As a busy kitty in the city, I can honestly say that there's not one gift I'm buying offline. Those psychos who wake up at 5 a.m. on Black Friday? Yeah. That's not me. I've got things to do, places to be, an online fashion series to launch on Friday.
I'd rather pay double whatever those early-morning shoppers saved to avoid the rush. Yes, it's a luxury even to make a statement like that. But this column is about just that: cyber-shopping the luxury market. So strap on your Louboutins: We've got some view-my-carting to do.
Two obvious musts for a shopping site to get an Alpha Kitty Meow of Approval: First, it really ought to have a charity (or at least a green) component. Sadly, out of all my favorite retailers, only Barneys scored on that front.
Second, it has to be super-easy to navigate. Because another thing about Alpha Kitties? Ummm ... we have no attention span. If a site makes it hard for me to find something, I'm onto the next one. While I found the perfect Jo Malone gift for my mother-in-law on Saks Fifth Avenue's site, they don't have a "view all" button--so instead of click-click-clicking over and over to see their various offerings, I simply clicked over to Bergdorf Goodman!
And don't even get me started about Henri Bendel. They just launched their first Web site, and it is a disaster--clunky and hard to navigate. This is not why I shop online! I virtually (pun intended) ran away. Someone should get them a better Web site for Christmas.
But bravo to Bergdorf's, where I easily found stuff for everyone. From my most chic guy friends, who got Karl Lagerfeld's CD, Les Musiques Que J'aime, to my colleagues' assistants and the cute Prada soaps. And who doesn't love getting one of BG's sleek silver boxes?--I could get one with a potato inside (don't even think about it) and still be excited.
Which brings me to another shopping realization: I could have saved $10 and bought the Lagerfeld CD on Amazon.com, but then I'd have had to settle for their packaging--and a Lagerfeld gift deserves to be luxuriously housed. Chic boxes would be a great add-on to their wonderful offerings. After all, it's where I bought my husband's gift--the most important, of course, on my list. He gets a Kindle, because we always lug so many books wherever we go. Now we have something the size of a paperback with a dozen books inside.
This year, I found cute stuff on a gift site that is new to me--Red Envelope. I used to be a Vivre girl--their stuff is so fabulous. But then I ordered two small gifts, which were back-ordered several months; once they got in, they charged my account more than 30 times, froze my credit card--and the gift still hasn't been shipped. Note to e-tailers: We're just waiting for you to disappoint us. If you do, we're history, and don't even try hitting "refresh"!
If you want to combine charity with shopping ('tis the season for both!), turn to places like God's Love We Deliver, a terrific organization that prepares and delivers nutritious meals to people who are homebound because of serious illnesses like cancer and HIV/AIDS. They have a holiday fund-raising catalog that has amazing gifts ranging from a tub of chocolate-drizzled Caramel corn to a basket of brownies to some chic home stuff like an Amber Cassis Calvin Klein Candle for $50. Then there's Toms slippers, which matches a pair to a needy child to each pair sold online.
And, drumroll please. . . . The U.N. Refugee Agency is where I did 90% of my "shopping"--everything from survival kits for badly malnourished children ($47) to all-season tents to shelter a family of five ($80) to paying a teacher for three months to bring education to refugee children ($210). As an immigrant, I realize how lucky I am to be in the United States and to be writing a column about "luxury online shopping." Giving this as my main gift is a way of showing my gratitude.
Someone recently told me that people are sometimes disappointed when they receive charitable gifts like this (sort of how we felt as kids when people would give us money vs. candy on Halloween). So I tried to take this into account, and I am giving this gift to those who, like me, will appreciate the spirit in which it's given.
Finally, there are the gifts at Autism Speaks, where Suzanne Wright and her colleagues have made really cute snowflake gift wrap and ribbon. So no matter what you're buying, you can still make a contribution to a worthwhile cause and, even more important, spread the spirit of the season.
Please click on the link so you can go to my favorite shopping sites, and let me know what you think! Happy holidays ... and thanks for making my 2007 really fun.
Atoosa Rubenstein left the job of editor in chief of Seventeen magazine to start her own digital business and has just launched her new Alpha Kitty offering at www.youtube.com/AlphaKitty. She has also started a consultancy advising companies how to speak to the teen market.
