Where to Pick Fun Gifts Like Sunflower Pins
CHEAPO FIND OF THE WEEK: When a colleague at The Times waltzed into the office wearing what looked like a live sunflower at her neck, it was so stunning that everybody commented on it.
Favorably, save for one nitwit pop music writer who ridiculed the pin--and then apologized when he saw a magazine photo of Nick Nolte wearing what seemed to be the same, hard-to-believe-it’s-a-fake flower in his lapel.
The giant sunflower pin sells for $15 at one of the most eclectic shops in town: Pamela Barsky, a tiny, artfully messy store in the Beverly Connection shopping center, across from Beverly Center.
It’s loaded with great, strange stuff such as wooden dogs created by a chain-saw artist ($80 and up), jars of caramel apple butter ($5), picture frames made by Folsom Prison inmates from discarded packs of Camel cigarettes ($18 to $22) and spectacular candles ($22.50) made from fallen, hollowed out, white birch logs that resemble mini-tree trunks.
A former advertising copywriter, 31-year-old Barsky offers gifts for any budget. She’s got wooden postcards for $1 and crucifixes for $5,000.
About half the items are made by artists. The other half are manufactured items such as Elvis address books ($3.50).
This is the kind of store where the customers are often as interesting as the merchandise. Seasoned shoppers about town (Suzanne Pleshette, Teri Garr) pop in, as do those searching for gifts for those who’ve seen it all.
Says Barsky: “Cher has trainers for specific parts of her body, one for her legs and one for her arms. The legs person was in the other day to buy Cher a present.”
SHOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE: Chuck Woolery, host of “Love Connection” and the new “The Chuck Woolery Show,” is a man who not only enjoys shopping but also insists on doing it himself.
“I basically dress down $2,000 suits,” he says of the Bernini suits supplied for his TV shows.
Woolery typically pairs them with T-shirts or silk shirts he purchases at Theodore Man to create a ‘90s version of the tie-free look Don Johnson popularized on “Miami Vice.”
“I like to shop. I’m like a professional shopper,” adds Woolery. “I go straight for what I want. I buy it and leave.”