Cyber Monday Holiday Shopping Sale Offers Significant Savings to Craft Enthusiasts

In preparation for the holiday shopping season, ConsumerCrafts announces their Cyber Monday sale occurring Monday, November 30th. Shoppers can enjoy 50 percent off all merchandise and free shipping within the contiguous United States. There is no minimum purchase required, and the sale is open to all consumers.

Promotional code to enter during checkout: CC10CYM

With their one-day-only Cyber Monday sale, ConsumerCrafts offers shoppers the opportunity to grow their craft and stock up on common crafting and scrapbooking supplies. Consumers can find everything from scrapbooking paper and decals and a huge selection of beads, to kids craft supplies, gems, stones and jewelry making equipment. Crafters can find a helpful education section on the ConsumerCrafts Web site which offers tips and instructions on beading, as well as an extensive product glossary of their merchandise.

Crafting has increased in popularity in recent years. The launch of crafting sites such as Etsy.com – where crafters can sell their handmade goods at set prices – has offered crafters the opportunity to gain exposure and create revenue in the online market, without having to manage a costly or time-consuming Web site. Crafting blogs have also gained attention, as well as trade shows hosted by organizations dedicated to increasing public interest in crafting through promotional events held across the nation. Many crafting Web sites also feature educational sections on beading and crafting, offering beginning beaders the opportunity to learn easy jewelry making techniques.

About ConsumerCrafts

ConsumerCrafts is an online only craft store that offers craft, bead, jewelry and scrapbooking supplies at competitive price points. Established in 2007, ConsumerCrafts is a privately owned company based out of Cleveland, OH. ConsumerCrafts offers craft supplies through their VeriSign and McAfee secure Web site, www.consumercrafts.com.

For more information on ConsumerCrafts, contact customer service at Customer_service@consumercrafts.com

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HOLIDAY ART SALE, AUCTION TO BENEFIT SOFA GALLERY, FRIENDS OF ART

Indiana University issued the following news release:

Indiana University’s School of Fine Arts Gallery will present its annual holiday sale, this year titled “tiffany bracelets Night: A Holiday Art Sale and Auction,” Dec. 10-11.

The two-day sale begins Dec. 10 at noon and features current work donated by faculty and students from IU’s Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts with additional works donated by local artists. Items for sale and auction will include photographs, paintings, prints, ceramics and textiles. Jewelry will be created specifically for the event by IU students and faculty who specialize in metalsmithing and jewelry design.

Proceeds from the sale support the SoFA Gallery’s visual arts programming and the advocacy programs administered by the Friends of Art, including student scholarships.

“The Holiday Art Sale and Auction is an essential fundraising event for us because it not only provides funding for gallery exhibits and programs, but it allows us to offer professional training for student employees,” said Betsy Stirratt, director of the SoFA Gallery.

The sale runs Dec. 10-11 from noon-4 p.m. both days. A Fine Arts Student Award tiffany on sale is scheduled for Dec. 11 from 5:30-7 p.m. (Fine Arts 015). The two-day event culminates with a silent auction and holiday party art opening Friday, Dec. 11, from 6:30-8 p.m. in the SoFA Gallery.

For more information, see the SoFA Gallery Web site, http://sofa.fa.indiana.edu.libproxy.library.wmich.edu, or contact the SoFA Gallery at 812-855-8490 or sofa@indiana.edu. The SoFA Gallery is accessible to people with disabilities and is open Tuesday Saturday, noon 4 p.m., closed Sunday and tiffany sale.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Rapid Sale of $1.5 Million Inventory Shows Demand For Value Jewelry

When secured lenders in early December asked Buxbaum Jewelry Advisors and LiquiTec Industries to sell off a bangles $1.5 million cost jewelry inventory before the end of the year, the deadline might have seemed unusually tight. But by reaching out to their extensive contacts in the secondary jewelry market, veteran liquidators at both firms carried out the sale in record time.

“The secured lenders needed the sale finished in fewer than 10 days,” noted Stevan Buxbaum, Executive Vice President of Agoura Hills, Calif.-based Buxbaum Group, one of North America’s largest liquidators and appraisers of retail and wholesale inventories. “The deadline was Dec. 31st, and we were finished with the sale by the 23rd.”

Demand for closeout merchandise continues to be strong among secondary-market buyers, who then resell these pieces to jewelry retailers looking to boost their margins by diversifying their offerings, Buxbaum explained. “We knew exactly which buyers would be most interested in this particular inventory and, sure enough, they responded quickly to this sale,” he said.

