Wee Christmas finds: Top 3 stockings (and a grizzle at David Jones)

Did I tell you that I visited David Jones' Christmas shop last week? (David Jones' is a major Australian department store, kind of like John Lewis in the UK). I know it's unfair to compare DJs to Liberty's magnificent Christmas shop floor, but I couldn't help but be disappointed by the sad and overpriced stock on offer. Who is doing DJ's buying??? And whose great idea was it to hide the Christmas shop in a dim little room at the back of the fourth floor of the men's store? And where's the magic??? Any chance DJ's can entice Yasmin Sewell back to Sydney? She did a superb job at Liberty. Gawd, even I'd put my hand up for the job.

Anyway, it took me all of three minutes to do my rounds of the DJ's Christmas shop (good Christmas shops usually have me lingering in their magical wonderlands for at least half an hour), and it left me kinda cold and uninspired. So I headed back to the safety of my favourite shops online in search of Christmas stockings and found these three beauties:

UK designer Donna Wilson is white-hot at the moment, isn't she? She's featured quite a few times in my gift guides, and her homewares range is spot-in, with genuine hand-made charm, gorgeous colour palettes, and just the right kind of kookiness. Her hand-knitted Christmas stockings, above, are AU$40 from Third Draw Down.

Ahhh yes, you can trust good old Fortnum & Mason to deliver on the luxe goods, with this sumptuous velvet stocking hand-stitched with silver balls and a soft white cuff. It's pricey but it looks it. And it will last forever. £85 from Fortnum & Mason (ships internationally).

Toast: now that's a UK store that knows what it's doing. This knitted Fair Isle stocking (above and top of the post) is made with organic wool. Best of all, it's £9.50 (ships internationally).

Have you seen any other gorgeous stockings? Tell me about them in the comments.
Australian readers, what do you think of DJ's Christmas stuff this year?

Comments

[Fionnuala]

At the risk of sounding like a Toast shill, that is FANTASTIC value! I am a real sucker for a cute stocking and that one pretty much ticks every one of my boxes. Great find, Top Bird!

[elissa c]

Weird, DJs in Perth have their Christmas section right in the front of the store at one of the two main entrances. It has been there since AUGUST*! I haven't had a close look at it. It's always so overpriced and I figure it's full of leftovers from last year because they don't take away the Christmas department until Late February and most of the prices don't get reduced after Christmas.

*here's a haiku I wrote about it
http://cerebralexcrement.blogspot.com/2010/08/disappointing.html

[Catherine]

I went to DJ's yesterday to top up on baubles and such and was also disappointed! Some balls were quite expensive. Myers had such a good range and lots of colours and sparkly things. Maybe try there?

[Ceri]

haven't been to DJ's in Sydney yet but the offerings in ONC (Our Nations Capital) are shocking. There are some things I don't want to go online for, I want to spend ages in a christmas shop and get all christmased up - in the nicest possible way of course.

[Samantha]

Completely agree about DJs Market Street Christmas store! Zero magic. I had my two children in there a couple of weeks ago and all the sales assistant did was scowl at them, despite the fact that they were being (uncharacteristically) well-behaved. Thankfully the Christmas windows made up for it. But nothing touches a Northern Hemisphere retail experience at this time of year...