From the person who has everything to the health buff who believes in eating in moderation, Rustan’s Department Store’s home section offers good finds for last-minute shoppers.
Lifelike flowers
Bouquets that stay “fresh” season after season with detailed and colorful flower baskets made of matte porcelain from Italy’s Arte della Ceramica.
Company artisans achieve lifelike details by using thin layers of delicate porcelain-framed porcelain artwork (P1,950) and flower baskets (P5,900 to P24,500).
Go Greek
For the holidays, world-renowned Spanish porcelain brand Lladro introduces pieces that are big, bold and uncharacteristically matte.
Using the gres technique, in-house sculptors have come up with “Eros and Psyche” (P131,600), two characters straight out of Greek mythology. Lladro’s gres collection also has more traditional pieces like a horse bust and “Mother and Child.”
Tea party culture
There’s a growing tea party culture in Manila and not a few hosts and hostesses are turning to French brand Bernardaud for finest tea sets. Choose between porcelain teapot with platinum-plated accent (P24,500) or box set of porcelain cups and saucers (P49,500).
German dinnerware brand Kahla has a new line called Magic Grip, porcelain pieces that won’t slip or scratch your table.
Lined with silicone at the bottom, each piece is designed not to clatter when stacked on top of each other. The line includes sauce dish (P595), saucer and cup set (P645), a glass and dinner plate (P1,550).
Painting set
British brand KitchenCraft gives children and adults a painting set (P895) like no other.
Each set comes with two mugs, cookie tray and quick-dry and food-safe paints.
While the smaller mug has colored snowmen, gift boxes and Christmas trees, the bigger one has black outlines of the same images.
You can color outlines in whatever manner you wish.
Healthy new you
American brand Healthy Steps makes eating in moderation tasty and doable without you having to weigh or count calories, with its line of affordable (P295 to P395) table and kitchen accessories like water diffuser, cereal scoop, cheese grater with built-in container and manual juicer that promote portion control.