In the private treaty sale, New York-based Surya Capital acquired the inventory of Shine Diam, Inc. and J Designs By Shine, Inc. The two bulk lots included more than $1.5 million in diamonds, colored stones, finished jewelry and approximately 17,000 grams of 14-karat gold. All told, the hundreds of rings, necklaces, pendants, rings, bracelets and bangles added up to more than 2,500 carats of diamonds, 11,000 carats of loose gems and 15,000 grams of 14k white and yellow gold pieces, all with stones.

“The secured lenders were quite happy with the recovery, which followed our recent successful sales of jewelry inventories from retailers and manufacturers such as Henrick’s Jewelers and House of Taylor,” Buxbaum said. “Like the rest of retail, the jewelry industry is looking for value, and closeout merchandise offers an excellent opportunity for chains to diversify their offerings at low cost.”

The current interest in gold as a repository of value also contributed to the success of this sale, Buxbaum added. “With the price of gold at approximately $1,100 an ounce, that certainly set a good baseline value for much of this inventory,” he said.

About Buxbaum Jewelry Advisors/Buxbaum Group

Buxbaum Jewelry Advisors has assembled a team of jewelry professionals that have provided wholesale and retail jewelers with financial solutions for more than 20 years. It offers a wide range of services and can meet the needs of both financially distressed and profitable jewelry retailers and wholesalers. It is a division of Agoura bracelets, Calif.-based Buxbaum Group, which has built its reputation for over 30 years as one of the largest liquidators and appraisers of retail and wholesale inventories across North America.

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Saks Incorporated Announces 7.0% Comparable Store Sales Increase in January

Retailer Saks Incorporated (NYSE: SKS) (the “Company”) today announced that owned sales tiffany note $158.9 million for the four weeks ended January 30, 2010 compared to $147.1 million for the four weeks ended January 31, 2009, an 8.0% increase. Comparable store sales increased 7.0% for the month.

For the fourth quarter ended January 30, 2010, owned sales totaled $797.7 million compared to $829.0 million for the quarter ended January 31, 2009, a 3.8% decrease. Comparable store sales decreased 4.8% for the fourth quarter.

For the fiscal year ended January 30, 2010, owned sales totaled $2,592.0 million compared to $3,004.3 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2009, a 13.7% decrease. Comparable store sales decreased 14.7% for the fiscal year.

For January, the strongest categories at Saks Fifth Avenue stores were women’s designer and “tiffanys range” apparel, women’s shoes, handbags, fashion jewelry, men’s apparel, and men’s shoes. Saks Direct performed well for the month.

Saks Incorporated operates 53 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, 55 Saks OFF 5TH stores, and saks.com.

Tiffany & Co declares stock split and increases dividend

The board of directors of Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) declared a 3-for-2 split of its common stock, to be effected in the form of a share distribution, and approved a 50 percent increase in its quarterly cash dividend, so that its quarterly dividend will continue at the rate of 5 cents per share following the stock split.
The foregoing announcement was made Thursday by William R. Chaney, chairman, at the company’s tiffany bracelets meeting of shareholders.
The additional shares resulting from the stock split will be distributed on July 14 to holders of record on June 20. In lieu of fractional shares, cash will be paid to shareholders in an amount based on the closing price of the company’s shares on June 20.
Tiffany’s board of directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 7.5 cents per share on ”pre-split” shares, to be paid on July 14 to holders of record on June 20. Future quarterly dividends are expected to be paid at the rate of 5 cents per share on all ”post-split” shares.
Tiffany declared its first quarterly dividend on its common stock in May 1988.
Chaney said, ”We are very gratified to announce both the stock split and the dividend increase. These actions reflect Tiffany’s strong financial results and stock performance and our continued optimism for the future.”
Tiffany merchandise offerings include an extensive collection of fine jewelry, sterling silverware, china, crystal, tiffany cufflinks, clocks, stationery, leather goods, scarves and fragrance. In addition to its flagship New York store, Tiffany operates retail stores in Atlanta, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Dallas, Houston and San Francisco.
Exclusive Tiffany merchandise is also offered through a select group of prestigious jewelers and specialty retailers in other cities.  Direct Marketing is carried out through the Corporate division and the Tiffany Selections catalog.
International Retail sales are made tiffany money clips Mitsukoshi department stores and a wholesale distributor in Japan and the Tiffany stores in London, Munich, Zurich and two in Hong Kong.

