Opening Ceremony Gifted Giver | Nordstrom Fashion Blog

Opening Ceremony Gifted Giver | Nordstrom Fashion Blog

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For the second season in a row, we're counting down the crucial pre-Christmas shopping days with a series called Gifted Givers, in which friends old and new share their thoughts on stylishly spirited giving and receiving. New this year: the Pop-In@Nordstrom X Opening Ceremony Holiday Shop edition.


If Brian Paquette, principal designer of Seattle-based Brian Paquette Interiors, could only handpick all of the elements of every room ... well, on the entire planet ... we're pretty positive global productivity, happiness and general good vibes would skyrocket. The Newport, Rhode Island, native has a knack for layering steel with coal, surprise with serenity, and pop culture with classic ideas about what makes a room-and a home, and a workplace-a haven. Can't fathom gutting the whole joint and starting from scratch right yet? Check out Paquette's new textile and wallpaper line, and then check out his spot-on thoughts about cashmere, candlesticks and wrapping them all up in style.

The Thread: What stands out as the best gift you've ever given?
Paquette: Travel and experience; being able to take a loved one along with you to experience a new place and culture is the best.

What's the best gift you've ever received?
Anything cashmere-recently in the form of a beautiful but simple blanket from James Perse. Also: new scents, whether candles or room sprays for different seasons. I like to mix them up throughout the year to evoke different sense memories.

Do you have a holiday shopping strategy?
Never-it seems to be too much of a chore that way, it should be organic and inspired.

What's the weirdest or most extreme thing you've ever done to create or secure the perfect gift?
A friend of mine was over for dinner this past summer and could not stop talking about the incense I was burning, Oulan Bator by Astier de Villatte. His birthday was later that week and I knew it would be perfect, however very few places in the states, let alone Seattle, carry it so I had to pay an arm and a leg to have it overnighted from LA. It was worth it to have his memories of that great dinner with friends live on.

What is "the perfect gift," anyway?
The perfect gift is time ... time spent with someone, time saved for someone.

What makes for the ultimate in giving or receiving?
Like designing a room, no detail should be left unfinished; the wrapping and card and note should be as heartfelt as the gift itself.

What would you get for a culinarily oriented friend or family type?
I am not a good cook by any stretch of the imagination-and I value those who are to no end. What I can do however is set one hell of a table, so I would get them some great new linens, serving dishes and candlesticks.

Feel free to allow us to alert your friends and family in this very public format: what would you love to unwrap this year?
Books, books and more books. I can never have enough visual stimulation from fine arts, to travel and fashion to architecture.

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