A Vibey Vintage Gift Guide

For the design + style nerds in your life, 30+ curiosities from me and my friend Leo of Schmatta Mag...with LOVE.

A (long) while back, my best friend Eden hosted possibly the best birthday party I’ve ever had. It took place at her Upper West Side apartment, she cooked a beautiful Italian family-style dinner, and we danced in her dark wood-paneled living room well into the morning like MANIACS. I turned 38 that day. And other than the fact that I hadn’t yet met my now husband or that I had about $12 in the bank, I remember something SO vividly about that birthday. It was what my friend Hadis gave me as a gift—a beautiful white orb of a giant modern statement ring and two outsider vintage fashion books. I remember opening up the trio of presents and being…speechless. She got it—ME!—and what I love most about a sincere and real gesture like that—that I could actually FEEL that she took the care to find something she knew would make my heart swell. A gift with a VIBE.

Gifts! Very vibey vintage gifts!

Which is to say, something that makes us curious—not just to know more about this particular thing, but about other things, too. And, that, to me, is a perfect gift…and gesture, something with its own little calling card of character and purpose. My friend Leo over at Schmatta Mag shares this sentiment with me. No garbage gifts. Ever! Only tiny treasures that make you think about LIFE and beauty and what kind of objects or tools you want to surround yourself with. And the kind of beautiful, exceptional things we want to share with the people we love (most), too. So, that’s what we did here—collected 30+ fantastic vintage, very VIBEY gifts for you to contemplate/be curious about and perhaps buy for someone you love who hates a garbage gift as much as you do.

And maybe another good point of Leo & I doing this gift guide together was to expand our own (weirdo) horizons. Seeing beyond the stuff we tend to always obsess about and venture into new gifty/cool objet territory. And, in this week’s loot, we’ve got a slew of them—from some strange + EXCELLENT design books, Swedish-goth candlesticks, tiny artworks, vintage Prada (always 😎), we’ve found some doozies.

Before we get into it…

A quick look ahead at what’s coming SOON on A Tiny Apt…

✅ My winter micro wardrobe

✅ Cute & useful things in my bedroom

✅ How to wear a sweater (a remix! With a new A Tiny Apt. playlist!)

✅ Everything I thrifted in November 😵‍💫

And lots more wonderful stylish-think’y-homey things (our archive has plenty of it:). To read these as well as today’s ATA, upgrade to become a Paid subscriber—for just $5/month, $50/year, it’s quite the deal✨.

And, here we go…

1. Rare, strange, enchanting vintage art books

From top left: The Mountain World; Underground Interiors; Scavullo; California II

CB: I mean, don’t you just want to buy ALL of these for yourself? (Well, I did buy another copy of Underground Interiors because….I am me….😬.)

Here’s a few more…(I couldn’t stop)…

From top left: Noguchi in Paris; People & Places of America; Special Problems (the type!!); Pocket Picasso (I kind of want this one, too…).

2. Vintage evening bag/clutch (+ slip a $5 bill inside for good luck:) 

CB: I cannot resist finding silk/satin vintage purses at thrift/vintage stores or jeweled sequin clutches on resale sites. They are just so easy to have fun with, no size restrictions, and they are almost NEVER pricey. Even though I am deeply committed to my jeweled Dries Van Noten evening purse, I would also happily accept/give any of these beauties to someone I love.