Tiffany’s posts 7 percent jump in November-December same-store sales

Fine jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. reported on Wednesday robust holiday sales and offered an upbeat profit cufflinks. The company’s shares fell more than 2 percent, however, on investors’ concerns about its business in Japan and pressure on profit margins amid higher costs for commodities like gold.
Tiffany said that global sales in stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, rose 7 percent during the November-December holiday period. For Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, total sales increased 15 percent to $818.1 million, due to strong growth in the U.S. and most international markets. On a constant-exchange-rate basis, total sales rose 14 percent.
“We are delighted to report such strong overall sales growth for the holiday season which exceeded our expectations,” said Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and CEO. “We saw healthy sales increases in many product categories ranging from diamonds to silver jewelry.”
Looking ahead, the company forecasts full-year earnings of $1.82 to $1.85 per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are currently looking for fiscal 2006 profit of $1.82 per share, on average. The company’s fiscal year ends Jan 31.
Tiffany’s also said it will accelerate 2007 Tiffany & Co. store openings to between 5 and 7 in the U.S. and 10 internationally, and forecast 2007 earnings per share growth of 13 to 15 percent on low-double-digit sales growth. That would translate into profit at or above Wall Street’s current consensus estimate of $2.06 per share.
During the holiday period, the company said U.S. retail sales increased 12 percent to $432.4 million, and same-money clips sales were up 8 percent, due to sales growth of 15 percent in Tiffany’s New York flagship store and 7 percent in comparable branch stores. Tiffany’s said the strong results were fueled by increases both in the number of transactions and in the average amount spent per transaction.
International retail sales grew 18 percent to $283.5 million, with same-store sales rising 6 percent. The retailer said it saw strong sales growth in most international markets, which offset a same-store sales decline in Japan.
Direct marketing sales gained 10 percent to $69.7 million, due to increases in both the number of orders and in the amounts spent per order, the company said.
Tiffany’s also said it saw increased wholesale sales of diamonds during the holidays, as well as greater specialty retail sales in its Iridesse and Little Switzerland stores.
Most analysts were positive on the news, but there was some worries about performance in Japan the only region where same-store sales fell and pressures on margins. Tiffany is now focusing on higher-end jewelry, which is more expensive to produce. And the retailer is also faced with higher commodity prices on gold, silver and platinum.
Tiffany had a “strong holiday as expected,” said David A. Schick, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus & Co., in a note on Wednesday. “Essentially all regions other than Japan are robust. Results suggest consumers in these non-Japan markets have a strong appreciation for luxury goods and the Tiffany brand.”
Merrill Lynch analyst Lorraine Maikis, who rates Tiffany “Neutral,” noted the company is facing margin pendants amid higher costs for materials.
Shares of Tiffany fell 82 cents, or 2.07 percent, to close at $38.80 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tiffany, Zale Report Profits

