gift fair, take one

while most new yorkers are fleeing the oppressive heat of the city during the first few weeks of august, thousands of professional shoppers descend on manhattan for the new york international gift fair. the javits center plays host to countless aisles of vendors, selling everything you can imagine: books, bags, product, baby gear, jewelry, tableware, and so on. this is one of the ways we keep up with what's new from our current peeps and also find new lines that we love. between placing reorders and new orders, collecting catalogs, fiddling with the calculator, chatting with our o'suz pals, and trying to remember to eat, it's an absolute whirlwind of activity! in other words, it is SO much fun.

definitely one of the best parts of the gift show is discovering new lines and meeting people whose wares you've only ever heard about on the internet or through word of mouth. (also, i should say there are some 'celebrities' at the gift show. for example, thomas paul was actually working his own booth, and i was so starstruck by his natty style that i was dumbfounded into silence.) we wanted to give our faithful readers a little sneak peek into some of the new delights that will be popping up in the store this fall -- we hope you'll be as excited as we are!

(photo courtesy of pillow pillow pillow)

one of the products i'm most excited about is the tote bag group from pillow pillow pillow. while i can't actually show you the tote bags (no photography is allowed at the show), i can tell you that these bags are painfully adorable. as a hardcore lover of the mighty boston terrier, i can assure you that i will be sporting my 'otis' all over town. fyi, all the dogs in their line are actually modeled after real life pooches, and they are always on the lookout for new pups to lead double lives as pillows.

we love our jewelry at o'suzannah, so we are forever scoping the scene for beautiful and fun new lines. this time around we found several new possibilities, but we can tell you for sure that lucid new york will be debuting in the shop soon. (check out their site for images!) we're getting a few of anna's classic pieces and several others from her 'charming' collection, which are all sterling silver single charm necklaces. as you know, we love the proud and prickly hedgie here at o'suz, so i was pleased as punch when a good friend gifted me with lucid's hedgie necklace last christmas. however, we know that not everyone is as enamored by the hedgehog as we are, so we also ordered a nice selection of her other charms -- horseshoes, keys, birds, wishbones, and so on.

(image courtesy of the lomographic society)

on the giftie front, we're excited to introduce a few cameras from the lomographic society. they've not only invented some new cameras in the last decade, but they've also brought back some of the most iconic cameras of the 20th century, among them the lomo, holga, and diana. we'll be getting a few of the newer cameras, like the actionsampler, but also the classic diana, an all-plastic camera introduced in the 1960s. the diana is a great experimental camera and produces more lo-fi imagery. all of the lomographic society's cameras come with modern instructions and tips for getting exciting photos. no one would ever call me a photographer, but i do own a few of these babies and have a lot of fun experimenting with the end products.

(image courtesy of third drawer down)

one of the hands down coolest things we got at the show comes from australia's third drawer down. they print contemporary artists' work on household linens: tea towels, handkerchiefs, aprons, pillowcases, and so on. continuing one of the most dominant themes of 20th-century art, these objects encourage a dialogue between art and everyday life, which is a project i personally find extremely compelling. all of their textile projects are editioned works of art -- it's up to you how you use them, whether they're hanging on your oven door or mounted on stretcher bars in your living room. this is an incredible way to bring art into your home and to support contemporary artists. i can't wait to get my hands on a camilla engman tea towel!

these are just a few of the new lines that you'll see in o'suzannah in the coming months -- there are so many more en route, too! stay tuned for the second part of my gift show post, where i'll let you know about some of the new goodies from our old friends. xoxo, jessica.