This holiday season, we’re all about guidance. That is, taking cues from those with great taste, instead of letting brands’ promos pull us in all sorts of directions with their race-to-the-bottom discounts.
Here’s the TL;DR on those: while there are some bananas deals to be had (this is the first year we’ve seen “up to 50% off entire purchase” sorts of situations), there’s not much in the way of guidance, which captures our big gripe about Black Friday (and the reason we’ve written this list). There’s no curated point of view—a discounted price is the only metric for judging a potential gift’s worthiness. That simply shouldn’t be the case (and proof is in the form of new guidance-oriented ventures like NY Mag’s The Strategist and The Wire Cutter, recently acquired by The Times for about a bazillion dollars. Point is, we need informed opinions, and “curation” is not that.
So we took another route: letting someone’s taste be a guidebook. And just in time, Instagram’s become more shoppable than ever, thanks to @mentions and links in Stories. Scroll through these feeds—a new mom, a tech obsessive, a beauty lover and more—and give shopping by their tags a try. (Those editorial gift guides will be there if you need them.)
#blackfriday #giftinfluencers #shopbyinstagram
@annahecek
For guidance on: fashion and beauty
Why she’s trustworthy: she lives and breathes new and now, as the social media editor at Who What Wear Australia, their beauty site Byrdie and their interiors off-shoot Domaine.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Followers: 23.7k
@ranabatyske
For guidance on: gifts for moms and their little ones
Why she’s trustworthy: Her son Myles made the “20 under 1” list of influential babies (a thing that is real) because she has raised him to be an adorable and dapper gentleman-in-the-making. Also, her tomboyishly alluring style.
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Followers: 7,365
@nicolay.t
For guidance on: beautifully-packaged tech stuff
Why he’s trustworthy: a student of Software Development in Germany (the country which gave the world Vitsoe, Braun, the Staatliches Bauhaus, Leuchtturm notebooks) and he has a designer’s sensitivity to ease of use and intuitive product.
Location: Passau, Germany
Followers: 14.6k
@thisthatbeauty
For guidance on: beauty products
Why she’s trustworthy: She practically invented real-time beauty AMAs—back in the day, she ran Bergdorf’s SM and created their friendly, inclusive Beauty Chat series on Twitter.
Location: New York, NY
Followers: 27.3k
@tobiassikstrom
For guidance on: men’s dressing, and answering the question, “If I could give him just one cooler-than-he-usually-is product, what should it be?”
Why he’s trustworthy: He does it for a living—and well—at King Magazine.
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Followers: 10.7k
THE GET
