We’re in the sweet spot of the year, right now. Long days, longer nights — peak festival season and the start of summer. Everyone you know is off to Europe or a rave or both at once, depending on the circles you travel in.
And if far-flung travel isn’t in the cards these next few months, our hope for you is that relaxation still is. Summer used to be lazy. But inflation and fears about AI-related job loss have killed that little fantasy. Still, the idea of curating a beautiful life and feeling chilllll during the long warm nights isn’t completely shot.
It’s something we all should aspire to, angst be damned.
That’s what this installation of our famous gift guides is about. We built the guide around pieces with vintage European energy — Italian Riviera, terry-cloth-and-Negroni, Newman-and-Redford-squinting-into-the-Mediterranean type vibes. Then we added some rave-ready lingerie and self-care tech because one or both of those directions might be your heading over the next few months, and we didn’t want to leave anyone in the cold.
Check the items below, then check your bank balance. Because while many of the items here draw from midcentury design cues, that’s the only thing mid you should tolerate about summer ’26.
Randolph — Sportsman 23k Gold & American Tan
Price: $335
Picture Paul Newman leaning on a fence at a racetrack, or Redford squinting off a boat deck — that’s the frame these conjure before you’ve even put them on. The Sportsman evolved from Randolph’s Concorde shape, with a Mazzucchelli (I included the name because it’s the only name I’ve ever heard code moire clearly Italian than my own!) acetate brow bar across the top and amber skull temple tips that hook behind your ears.
The lenses are real glass, polarized, with an 11% light transmission that cuts festival-stage glare without washing out the colors.
Randolph hand-assembles these in Massachusetts across roughly 200 steps, and the 23k gold is jewelry-grade plating that holds up. Speaking personally, I’ve had three pairs over ten years (not a bad loss rate, if you knew me) and I keep going back to them!
Get a pair for the person who treats their sunglasses like an heirloom, not a gas-station impulse buy.
Get the Randolph Sportsman here.
Houseplant — The Rooster Rolling Tray
Price: $185
Seth Rogen’s brand keeps evolving in cooler and cooler ways. The Rooster tray is freehand-painted by artisans in Deruta — the Umbrian hill town that’s been turning out majolica ceramics since the Renaissance — using the Orvieto crowing-rooster motif, which is older than basically every country where you’re likely reading this.
Each one is hand-thrown earthenware, kiln-fired, food-safe, dishwasher-safe, and slightly different from the next, because a real human painted it. (Not Seth himself, but still…)
It’s 16 inches long, so it’ll hold a full antipasto spread, a stack of cannoli, or — this being a Houseplant joint — whatever else you’d want to roll on a tray. Versatile little thing.
Get it for the friend whose dinner parties already have a soundtrack and a vibe.
Get the Rooster tray here.
Bydee — Mykonos Bikini in Miraé
Price: $89 (top) / $79 (bottoms)
If you are headed to Europe this summer, this is the suit you wear off a boat in the Cyclades and into a beach bar without changing. The Mykonos is textured stretch lace with a white lace trim. Like other Bydee suits, it’s got a floral chain-drop charm and pearl teardrop at the center front, plus alternating gold-zinc-alloy dragonfly and floral charms on the end ties.
The Miraé colorway reads as a soft, near-white textured pattern that photographs like sea-bleached linen. The whole thing is cut from regenerated and recycled materials — 97% recycled polyester — so it’s kinder to the water you’re swimming in. This one definitely screams, “I summered somewhere with a ferry schedule.”
Get the Mykonos top here and the bottoms here.
Birdwell — 808 SurfStretch Side Pocket Boardshorts in Gold
Price: $125
Birdwell Beach Britches has been sewing boardshorts in Southern California for six-plus decades — these are the trunks your coolest uncle wore in faded Kodachrome, back when a day at the beach came with a woodie wagon and zinc on the nose. The 808 is the modern version of that legacy: an 8-inch inseam that hits at mid-thigh, cut from the brand’s SurfStretch fabric, which is water-repellent, quick-drying, and tough enough to come with a lifetime guarantee.
A buddy of mine had the 90s version of these in college, and I will never forget that they lasted him all four beach-filled years in San Diego with nary a loose thread.
There’s a full-sized side pocket built to swallow your phone, the seams are double- and triple-needle-reinforced so they don’t blow out, and the gold colorway is a properly saturated sunshine yellow rather than some timid mustard. They’re still sewn in the USA, true to size, and they look as right at a festival campsite as they do off the back of a boat.
Get them for the guy who appreciates boardies built to outlast the trend cycle.
Get the Birdwell 808 here.
Houseplant — Roach Clip Side Table
Price: $295
The Roach Clip Side Table is the most committed-to-the-bit piece in HousePlant’s entire “stoner gear doesn’t have to look junky” catalog. It’s a genuinely handsome end table — steel frame, warm Sungkai wood top, 24.7 inches tall, the kind of clean-lined thing you’d put next to an eames chair. Then you notice the built-in roach clip machined right into the design, and the Seth of it all lands.
The surface is sized for the actual choreography of a hang: room for a drink, a lighter, an ashtray. That ashtray is removable, too, so you can pass it around the circle without anyone ashing on the wood. Get it for the friend whose apartment already looks like a design magazine but who is ready for a coffee table that is… functionally honest about how they spend their evenings.
Get the Roach Clip Side Table here.
