alice Rawsthorn, director of the Design Museum in London

THE BEST Christmas present is always something that you wouldn't otherwise own, usually because you couldn't afford it. For me that would be one of the eerily exquisite TV Vases (pounds 3,800) designed by the French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, whose work we exhibited at the Design Museum last spring. The epitome of modern glamour, it is also very expensive; so, as a less expensive alternative, I would add a couple - preferably half-a-dozen - of their Soliflores vases (pounds 59 each) for single flowers to my Christmas wish-list. Compact and versatile, like any thoroughly modern object, the Soliflores vases can be used on their own to display single flowers or joined together to form a chain.

Another favourite designer is Hella Jongerius, the Dutch designer- maker whose first major exhibition will be at the Design Museum next summer. Her work explores the tensions between the old and the new, craft and industry: f making each piece a mini-metaphor for modern life. Among Hella's most beautiful pieces are the Giant Prince embroidered ceramic vase (sadly, sold out) and the Groove Bottle and Long Neck Bottles (pounds 475), made by combining old glass with new in vibrant modern colours.

Having acquired so many new vases, I would need a couple of tables. One would be the Tray Table (pounds 125) designed by Jasper Morrison. An inspired example of lateral thinking in design, it consists of a stainless-steel base and circular plastic tray as the top, which can be whisked on and off to collect snacks or drinks. Even handier is Free Wheelin' Franklin (pounds 782) a remote- controlled table designed by Jerszy Seymour. Mounted on the motor of a remote-controlled car, it whizzes around the house at the press of a button.

Other practical gifts would be a couple of Die Imaginare Manufaktur (The Imaginary Factory) brushes, made by hand by the workers at the Institute of the Blind in Berlin and designed by innovative young designers. Shoe Shine (pounds 17), designed by Konstantin Grcic, is a shoe-cleaning kit in an elegant linen bag with a brush as its base. While Mats Theselius' Mr Brushshoe and Mrs Brushshoe (pounds 80) are shoe brushes with handles in the shape of shoes: a natty Chelsea boot for him and a classic court shoe for her.

As Christmas stocking-fillers I would ask for all four of Sam Buxton's laser-cut stainless-steel Micro-Man fold-up f sculptures (pounds 6.95 each), in which Micro-Man is seen playing with his PlayStation, working on his computer, bicycling and landing a spacecraft on Mars.

Finally, as no Christmas would be complete without a couple of brilliantly designed books, I would plump for AS in DS: An Eye on the Road (Lars Muller, pounds 18.50), the recently reissued, Citroen DS- shaped book first published in 1983 by the architect Alison Smithson as an illustrated account of her family's travels in their DS. Then there is the brand-new, Guggenheim Museum catalogue of Matthew Barney's The Cremaster Cycle (Guggenheim Museum, around pounds 45), designed by J Abbott Miller. Like all truly great books - and Christmas gifts - it is a perfect combination of style and substance.

Stockists

1. AS in DS: An Eye on the Road by Alison Smithson from good bookshops, the Design Museum and www.amazon.co.uk

2. Soliflores Vase by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec from the Design Museum shop, Butlers Wharf, 28 Shad Thames, London SE1 (020-7403 6933)

3. TV-Vase by the Bouroullec brothers, mail order only from Galerie Kreo, 22, rue Dechefdelaville, 75013 Paris, France (00 33 1 53 60 1842)

4. Mr and Mrs Brushshoe by Mats Theselius, mail order only from Blindenanstalt von Berlin, Oranienstrasse 26, D-10999 Berlin (00 49 30 25 88 66 14; www.blindenanstalt.de)

5. Groove Bottle and Long Neck Bottle by Hella Jongerius, mail order only from JongeriusLab, Eendrachtsweg 67, 3012 LG Rotterdam, The Netherlands (00 31 10 477 0253)

6. Micro-Man by Sam Buxton from the Design Museum shop, as above

7. Cremaster 3 by Matthew Barney from good bookshops and www.amazon.co.uk

8. Free Wheelin' Franklin by Jerszy Seymour, mail order only from Idee/Sputnik (00 81 3 6418 1330; iki@idee.co.jp; www.gosputnik.com)

9. Tray Table by Jasper Morrison from the Design Museum shop, as above

Indulgence

Stephen Bayley, author and design guru

A GOOD gift must be either hopelessly extravagant, something you could never afford or justify. Or it should be something delightfully odd that you would never have thought of yourself. Or something purely pleasurable. The common thread is surprise and delight.