For the Lovers

For you, or from you—a guide to Valentine’s Day gifts and sitting in and with love, every day.

Le Boudoir La Holly red silk tanga + Anissa Kermiche Foreplate

TO GIFT

• A boxed collection of Anaïs Nin’s diaries, Eve Hesse: Diaries, Franz Kafka’s Letters to Milena
• Le Boudoir silk or striped cotton panties
• Kiki de Montparnasse Dahlia set (I’m partial to the Dahlia soft bra and the adjustable panty in black lace)—beautiful, comfortable lingerie is a sign of adoration and tenderness
• Coucou bloomers with their matching bra, underwear, and of course, the crop cardi
• A vintage ceramic pillow, or takamakurato, to rest and scent their pretty head just as Japanese geishas once did—with a booklet of Santa Maria Novella incense papers
• Blue light glasses, for movie nights cuddled in front of the laptop

Fabulicious Poise heels

TO DO

• Head to your local bookshop and pick up a copy of The Book of Women’s Friendship for each of the special women in your life. Inscribe the front page with a love letter, or if you’re like me and can’t stomach the thought of defiling a book, tuck a little valentine between the pages to double as a bookmark. Drop it off or if they live far, box the tome in pink tissue before shipping off.
• Start collecting vintage Valentine’s Day cards. Save them for friends and lovers next year, or use them to write notes to your future self. Scatter the cards between books in your to-be-read pile, sweaters in a drawer, and in handbags you haven’t worn in a while.
• Buy a pair of feathered heels. Or clear lucite ones, if the fluff is too darling for your personality. Pleaser makes my favorites by far; I’m partial to the Poise from their Fabulicious line, but the Amour‘s shorter heel may be more sensible. (I, however, adore the towering possibilities of fantasy.)
• Visit a lingerie store that encourages dress-up and understands the importance of fit. Le Boudoir in Echo Park is a recent discovery and swift favorite of mine, but classics like Agent Provocateur and Honey Birdette are just as welcoming. Try on matching sets—complete with garter belts and stockings—or gorgeous robes with their designated slips. Fanciful underpinnings are reminders that we’re creatures of desire and worthy of adornment—living, breathing, beautiful things. If you find something that feels delicious on, take it home.
• Read someone’s diary. Virginia Woolf’s, if you’re feeling contemplative; Anaïs Nin’s for sexy, sensual prose; Eve Hesse’s if you want a frenzied and fabulous stream of consciousness. The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon is beautiful, and while we wait with bated breath for the publication of Eve Babitz’s unsent letters, her journal entries in The Paris Review will satiate the need to know more about her colorful life.
• Play with perfumes! Revisit your collection or pop into a fragrance boutique. (I’m currently wearing Hollywood Gifts Centerfold, but would swap for Kheir 7 Minutes if I wanted to be irresistibly sweet. The former is for the female gaze and the latter, the male—yet both are delicious all in the same, and made by women who simply understand the occasional need to smell positively delectable.)

Happy Valentine’s Day, angels.

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A SENSIBLE EDIT