Best gift shops: Hell's Kitchen

This popular neighborhood boutique is a treasure trove for kitschy housewares like Design Ideas skyline bookends ($43), Jonathan Adler ceramic animals ($47–$200) and high-end beauty goods such as Archipelago Botanicals travel sets ($28). There’s also a small but well-curated selection of cookbooks, including Janet Fletcher’s Eating Local ($35) and Ruth Reichl’s Gourmet Today ($40).

Scouring the globe for unusual design products is nothing new, but owners Luisa Cerutti and Nicki Lindheimer take the concept of overseas buying trips a step further; each year they visit a far-flung part of the world to forge links with and support cooperatives and individual craftspeople. The beautiful results reflect a fine attention to detail and a sense of place. With their vivid colors and swirling abstract patterns, baskets woven from telephone wire by South African Zulu tribespeople would look fantastic in a modern apartment. They come in a variety of sizes, priced from $29 to $335, and still exude a faint scent of smoke from the huts in which they took shape. Exquisite stone boxes made by a family in Vietnam are carved with remarkably convincing “weave” patterns, decorative leaves or an intricate dragon ($29–$220). Some items are sourced closer to home, such as Hell’s Kitchen cabinetmaker Beau Van Donkelaar’s one-of-a-kind cheese boards composed of different-colored wood offcuts ($199). This is a great place to find reasonably priced gifts, from handmade Afghan soaps ($8.25) to Italian throws (from $69), plus cushions, glassware, toys and much more.