Jewelry retailers Tiffany & Co. and Zale Corp. said Thursday they made money this summer, but their quarterly sales performance suggested the luxury end of the market is stronger than the vast middle.
Zale, which operates middlebrow chains such as Zales Jewelers and Gordon’s Jewelers, saw its same-store sales fall 0.5 percent.
But at high-end Tiffany, sales at stores open at least a year one of the most closely watched indicators in retailing jumped 17 percent in the United States and 13 percent overall from a year ago.
Industry experts said Zale’s middle-class shoppers were feeling pinched by high energy prices and slumping housing markets.
“The economy and the mortgage market are in flux, and that has some effect on purchases of luxury items bracelets as jewelry,” said Mark S. Gottlieb, a business appraiser who has testified in court and written about the jewelry industry. “It may have more impact on the Zale-type customer than the Tiffany-type customer.”
Despite the increase in same-store sales, Tiffany’s profit in the May-July quarter fell 10 percent due to a charge for selling its Little Switzerland retail business.
Net income was $37 million, or 26 cents per share, down from $41.1 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding the charge and results from the pending sale of Little Switzerland, New York-based Tiffany said operating profits were 45 cents per share. Analysts, who usually exclude one-time items from their estimates, had forecast 34 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
Overall sales rose 20 percent to $662.6 million from $554.7 million a year ago.
Tiffany raised its expected earnings per share for all of 2007 by 12 cents to between $2.22 and $2.27, better than Wall Street’s forecast of $2.13. The figures don’t include a gain from the $328 million sale of the chain’s Tokyo flagship store, a site the company bought four years ago for $140 million.
Shares of Tiffany rose $1.28, or 2.7 percent, to $49.40 Thursday.
Zale said it swung to a quarterly profit of $1.5 million, or 3 cents per share, after losing $27.4 million, or 57 cents per share, during the same quarter in 2006.
The Texas-based retailer said that excluding a special tax gain and other one-time items, it would have cufflinks even. Analysts had forecast a loss of 13 cents per share, according to Thomson.
Revenue dipped to $488.2 million from $490.7 million a year ago.
Zale’s decline in same-store sales might have been worse than the reported 0.5 percent but for the company’s practice of including Internet sales in those figures. The company says it does so to offset the in-store sales that are replaced by online orders.
Over the next 12 months, Zale expects same-store sales to rise 1 to 2 percent.
This was the last quarter in Zale’s fiscal year. For the new fiscal year, Zale predicted it would lose money in the August-October quarter but earn $1.11 to $1.16 per share for the full year or $2.11 to $2.16 per share including revenue from selling lifetime warranties on jewelry.
Zale, which operates more than 2,200 stores and kiosks, is trying to recover from missteps by previous management by returning to its old strategy of selling diamond jewelry at competitive prices.
This week, Goldman Sachs downgraded Zale shares to “sell” from “neutral,” saying that future earnings money clips be hurt by a tough sales environment, management upheaval and poor strategic positioning.
Chief Executive Mary E. “Betsy” Burton said the company is centralizing functions such as purchasing for all its brands instead of letting them operate independently, and is focusing on improving its mall business.
Burton admitted that malls are “not a growth engine,” but said those stores still generate lots of cash. She also said Zale wanted to improve customer service, an area where “we’ve lacked focus.”
The company closed some Bailey Banks & Biddle outlets, and Burton said it may close additional stores after Christmas or sell the entire Bailey chain or the Piercing Pagoda line of mall kiosks.
Zale’s latest results included a tax gain of $6.7 million, or 14 cents per share, from reinvesting foreign earnings; a gain of $1.1 million, or 2 cents per share, from hedging on gold and silver purchases; and a one-time cost of $6.3 million, or 13 cents per share, for delayed revenue due to a change in jewelry-warranty plans.
For all of fiscal 2007, Zale earned $59.3 million, or $1.21 per share, up from $53.6 million, or $1.09 per share in the last fiscal year. Revenue was flat at $2.44 billion.
WR Hambrecht analyst Melissa Otto raised her rating on Zale shares from “sell” to “hold” and pendants Tiffany’s rating from “hold” to “buy.”
Shares of Zale rose $1.81, or 8.7 percent, to $22.62 Thursday.

Psst! Private-Sale Shopping Sites Are Hot

Note: Saddled with unsold merchandise amid the recession, makers of luxury goods are tiffany their wares through members-only shopping sites

During last year’s bleak holiday shopping season, fashion designer Lauren Merkin greatly overestimated the number of handbags she’d sell in upscale retail stores such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s.

She found a good way to sell them elsewhere without consigning them to a bargain-basement rack that might tarnish the brand in the eyes of would-be customers. All year, she’s been selling the excess goods for half-price on the members-only Web site Gilt Groupe, during 36-hour sales that are hidden from the view of the general public. “What we’re selling is first-rung, but if it sits around at a sale I think the consumer gets the wrong impressions about the product,” Merkin says.

Saddled with overstock from the retail recession, makers of luxury apparel, home furnishings, and other high-end goods are selling their wares at reduced prices through Gilt Groupe and other private shopping sites. Many of these companies help fuel pent-up demand by limiting membership, forcing would-be clients to park on a waiting list or be referred by existing members.

Lure for Bargain-Hunting Fashionistas

Luxury brands can use these members-only sites to hide markdown prices from retail shoppers willing to pay the full amount, while attracting scores of wannabe fashionistas willing to wait for haute couture at a low price. “The brands they offer are of such high quality, and because they’re at discount prices it makes them much more attainable,” says Meghan Donovan, a 24-year-old San Francisco resident who shops on Gilt.com.

The private-sale model also makes sense for Gilt Groupe and other sites that act as middlemen, because they carry no inventory and earn a wide margin on sales. Combined revenue at Gilt Groupe, Rue La La, and Ideeli, three of the top four players in the U.S., is expected to exceed $300 million this year. That, along with sales at other tiffany jewelry-sale sites, makes up a significant portion of the estimated $1 billion a year in online sales of luxury apparel, says Sucharita Malpuru, e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research (FORR).

Online private-sale fever is spreading. In October, upscale department store Saks (SKS) held its own online “flash sale,” a 36-hour event open only to customers on its mailing list. Cable company Comcast (CMCSA) recently announced it’s getting into the space by opening Swirl, a private-sale site affiliated with its DailyCandy newsletter, which provides an insider’s guide to shopping and nightlife in cities such as New York and Miami. And on Oct. 27, e-commerce services company GSI Commerce (GSIC) said it will buy the parent company of Rue La La for up to $350 million, a deal that may see a range of GSI clients like Kate Spade (LIZ), Ecko, Calvin Klein (PVH), and Adidas (ADSG) lining up for private sales on the site. “Our brands want to sell a lot of inventory in a very quick period of time and they want to do it discreetly,” says Michael Rubin, CEO of King of Prussia [Pa.]-based GSI.

