On a scale of “Christmas presents bought at Walmart” and “Christmas presents bought at Cartier,” where does Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Christmas Gift Guide fall? I think you know the answer to that. But here’s the thing – I never really find crazy-expensive gift guides all that offensive. I actually enjoy looking through some of the pricier gift guides and saying to myself, “Well, of course I should give my mother a $5000 gold-plated juicer, who wouldn’t?” Expensive and “aspirational” gift guides for the 1% are amusing and interesting, because rich people spend stupid money on stupid things. What I find offensive is when Gwyneth does her “fall/spring fashion guides,” which is where she tells people that they should be spending $45,000 on new clothes per season. But anyway… people are making a big deal about this week’s Goop-letter, in which Gwyneth recommends $109,384 worth of crap including:
A $30 Furby
A $10 friendship bracelet kit
$4,739 Easy Health Angel Juicer Gold
Valentino Canvas Trolley, $4,545
$12,000 Diamond Thickie Esque vase
$495 St. Louis Scully & Scully crystal glasses, per glass
$1,500 Hermes Avalon blanket
Balenciaga New Classic Biker Jacket, $2,614
$1,995 for a single Anita Ko safety pin earring
$7,600 Cartier bracelet
A Harry Winston diamond cluster ring (price on request)
$1,495 Arthur Umanoff bar cart
The Row Rina Fringed Cashmere Cape, $3,190
You can go to Goop to see all of Gwyneth’s little asides about why these items would be the greatest gifts ever. I have to give Gwyneth a little bit of credit for compiling this gift guide – I remember in past guides, the links were janky as hell, and more often than not, you had to hunt various elite sites to find her recommendations. She’s streamlined the whole process and now the links lead directly to the product. And yes, I assume that she’s getting some kind of kickback from many of these companies whose products she recommends. How else do you expect her to afford HER $$4,739 gold-plated Easy Health Angel Juicer? Oh, and some of her recommendations for kids’ gifts are actually reasonably priced. Who would have thought that I would be defending her? It’s a Goop Christmas Miracle.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I buy all my holiday gifts from SkyMall, so this list really speaks to me.
Crap! Abbott – You shop there too?!
I was trying to do my holiday shopping early this year, but now I’m worried that you may already have what I had picked out for you. It was between these two.
http://www.skymall.com/mischievous-moose-bottle-holder/TFA103MM.html#q=Wine+holder&start=16
http://www.skymall.com/king-tuts-egyptian-throne/WU-70259.html#q=King+Tut&start=2
i think i just died laughing.
One can never have too many King Tut thrones for their front porch.
For a while they had a “sculpture” of Big Foot peeking out from behind a tree that I kept threatening to buy for family members.
its funny how the gifts go from $10 to $30 bucks to thousands. (ok, one is at $500.00) its like “here are two gifts for the peasants and the rest are for us rich folk”.
What else is new?
And I thought you were joking about the gold plated juicer. My silly peasant naivety
Maybe this happens all the time and I just never noticed, or just happening to me… but I think it’s bloody hilarious that almost all of the “info-links” in this GOOP post (green words) are to Martha Stewart recipes.
More and more stuff. I’d rather have less things to clean, insure, store, worry about. Not even one good book on the list.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s target audience aren’t people that shop at Walmart and Target or go to the clearance section at Sears. She has a specific audience she’s aiming for: Rich people. That list is perfectly reasonable when you understand that.
Exactly! What’s the uproar?
I agree, but do rich people care what she says? She’s an actress, not a cultivator of fine goods. Wouldn’t they find her blog kind of low brow?
Except that’s not working, because she’s taken major losses. Her business isn’t doing too well. You’d think she’d try to be more relatable…..
Many of the children’s items are actually reasonably priced and look fun.
I went over there fully prepared to hate on it but, I have to say, this actually seems like a pretty good gift guide. She even admits that the gold plated juicer is “absurd but awesome.”
Oprah’s favorite things was “only” worth $13,054 this year!
She always looks like she just waxed her car then wiped off the excess on her forehead. Not a good look.
even when you have a lot of money to blow, why would you want a 5K juicer? just to say you have a goldplated 5k juicer? bizarre.
Seems like I’ve seen quite a few stories about how her site bleeds money every year, wonder why she keeps it going if that’s true. I don’t know anyone who enjoys reading Goop for reasons other than making fun of it, but I’m not in the 1% either.
I am still kinda freaked out and sad after looking at the June Shannon horror show. Bless you Gwyneth Paltrow and your.. well, your usual self! I feel much better. Never thought I’d be grateful for GOOP!
Ridiculous and silly, but totally expected. Over the top gift guides are nothing new, but strangely I find that less offensive than her telling people to buy a $150 white t-shirt.
I bet she cackles with high class glee every time she puts these together. At this point, she practically lives for people telling her she has no concept of reality. Of course she doesn’t – why would she want to care or be part of a reality where $100,000 Christmases don’t exist? She is nothing but consistent, and to that extent, she is extremely entertaining.