Chic Picks from the New York International Gift Fair 2013

The New York International Gift Fair is the big mama of all gift shows. Thousands of exhibitors come from all over to set up booths to show perspective buyers their wares. The sea of product categories is astounding. In my walk through, I saw everything from Swarovski Crystal studded fine china to a line of plush stuffed organs with funny names like “I’m a liver not a fighter.” There were so many standouts at the Gift Show; read on to see my top children’s picks from the show.

I love iconic designer furniture, and Little Nest from Australia is serving furniture iconography in pint size realness. Their homage/miniaturization of Harry Bertoia’s famed 1950s chair for Knoll is both chic and adorable.

The ornate lucite legs of the table below caught my eye. The yellow top is slick and shiny, and the whole thing looks like a great big piece of lemon candy (table top is also available in black and white).

There was an entire section of the show devoted to Japanese design. I’m a huge lover of Japanese design, so it was no wonder that I fell in love with The Paper Storage Company. Their Trompe l’oeil designs, resembling chic toys, are very kawaii (the Japanese word for cute). These clever items function as paper storage. The “Apartment” and “House” boxes below hold magazines and mail.

The doubledecker bus is two layers of sassy storage. All items are available in a variety of colors like blue, orange, green, khaki and red. They would look incredible in a child’s room—or, well—my art studio office.

What do you do when you see a big orange robot? Hang your sneakers on it, of course! Hangups & Baggage specialize in laser cut metal wall hangings that are as functional as they are fabulous. Available in a variety of motifs like chocolate brown branches, lacy while damask patterns and, of course, our friendly robot below.

Jonathan Adler shows us slow and steady wins the race. Embroidery and tortoises come together in this graphic turtle foot stool—perfect for mama to put her feet up when she’s feeding the baby!

My last pick from the Gift Fair is a fascinating book “Where Children Sleep” by James Mollison. This book has a simple format—pages of portraits of children from all around the world, and the facing page is a shot of their bedrooms. It was completely fascinating seeing the contrasts between different cultures. Some of the photos within the pages are a bit hard to look at while some are humorous like the one below.