Good morning dear reader and welcome back to stationery porn. Here I am to continue where I left off, with another string of great sites that sell fabulous paper-related items. Please excuse the paper-centric nature of these posts; I am well aware that inks and pens elicit similar excitement for many writers but I really do feel that they are worthy of their own special posts (forthcoming, don't you worry). Today I shall finish with a slightly self-indulgent digression along 57th St in New York and next week I will tell you about one incredible bookstore (but there's already one here today, scroll for it). As ever, click on the images below to go to the sites.
***
Not long ago I was mindlessly browsing and you know what happens when one browses mindlessly: she finds something she never knew she needed which she must acquire immediately. It so just happened that this something was a fabulous Korean, vintage-like diary with stickers, thick paper and a tight, transparent plastic cover. I took it home glowing and proud, and then undertook a few investigations and came to know that the same range is sold by UK site Katy & June. They sell diaries and notebooks and cards; plastic covers, files, decorations, pouches and so on. If you like the faux Japanese/Korean stuff that some of our shops stock, get thee to Katy & June for the real thing.
No stationery porn post could fail to mention the Moleskine range, which I quite simply call Mole, ever since my online friend Verne said that she was not inclined to buy them because she'd rather pick run-of-the-mill leather if she were going to choose a dead animal (yes, I know... Love you Verne!). They are marketed as the 'legendary notebooks' used by Van Gogh, Hemingway and the rest of them which, quite frankly, is bollocks, for lack of a subtler word. There are lots and lots of special editions these days which is making them slightly less appealing to me, as I rather liked the simplicity of the black (or red at a push), notebook. But for all of my current disdain and for all of their sins (their watercolour paper is hopelessly inadequate), I must confess that my diary this year is indeed a red Mole and that I own another pristine, unlined red one that I am planning to turn into a little scrapbook. Still, it's the white one I really crave but I find that the occasional pit-stop at Moleskinerie is almost as good as reaching for the AmEx.
Etsy is, as ever, filled with extremely talented artists who produce excellent paper-related items. Some of my favourite shops are Time to Remember, Land of Enchantment and AR Creations.
Australian store Kikki-K is the place to go if you like streamlined, utilitarian stationery. As you know, that's not exactly my kind of stuff, but that's not to say that I don't like their very lovely brown paper notebooks and items. They are very Muji-esque, the no-nonsense notebook for writers who like a no-frills approach.
Crane is the place for plentiful classy letterpress as well as beautiful paper ornaments, 3D cards and lovely journals. I've spent ages in their Rockefeller Plaza store and there's just nothing better than a gander around the Plaza swinging a little bag full of mouth-watering, spanking new papers.
On second thoughts... there is something better, and that's 57th St between 6th and 7th Ave. This is whereKate's Paperie is located (well, one of) and I must tell you that their website, much like Crane's, doesn't quite reflect the beauty of their shop. Kate's is full of fantastic wrapping paper and cards and tomes of sleek notecards and papers for you to flick through and decide how to customise.
And this, dear reader, is the end of stationery porn for now, because what follows is a bit of a digression (although it does include books). So, if you ain't interested in 57th Street in New York, thank you very much for reading and see you on Friday for the weekly prompt.
***
So, 57th Street. Carnagie Hall is just around the corner, the glitz of Bergdorf Goodman is two blocks behind, and I don't think there is a little stretch of sidewalk in the whole wide world I love more than this one. Sure, I haven't seen all the streets everywhere in the world, but out of those that I have seen, 57th is my magic number. Between 5th and 6th Ave is Rizzoli USA and it alone is my crowning reason.
Wood-panelled floor-to-ceiling and with tome upon tome upon tome of juicy wordliness, this is probably my favourite bookstore, even though the Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Triangle is a thousand times bigger. But, you know, often bigger isn't better. Rizzoli is the bookstore of my romantic day-dreams, where I always hope to find a young, dashing and skint poet who fingers the book corners, leaves with a paper bookmark and follows me until I confront him at the corner of 5th Ave and he says, 'It's taken me ages to say something and that something is...'. Cliffhanger. I haven't decided what that something is dear reader.
No, I take that back. Rizzoli is the bookstore of my romantic day-dreams, where I always hope to find a middle-aged, Bon Jovi-like squillionaire who approaches me with a felted step and asks in a slightly nasal drawl: 'I think I've seen you before, you come here often don't you? Would you like to see the collection at my apartment at the Waldorf? Yes, I live there, have you tried the Guerlain Spa yet?'. No such either luck so far but Rizzoli is particularly great in the photographic and travel departments and remains the place where I just know that My Life Will Change.
MacKenzie-Childs is an adorable store that sells Alice in Wonderland-like furniture and for someone who is neither a minimalist nor a subtle saddo, this is another place that fosters ridiculously wild dreams. I once had to fight a shop assistant who insisted that shipping a queen-sized bed to the UK wasn't that difficult. I didn't feel like admitting shamefully that my budget just did not stretch to $10,000 and that, not the shipping, was the real problem. Still, I left with a catalogue, forever hopeful that one day I may wake up in their famed Catwalk Bed, perhaps after I've been to check out the collection of that squillionare who ogled me at Rizzoli. Kate's Paperie is further down, walking from 6th to 7th Ave, and then, and then, The Russian Tea Room.
When I was small and used to watch Tootsie (to this day, one of my favourite movies, but of it, we shall speak another day), I was mesmerised to know that there could be a tea room of such opulent gilded splendour. It seemed like a zillion miles away from my local tea rooms, that's for sure, a place where people wouldn't be just 'people', but other-worldly creatures reeking of Guerlain's Mitsouko, wearing silver fox hats, smoking thin hand-rolled ciggies and gazing at the world through grey eyes framed by deep lines and smudged mascara.
When Dorothy meets her agent George and reveals herself to be his unemployable client, Michael, they are indeed at The Russian Tea Room. This is the place where to knock back vodkas and caviar blinis but I was happier with one of the world's most famous golden teas, Prince Vladimir (buy it at Kusmi or, if in town, at Zabar's), while drooling over my stationery loot. I am tempted to continue the blabbing, but I shall keep the very best for last. Come back on Monday for a few words about the most amazing bookstore I've ever visited. Until then, keep on writing!
*drool*
The only porn that IS work safe.
Love it.
Posted by: Sophie Playle | 04 August 2010 at 09:45
Love this and your earlier post on stationery porn. It's made me quite giddy. If my credit card wasn't hiding - or being hidden - from me, I would have flexed it a lot by now!
Posted by: Kathryn Eastman | 04 August 2010 at 19:30
I was so excited to buy my first ever Moleskin yesterday. I have always 'made do' with cheaper notebooks....still lovely, but not the cooingly tactile 'Mole'. Love your post x x x
Posted by: helen | 08 August 2010 at 15:42