From mid-century modern marvels to contemporary creations by renowned international designers, here are our picks for this holiday season’s must-have design staples.

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It is no secret that design classics can make timeless gifts to suit even the pickiest gift recipients during the holidays. From mid-century modern marvels to contemporary creations by renowned international designers, here are our picks for this holiday season’s must-have design staples that are sure to endure the test of time and inject some panache into every household.

Herman Miller Maharam Placemat

A perfect way to add style to any dining table, Herman Miller’s Maharam placemats can set the tone for the holiday season with unmistakable quality that is signature to the textile company’s brand. Featuring iconic Eames and Alexander Girard designs, the placemats are sophisticated and playful at the same time, bringing colourful, abstract geometry into mealtime statement pieces.

Magis Ettore

Konstantin Grcic’s cast-iron mule for Magis is a celebration of the brand’s resilient and whimsical personality in an ornamental piece that is, at once, a stylish doorstop, book stand, paper weight and a unique decoration for any home. For the holiday season, the limited edition Ettore, featuring the signature of the designer, is a fun and functional addition to any design enthusiast’s residence with its iconic shape and form, perfectly capturing the spirit of Magis.

Magis Happy Bird (Limited Edition)

Suitable for kids and kids-at-heart, the Magis Happy Bird is a perfect gift to add some stylish playfulness to a home. A part of the Me Too collection for Magis created by designer Eero Aarnio, the Happy Birdchair is a toy and an unconventional seat that encourages imaginative and creative play. Happy Bird is available in a special colour combination available exclusively at XTRA.

Tom Dixon’s Tank Series

Transcending the label of ordinary barware, Tom Dixon’s Tank Series brings the sophistication of simple geometric forms and exquisite materials to a collection of glassware designs fit for a refined drink ceremonial. Made from mouth-blown clear glass and finished with liquid gold and colourants, hand painted with copper detailing, the collection is intuitively functional, bearing the unmistakably Dixon-esque essence of style and simple geometry that make the bespoke barware stand in a league of its own.

Tom Dixon Scent Elements

The second scent collection by Tom Dixon is a celebration of the four classical elements found in nature – earth, fire, air and water. Each scent, designed to transform any space into a tantalising olfactory journey, is a unique composition made to reflect the individualistic character of each element and a true gift for the purists at heart who will enjoy the scents’ minimalist attitude.

Vitra Dolls by Alexander Girard

One of the most prominent figures in American design, Alexander Girard originally designed the colourful, decorative company of wooden dolls for his home in Santa Fe. Inspired by the works of popular art, the wooden dolls are half toys, half decorative elements that can serve as charming and quirky additions to any home interior.

Vitra Eames Elephant

A perfect accessory for a child’s room, the iconic Eames Elephant is an indoor-outdoor toy that is sure to awaken the creative instincts of a budding young designer-to-be. Originally developed by Charles and Ray Eames in plywood and now manufactured in plastic, the chair is an instant eye-catcher, appeasing to the kids as a fun-shaped and colourful toy and to adults as a well-recognised Eames classic, in and out of a child’s room.

Parachilna Aballs

Majestic in its blown opal matt glass and brass base, the irresistible Aballs lamp exudes allure with its sensuous shape that combines unparalleled craftsmanship and traditional art of hand blown glass. Designed by Jamie Hayon for Parachilna, the lamp stands out as a decorative lighting piece of a hard-to-match quality, enhancing any modern interior with its timeless shape and smooth glowing finish.

Interior and furniture designer Marie Christine Dorner discusses spatial sensibilities, balancing design influences and her creative partnership with Ligne Roset. Olha Romaniuk writes.

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With an unmistakable architectonic quality present in her interior and furniture designs, Marie Christine Dorner is a master at combining functional and poetic elements in her multifaceted projects. In her latest project for French furniture company Ligne Roset, Dorner’s keen sense of architectural space, along with her affinity for storytelling and material exploration, shines through, resulting in objects that appeal to the cognitive and physical experience of spatiality at once. Selected pieces from her 2015 and 2016 collections were exhibited at this year’s International Furniture Fair Singapore.

For Dorner, who studied at the École Camondo in Paris where she now lectures, furniture and interior design go hand-in-hand. The designer attributes this perception to Camondo’s teaching approach that integrates interior and furniture design within one curriculum. A constant element throughout her projects, Dorner’s sensitivity to architectural space and the way a human body relates to it translate into insightful visual and physical design solutions in her interior projects and furniture pieces.

“Every time I design a piece of furniture, I feel like I am designing architecture on a smaller scale,” says Dorner. “For me a piece of furniture is a space. It should be seen in its context. And whenever I design a space, I feel that it is a collage of furniture. Of course, with a piece of furniture you are closer to the body than in a space, but a space is close to the body as well. It all has to be designed in a very human scale.”

Dorner, who has lived in metropolitan cities like London, Paris and Tokyo has acquired an intuitive way of balancing her Eastern and Western influences. She realised her penchant for experimenting with different materials during the early phases of her career. For her defining 2004 show, Une Forme/ One Shape, Dorner explored a chosen shape in different materials, based on the notion that design must be seen as an art where the material comes first. The concept was put into production by Ligne Roset some years later with the ONE SHAPE sofa and table produced in white ceramic, black-stained oak and natural oak finishes.

According to Dorner, her long-standing professional relationship with Ligne Roset commenced about 10 years ago, when Michel Roset took note of the designer’s CRASH low table prototype – photos of which Dorner had sent to Ligne Roset two years prior.

In 2015 and 2016, Dorner completed two consistent collections of furniture for Ligne Roset. For both collections, Dorner experimented with various aspects of storytelling and materiality to create collections that represented a small universe and drew inspiration from architectural elements.

“I was trying to use materials to create a small universe, like a small town in a reduced scale,” elaborates Dorner. “ALLITÉRATION, the book shelf, is a good example of this. It attempts to present a bookshelf as a small building in a context of a space – how a bookshelf can emphasise emptiness and presence and give rhythm to a space.”

These days, Dorner is busier than ever. She is working on an upcoming collection for Ligne Roset, as well as projects ranging from private residences to a collaboration with a kitchen brand. Despite the various project typologies and scales, Dorner’s passion for storytelling and material exploration remains a consistent thread in her work.

Dorner has also expressed interest in working with textiles and redesigning hotels. “I always want to tell a story when I design something,” concludes Dorner. “If you buy a piece of furniture, it has to answer your questions. Similarly, with hotel design, it is a very nice typology for a designer, because it gives a great opportunity to tell a story, to create a full universe and make people dream.”