4 great last-minute gifts for your favorite Richmonder
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
So you procrastinated.
What's happening: It's OK, so did we.
Here's what we came up with in our last-minute scramble for great gifts that rep Richmond and all its weird and wonderful local artists and shops.
📔 A beautiful coffee table book: "Richmond Architectura" ($50), just published, offers a dreamy, idealized study of the buildings that make the city so beautiful.
- Who it's for: The design-obsessed people in your life. Its author, architectural and real estate photographer Mathew Oswald, says he designed it specifically to look great as an interior design prop. (Superficial? Yes, but we respect the honesty.)
- How to get it: Order online before Christmas, and Oswald says he'll hand deliver in Richmond. But move fast because he says he only has 10 copies left on hand.
🌁 A low-key cityscape: Help a friend brighten up a bare wall with this calming print of the view from Belle Isle ($12). Produced by Rise Labs, a nonprofit in Church Hill, it's also available in the form of a tote bag or tea towel.
- Who it's for: Rise honestly has something for everyone. Their prints cover a lot of geographic ground, from Libby Hill to Forest Hill Park.
- How to get it: Order online, and you can arrange for local pick up through the end of the week.
🛶 A cheeky little sticker: Ned here. If someone slipped this cute Richmond river opossum sticker ($4) in a Christmas card for me, I'd probably love them forever.
- Who it's for: Me. And I guess anyone who has plopped down on a rock for a lazy afternoon in the muddy green shallows of the James.
- How to get it: The design, by the always delightful Clara Cline, is available in her shop and design studio, The Wild Wander, on Strawberry Street.
😵💫 A hoodie for going hard: Karri here, coveting the best Richmond gift ever: a hoodie celebrating Richmond's very best and beloved dive bar, The Locker Room ($39).
- Who's it for: Me. Or your dive bar, Southside-loving friend.
- How to get it: In person at The Locker Room only — and they're going fast. Plan to stay for a drink. Or three.
Of note: If you're a browser, check out Studio Two Three's Winter Market, which is running through the 24th and features work by over a hundred local artists.
And don't sleep on any of our suggestions from last year.
- We maintain that Valentine's Meat Juice bloody mary mix is one of the most delightfully weird local history things ever. (Grab it at the museum's shop downtown or make it a party pack via Cirrus Vodka.)
- Plus, the gift shops at Richmond's museums make some of the best local shopping around (check out VMFA, VMHC, ACWM and Poe).
- And we could never rep local illustrator Doug Orleski hard enough.