Dee Bowman

Quintessentially’s sourcing service is the ultimate personal shopping experience dedicated to handpicking the world’s finest and most exquisite gifts. Supported by partnerships with renowned luxury brands, we locate rare and limited edition pieces from fashion to fine jewellery, Hermès bags and watches to technological gifts.

W: Who are your customers?
Our clients are international, time-pressed professionals who have high levels of disposable income. We get requests for inspirational gift ideas and hard to find pieces from busy people who simply don’t have the time (or inclination) to spend hours shopping for gifts. It’s a mixture of men and women but at Christmas we tend to find more men outsourcing their gift buying and leaving things to the last minute.

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W: What is the most extravagant gift request your expert team has had?
Our requests range from the everyday to the extraordinary. Luxury bags such as the Hermès Birkin or Kelly which are iconic handbags made available to only top-tier clients of Hermès are luxurious gift choices. They sell for tens of thousands of pounds, particularly when a client is looking for an exotic skin such as crocodile. The most extravagant request this year was for a Ulysse Nardin timepiece, one of just six produced in the world. It was valued at over £600,000.

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W: What do you think the key shopping trends for 2017 are?
We have noticed a shift among our clients towards “experience gifts” that offer a sense of time or an experience to enrich the recipient’s life. Experiences such as meeting your favourite celebrity chef for a private cooking lesson or making your own whiskey are becoming popular.
As ever, fashion trends move rapidly. Bags have become tiny, a trend that looks set to continue into 2017. We recently sourced a particularly small vintage Hermès Kelly handbag. It was adorable, enough room for a phone and lipstick!

W: What are some of the more unusual or extravagant requests from clients?
An extraordinary request came to us from a Member who wanted a private shopping experience for herself and her husband. Having flown into London by private jet, they had their favourite luxury fashion brand keep its flagship store open afterhours exclusively for them. They had a personal stylist and tailor at their disposal as they bought the new season’s collection and were able to get items personalised that evening.

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W: Do men use your services more often than women and are they more demanding?
Men and women use our services equally; I would not say that one or other is more demanding. Men tend to act on instinct more than women, they make decisions very quickly whereas women want to be well informed and look at various options.

W: How does your team stand out from other gift concierge services?
We offer a truly personal service. Each request is managed by a sourcing specialist here at Quintessentially. We create a curated edit of inspirational gift ideas for our clients to choose from based on their brief. We have access to the most usual and rare pieces from limited edition vintage jewellery to one-off collector’s items. We offer a seamless and stress free service.

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W: What do you love about your job?
Meeting with suppliers and seeing their exceptional jewellery, objet d’art and watches is a real pleasure. We work with designers and artists who are passionate about what they do. Every aspect of their craft is considered from where they source their precious gems to how they position their brand. They are true professionals and know their trade inside out. We are constantly learning from these experts and in turn can offer this expertise in sourcing stunning pieces to our clients.

W: What are your top tips for Christmas shopping this year?
Give yourself as much time as possible and wrap your gifts beautifully. Leaving shopping to the last minute takes a lot of the pleasure out of it and gifts bought in haste often lack thought and can be costly. My advice? Outsource your Christmas shopping to us!

Quintessentially’s gift sourcing service is available to all and ships internationally.

www.quintessentiallygifts.com
Contact: gifts@quintessentially.com

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