Lifestyle Shopping&Fashion
Going postal
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Subscription services quite literally are the gifts that keep on giving. Anna Burnside roots out the best ones
F luffy slippers that can be heated in the microwave. Mobile phone holders in the shape of endangered species. Socks bearing the legend ‘world’s best grandad’. Ned Corbett-Winder promises that his gift-a-month website notanotherbill.com will most certainly n o t deliver any of the above. Instead, subscribers or their lucky friends will find, on their doormats, a quirky item lovingly sourced by Ned himself. The unique service costs £15 a month and recent goodies include a printed tote bag by Edinburgh-based illustrator Lesley Barnes, bamboo toothbrushes and a travel- bundle themed including a vintage canvas map and charming old toy cars.
Corbett-Winder studied at Central St Martins and the items he sends are definitely curated rather than chosen at random.
‘It’s a simple idea based on the fact that people love post that isn’t bills,’ he says. (To underline
the point, he dispatches the goodies in a beautiful letterbox-sized package emblazoned with ‘smile – I am not another bill’ on them.) ‘And most people like surprises.’
Working with designers, illustrators, galleries and shops he admires are a big part of the appeal for Corbett-Winder, who also works as an art director with ad agency M&C Saatchi. ‘I source my presents from far and wide with the aim of introducing my subscribers to great artists and brands and also finding rare treats from markets and fairs. It’s personal, it’s
60 THE LIST 15 Dec 2011–5 Jan 2012
GOODIES ARE SENT OUT IN A PACKAGE SAYING ‘SMILE – I’M NOT ANOTHER BILL’
thoughtful, it’s fun and it comes in beautiful packaging. There’s a lot of soulless, mass produced products out there.’
BUY THE WAY NEWS FROM THE SHOP FRONT
the Cameo
in Edinburgh This Christmas, there is no use for anyone with half a brain to wrap up gifts, put them under the Christmas tree, then take the huff when they see them in the Oxfam shop come January. You don’t need to be Corbett-Windsor to come up with a thoughtful gift that delights after December. An annual membership for the Glasgow Film Theatre (£30, glasgowfilm.org) or (£32, picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Cameo_Picturehou se/) brings a handful of free tickets and a range movie-going of that any discounts would filmaholic appreciate. The homebody – or parent of young children – might prefer a subscription to lovefilm.com, where £9.99 a month buys TV and movies to stream and watch on DVDs posted to your house. All sure to be appreciated long after the foot spa has been relegated to the back of the cupboard.
Festive hampers have a a dodgy reputation – tinned ham, why? – but graze.com offers a longer term, healthy option that would make a great gift. For just £3.49 they post a tailored box of (mostly) virtuous snacks once a week. There are olives, flapjacks, nuts, seeds, dinky little oatcakes and itsy bitsy breadsticks. It is a deal that kicks the backside of the fast food conglomerates in every single way. And you don’t get a much more Christmassy feeling than that.
THE EXCELLENT POP-UP gallery/bookshop in Mono is here to stay – for the next few months anyway. An exhibition of work by London collective Nous
Vous is currently on show in Good Press, plus zines and books are on sale from artists based both near (eg Malcy Duff, Lachlann Rattray, James Stephen Wright) and far (Ed Templeton, Luke Ramsey and Misaki Kawai to name a few). Good Press, inside Mono, 12 Kings Court, Glasgow. See goodpressgallery.co.uk for more info. ELEANOR YOUNG, the talented and obviously angle-obsessed lady behind Glasgow’s Fun Makes Good design company is bringing out this range of geometric patterned coasters in muted neon shades, and in time for Christmas. Available to buy individually (£3.50 each) for a very prized coffee cup, or as a set of four for aperitif time. (£12.95). Buy online at etsy.com/shop/FunMakesGood.
LIKE A RED AND GREEN team of little Dudley Moore’s in costume, the Christmas Elves will be running around homes and offices in Edinburgh this Christmas, delivering trees, cakes, flowers, and, ahem . . . singing and dancing elfograms. We’re not making it up. See for yourself at christmasdeliveredbyelves.co.uk