Lorient Gift Greystones

Neck it!

e first spoke to the bould Isobel when the doors first swung open on Lorient back in August 2017, and it was clear right from the start that her little shop was going to be a perfect fit for Greystones.

Having first established her glittering reputation out in sunny Dun Laoghaire, Isobel had long dreamt of moving Lorient, lock, stock and antique barrel, to our town.

And for many people in Greystones, having this much-loved gift shop move to their town was also something of a dream come true.

But, hey, enough flattery. Here’s the lady herself…

The environment is important to us and we continue to look for designers who act responsibly to not just the environment, the products and packaging but to the people who make their products. We have some fair trade companies including Earth Squared (who make bags and accessories), Gringo (who create some lovely wooden decorative birds from sustainable wood from Indonesia), and Lua, who support women in rural Vietnam.

Our latest addition is Bamboo eco-friendly & reusable coffee mugs that have bamboo lids (most of the mugs on offer still have plastic lids). Meanwhile, the hunt continues for stylish goodies, and we never rest on our laurels, constantly scouting in Ireland and abroad.

We have a bit of a scarf fetish and, at last count, we have over 60 different styles, between our winter cosy ones and our lighter everyday scarves. We also stock a range of sterling silver jewellery, and a load of costume jewellery. We could fill any jewellery box to bursting.

What gift shop would be complete without some cards? Well, we stay away from the flowers, and saccharine-sweet cards, and go almost entirely for things that make us laugh out loud. Life is just too short for boring cards, so, we also stock the fab pop-up cards – little works of art stuffed in an envelope.

Overall, where possible, we try to stay away from well-known high street brands and offer something a little different, from smaller designers and makers who offer good value and something a little unusual.

For the home we have fab cushions, throws, light shades and foot stools in beautiful fabrics from Voyage. Along with beautiful mug sets, coasters, Mango wood fruit bowls and decorative wood design pieces. For the kids, we have bouncy toys for the little ones, wooden rustic animals, teddies and money boxes, plus baby blankets and picture frames.
We love an unusual Christmas decoration, and secretly wish we could have a Christmas present grotto year round. This year we have cut down on the baubles and gotten some beautiful metal wreaths and tree decorations that are proving to be a hit. We even have two styles of metal skeletal display trees, one of which that hangs from the ceiling that is safe from adventurous toddlers and tree climbing kitty cats!

And we’ve just added Waterford ceramics artist Vivien O’Malley to our line-up of fine Irish artists. You really have to check this lady’s work out…

Bejiggers! We love a small shop that things big. Widescreen, globe-trotting, planet-hugging big. Open from 10am to 6pm daily, you can find Lorient Gift right on Greystones’ main street, and check out their goodies online too, right here. You can get in touch on [email protected] or call the shop on 012874665.

You can also check out our August 2017 chat with Isobel right here.