Welcome to the holiday season! This week, we wanted to recommend a few of our team’s favourite finds for work and life, for product and fashion designers. 

All of these budget picks are from small businesses you can feel comfortable supporting! Plus, we’ve also outlined some of the essentials you need when designing textile and fashion products. These are the ones you need to add to Santa’s list! 

Shop Small Business Picks

1. Need something to brighten up your office space? I’m still in love with my poster-sized calendar one year later. It’s open dated so you can use it any year… and each month is a different hue. My tip… use it with colored sticky notes so you can start again with it the next year. Shop Direct or Buy on Amazon

2. Sleek backpack. For when you need to go to shows and have space for a laptop, books, water, lunch and samples! Really comfortable with enough pockets to keep the essentials in. But still minimal and timeless. Shop Direct

3. Hot drink tumbler (keep your cuppa warm at your desk). You’ve probably already got one of these if you’re on 3+ cups a day like me. But if not, you need to stop letting your drinks get cold when you get distracted by your inbox/your toddler/Tik Tok! Shop Direct or Buy on Amazon

4. Desk organizer. This one looks chic and is on both mine and Jessa’s home office wishlists. Shop Direct or Buy on Amazon

Textile & Fashion Design Essentials

5. Sewing kit storage. If you’ve been wanting to update your sewing stash storage to something more modern than a floral fabric basket, this pick is for you. I’m hankering after one of these bright and bold toolboxes for myself. Shop Direct

6. Fashion rulers. If you’re getting started with pattern making or just want to check balances and curved seams when fit testing your samples… you’ll need a few of these guys. I personally prefer the metal ones to plastic as they don’t break (it’s easier than you think to snap the long ones!). Shop Direct

7. Fashion Illustration Pens. A collaboration between 9HEADS and Mood Fabrics, these were created specifically with the perfect colors for contemporary fashion. Shop Direct

8. Fashion sketchbooks. Look no further for a purpose-built fashion sketch pad. Figure outlines on each page, with a directory of reference images at the back. Shop Direct

9. Wireless tablet & pen. If CAD is more your thing for technical drawings, then you’ll want to avoid hand cramps and improve your accuracy with a pen and a tablet. If you’re spending time daily in Adobe Illustrator daily, one of these is a must-have, they really speed up your sketches. Shop Direct or Buy on Amazon

10. Must have: entry-level Pantone book for fashion + home colors. The most cost-effective format for this color book is the mini fan deck. If you need to give your factory color references for dyeing and print, this is where you’ll get them! Shop Direct