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2015 Gift Guide: Him

We are grateful to Tivoli for supporting this gift guide. Our partners are handpicked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design. This holiday season, treat the music-lover in your life to the ultimate gift of style and sound: Tivoli Audio’s Model One with Bluetooth. Its beautiful design and retro styling adds a level of elegance to any room—making it something you don’t just listen to, but want to gather around. Get your hands on a Tivoli Audio Model One BT here.

11.25.15 | By
2015 Gift Guide: Him

The holidays are always the perfect opportunity to detour away from the purely pragmatic or overly gadgety products traditionally associated with “him” (our Father’s Day roundup is also great for this purpose). That said, gents do preferably like a bit of utility with anything they receive, so everything we gathered here serves a purpose, while also representing the Design Milk belief good design in itself is purposeful.

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Movado Edge Watch \\\ $495.00
The sensuality of designer Yves Béhar’s Movado Edge—a reinterpretation of Movado’s iconic Museum Dial watch by American designer Nathan George Horwitt—is undeniable in its murdered out matte black iteration, a minimalist timepiece that draws the eye with a subtle three-dimensional scalloping and Sith lord sophistication. My inner goth loves this watch with all of my black heart.

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Areaware Drink Rocks \\\ $35.00
Designer Runa Klock’s set of soapstone and marble geometric drink stones are as distinctive aesthetically as they are effective at keeping drinks cool without watering down their potency or flavor. Give it to the gent who prefers his drinks “on the rocks”, perhaps partnered with a complementary Black Whiskey Glass set. Together, they’ll look the like cocktail equivalent of a Patrick Nagel painting.

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Brooklinen Luxe Core Set Bedding \\\ $149.00
Considering we spend on average 33% of our lifetime sleeping, it’s surprising luxury bedding isn’t a holiday gift staple. Brooklinen’s selection of understated and masculine bedding is offered in sharp looking solids, stripes, and grid patterns that are great for mixing and matching. Made with true long staple Egyptian cotton with a 480-thread count, expect these sheets to age fine over time.

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mininch Tool Pen \\\ $69.00
Offered in 16 or 18 interchangeable bit piece sets, the mininch tool pen comes carrying design credentials, winning the 2013 iF product design award and 2012 Red Dot design concept award. If you know someone who is always happily taking things apart and putting them back together, the beautifully machined aluminum multi-tool will make for an excellent stocking stuffer. 

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Tivoli Model One BT \\\ $179.99
An exemplary example of sophistication through simplicity, Tivoli’s Model One BT distinguishes itself from the original Model One AM/FM radio with an extra auxiliary setting for Bluetooth streaming. Forgoing extraneous apps or unnecessary features, Tivoli’s table radio is designed to do only a few things but do them extremely well. Gift the Model One BT to the music-loving gent who still appreciates the tactile satisfaction of a dial and wants to be surrounded in his home with the sort of design which will still look timeless a decade from now.

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The Botanical Ginvent Calendar \\\ $160.55
Traditionally the advent calendar is most often enjoyed by the very young or very old. But this updated and “spirited” version of the gift-every-day calendar should appeal to those old enough to imbibe, yet are still young enough to enjoy getting a little tipsy. Behind each of the twenty-four doors are various bottled drams of flavored botanical gins to sip on those coldest days of winter. Infused with flavors like Manuka Honey, Saffron, Grains of Paradise, and Dried Elderberries, this is a gift that will keep on giving all the way up to Christmas Day.

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Future Forms \\\ $Varies
This gift selection isn’t for a single product, but the entirety of what appears to be an impressive catalog of vintage electronics and appliance design from days gone by. Mod era designs from Mad Man times and beyond remind us electronics once didn’t just come in varying shades of black, white, or grey. Some of the products are perplexingly mysterious, others almost sculptural, and some simply utilitarian, but they all share an aesthetic of functional simplicity which still feels fresh today. There’s plenty to nose through online, and essentially almost any of these collector’s items should please the Dieter Rams acolyte and/or modernist collector.

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New Balance Fresh Foam Zante Sweatshirt \\\ $119.99
I run in the performance category predecessors to these same New Balance sneakers and I can attest they’re amongst the most comfortable shoes I’ve laced up. The Fresh Foam midsole is cushy, but never mushy, while the whole shoes feels lightweight but offers support to keep my gait neutral. They’ve since updated with a fashion-forward material finish of a sweatshirt upper which looks especially stylish in its navy and light grey colorway combo and should feel super comfortable as an everyday sneaker.

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The Takedown Skillet \\\ $98.00
Most camping gear is primarily utilitarian out of necessity, but this iron skillet exhibits something special: cool factor. The pared down fold-in flat handle design, the lathed iron pan body, and the contrast color solid brass wing nuts add up into a cookware piece which should last a very long time and continually impress fellow campers that the person in charge of cooking up the bacon and flapjacks appreciates the small details.

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This is Ground Voyager \\\ $725.00
Los Angeles based This Is Ground’s selection of beautifully handcrafted leather goods has always appealed to the tech-savvy crowd who prefers to keep their device obsessions tastefully out of sight until needed. Their new 100% leather Voyager weekender bag is no exception, a fashionable piece of luggage not only capable of carrying up to five days of clothing and gear (26.27 liters of packable space to be exact), but also with the deliverable option for a Karma Go wireless hotspot tucked inside one of the bag’s numerous compartments for wi-fi access nearly anywhere. Gift this to the technologist who wants to be remembered as much for their style as their preparedness.

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Nomad Wallet for iPhone\\\ $79.99
The idea is simple, the style is unfussy. Inside the minimalist billfold is a 2400mAh battery spec’d to fully charge an iPhone 6 Plus back from the dead to 100% charge. Beyond its iPhone resurrective capacity, the Nomad can physically hold a driver’s license, five credit cards, RFiD card, three business cards, 10 bills, and yet somehow still look as svelte as a traditional wallet. There’s even an integrated 3.5 inch Lightning cable tucked inside the black saffiano leather finish so your recipient can travel light.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.