Monica Vinader

Fabulous fashion blogger Bianca Pal from Fashion Slant has popped by the MV blog to give us her musings on why personalisation is key when choosing a gift for a friend…

Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, religious holidays. So many occasions, so many gifts to be bought. Though for me, the leaving present is one of the most important.

Call it selfish, but we all want to be remembered positively when someone we love moves away. A beautiful piece of jewellery can be one of the most precious keepsakes. One of my very best friends recently moved back to the States after living for over seven years in London. She didn’t want to but sadly visa issues and an arguably inflexible governmental system dictated otherwise.

I have never know anyone to wear as much silver jewellery as Riv did; a Hamesh hand necklace around her neck, silver rings and so many silver bracelets that she jangled as she walked. My choice, therefore, was made fairly simple. I settled on a sleek silver dog tag pendant with rounded edges. I had it engraved to read ‘London will wait.’ Upon opening it (on a windy day on Hampstead Heath), my dear friend burst into tears, later reciprocating with a beautiful silver charm necklace, also engraved, reading ‘we’ll always have London’. Of course, each of us would have remembered the other without these tokens, these trinkets, but they serve as a prompt, a constant reminder of the memories of amazing times we spent together.

Owing to current economic climes (yawn), we tend to be far more selective with the money we spend on gifting. This makes personalisation all the more important. The added bonus with charms and pendants is; you can always add to them. You build them to mean more with every occasion. In a similar vein, an engraved message turns what starts as a simple piece into something to be treasured forever. Something you take out of the box and smile at once in a while.

Your friendship is already strong, cemented by endless support, tears, anger and love but a bit of jewellery never hurt anyone, did it?

I’m delighted to be a judge in Monica Vinader’s ‘My Best Friend’ competition at the moment, where you can win a beautiful Fiji friendship bracelet, exclusively designed for you and your best friend by Monica herself! Unfortunately I can’t enter my lovely friends given that I’m a judge – but you can! Head on over there now…and show your friend how much they really mean to you…