Triangl — Mala Mulberry Balconette Bikini Set
Price: $135
Where the Bydee is for Greece, the Mala is for the come-down — post-festival pool days, late-July beach afternoons, the back half of summer when you’ve earned a slower pace.
The fabric is 91% recycled polyethylene. It also ships with a neoprene zip bag, so the wetsuit has somewhere to go that isn’t the inside of your tote. Get it for the friend whose summer doesn’t end when the festivals do.
Get the Mala Mulberry set here.
Hello Molly — Berry Patch Bikini in Meadow Muse Print
Price: $45.95 (top), $45.95 (bottom)
The Berry Patch leans sweet and a little romantic. It’s got a waffle texture, adjustable halter neck, and back ties to dial the fit, finished with little love-heart charms and a knot detail at the center. The bottoms are a Brazilian cut with adjustable hip ties, same waffle texture.
It’s the kind of print that looks like it belongs on a vintage Italian beach towel. Get it for someone who wants the European summer look without the European summer flight.
Get the Berry Patch top here and the bottoms here.
Honey Birdette — Clara 3 Piece Lingerie Set
Price: $450
This is a serious piece of lingerie — ultra-soft pink satin with glossy gold rings, very sexy (if slightly complicated) garter belt, and a cheeky brief, with Honey Birdette claiming 20-plus ways to wear it via the adjustable ties.
Def a great one for a lazy summer Sunday. But also, anyone who goes to music festivals knows that — particularly at EDM fests — lingerie doesn’t have to stay in the bedroom. Lingerie-as-outerwear has been a main-stage move for years, and a satin bra that layers well under an open shirt at an EDM set far better than anything you’ll find at some fast fashion outlet.
If your giftee is heading to Lost in Dreams, or any of the season’s electronic tentpoles where the dress code is “wear less, but make it look expensive” — or just wants something for a night that has nothing to do with a festival — the Clara works both jobs. Also… it’s the rare gift that, let’s be honest, serves two people.
Get the Clara set here.
Dandy Del Mar — The Cyprus Dress in Pico
Price: $89 (regularly $149)
The Cyprus is a scoop-neck mini cut from an 80% cotton, 20% polyester terry blend — the same plush fabric your grandmother’s cabana chairs were upholstered in, now tailored into something you’d actually wear to dinner.
This is the in-between piece — the thing you throw on over a swimsuit for the walk from the water to the cocktail bar, designed with love in California but dreaming hard about the Ligurian coast (I feel insufferable for that sentence but alas…I won’t delete it).
Get the Cyprus dress here.
Dandy Del Mar — The Cannes Waffle Knit Robe in Albero
Price: $139 (regularly $199)
The Cannes is a waffle-knit robe in a 60% cotton, 40% polyester blend, with a charming lapel, a matching waist tie, a reinforced collar, and side pockets for your espresso, your phone, your… whatever. The Albero colorway is a warm earthy brown that looks expensive against tile.
Basically, this is the lounge robe for cocktail hour when you know you’re going to dip back in the pool. For the guy who answers the door holding a Negroni. Get it for him. He deserves it.
Buy the Cannes robe here.
Gina DeSantis Ceramics — Borealis Oil Cruet
Price: $69
This cruet is thrown on the wheel from speckled brown stoneware, hand-trimmed, then glazed in DeSantis’s custom lead-free glazes. Three thumbprint indentations are pressed into the side, so it actually grips even when your hands are oily, and the narrow-neck spout pours olive oil without dripping.
It stands eight inches tall, holds about 22 ounces, and it’s the shop’s number-one seller. Get it for the home cook who already buys the good oil and deserves something better than the bottle it came in. This makes the table feel like it’s pulled from one of those old beach cabins along the Oregon coast.
Get the Borealis cruet here.
BluBlocker — 1986 Aviator in Black Metal
Price: $48
The everyman counterpoint to the Randolphs — same retro-aviator silhouette, a fraction of the price, and a cult following we’ve now covered something like five separate times. The 1986 Aviator is a rerelease of BluBlocker’s original frame, the one that started life in a late-night in-flight shopping catalog and somehow became a low-key cultural artifact. You get a black metal aviator shape and the signature amber gradient lens that warms the whole world and makes every late-afternoon set feel like golden hour.
It’s not pure nostalgia, either — the glass lenses block 100% of UV and blue light, so it’s genuine squint relief on a bright festival field, and they ship in a drawstring pouch so they survive the bottom of your bag.
Stupidly good value. Get a pair for the friend who loses sunglasses but cries over the expensive ones.
Get the BluBlocker 1986 Aviator here.
RENPHO x Headspace — Eyeris Zen Eye Massager
Price: $124.99
The recovery piece — because the dolce vita includes the part where you do nothing, and three days of festival sun does a number on your eyes. The Eyeris Zen wraps your eyes and temples in adjustable heat (low, medium, high, or off) and gentle air compression across three massage modes, all driven by a ZenTech motor that runs near-silent at around 40 decibels.
It weighs under 10 ounces, fits via an adjustable headband, and — the genuinely clever bit — has nine Headspace meditations built right in, no phone required.
This product is part of my morning and nighttime routines — adding a sense of calm. Get it for the person in your life who needs permission to slow down — the festival friend, the screen-fried creative, the one who hasn’t taken a real breath since May.
Get the Eyeris Zen here.
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