U.S. Market Heating Up

Rue La La, like Gilt Groupe and a few other private-sale players, was started in late 2007. But the business model dates at least to 2001, when French site Vente-Privee.com first took the common sample sales of high-fashion Parisian designers online. Vente-Privee.com has expanded to Germany, Spain, Italy, and the U.K., and has now worked with more than 600 brands in luxury apparel, wine, home decor, and other areas. In 2007, Boston-based venture capital firm Summit Partners acquired a 20% stake that valued Vente-Privee.com at about $1 billion. Dozens of copycat sites have sprung up in France, fueling a substantial e-commerce industry there.

The U.S. market for private-sale sites may be just heating up. “It looks like these sites are growing revenues significantly faster than any other part of retail,” says JPMorgan (JPM) retail analyst Bryan Tunick. At specialty retail stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Coach (COH), and Tiffany (TIF), same-store sales — those of stores open at least a year — have declined an average of 5% to 7% this year, Tunick says. By contrast, at the top private-sale sites, sales are growing fourfold and fivefold a year, he says. Venture capital firms have begun placing bets in the space. “We think the market is quite large,” says Jeff Lieberman, a partner at Insight Venture Partners, which invested $10 million in members-only shopping site HauteLook in May.

Gilt Groupe had sales of more than $85 million in fiscal 2009, which ended in June. The company says it’s on track to generate sales of $400 million in fiscal 2010. Analysts say it’s a strong candidate for an acquisition or a public offering. “If Gilt doesn’t get acquired, it would be an interesting” IPO, says JPMorgan’s Tunick. Existing e-commerce players like Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY), as well as brick-and-mortar retailers like Saks and Macy’s (M), are likely suitors, says Gartner (IT) analyst Gene Alvarez.

Expanding into New Areas

Just as the recession has contributed to gains by private-sale sites, signs of recovery in consumer spending may dampen the sites’ prospects. “It will be tougher for the private-sale sites to get merchandise,” says designer Merkin, who expects to sell off her remaining 2008 holiday inventory during a sale on Gilt Groupe this holiday season. Merkin and other brands expect more shoppers to buy full-price items, and are more closely tying the number of products shipped to expected demand, resulting in lower stockpiles of unsold goods.

Still, private-sale sites in the past year have expanded into new areas, such as online outlets for travel packages and tiffany and co-down home furnishings. The sites are a good showcase for young brands looking to get exposure and acquire new customers. “The online sale is marketing for new customer acquisition, but marketing that does not require an investment,” says Annbeth Eschbach, president and CEO of Exhale, a New York-based chain of spas that offers discounted massages, facials, and manicures on Rue La La.

Others are looking to distinguish their sites by tying online sales to offline events. Billion Dollar Babes, a Hollywood sample-sale business bought by e-commerce company OneStop Internet last year and brought online, still holds live sales in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, replete with DJs, bars, and personal makeovers. Says John Tomich, OneStop Internet co-founder and CFO: “Everybody’s got excess merchandise. It’s the dirty little secret of the industry.” For the growing ranks of members who shop private-sale sites, the secret is out.

For a closer look at 13 of the top members-only shopping sites on the Web, read this BusinessWeek.com slide show.

Sentiments to Wear On Your Sleeve

IT is perhaps fitting that the symptoms of my current malady, a fixation on cuff links, first appeared in a doctor’s waiting room.

It started with a white shirt. There I sat, flipping through a fashion magazine filled with many tiffany jewelry of this season’s crisp white shirts for women — shirts with ruffles, pin tucks, bows, pleats or puffy sleeves — when I saw a glossy photo of a tailored tuxedo-style shirt, complete with collar stays and a tail. I had to have it, to wear on a book tour.

I ripped out the page, brought it home and was not deterred from follow-up shopping even after learning that the only place to buy the shirt was a boutique in Los Angeles so antiquated in its notions that it offered no online shopping.

Forced to use the phone, a form of shopping technology I dislike for its imprecision (how can a vague conversation with a distracted salesclerk provide helpful information about sizing?), I ended up with a shirt that was too big. More phoning. U.P.S. delivered a smaller size. Still too big. But I loved the shirt, so I took it to a tailor, who shook her head and said it was a complicated endeavor, given all those tiny pleats.

A second tailor fixed it. And now that it fits, I’m really in trouble. My white shirt, like so many this season, has French cuffs.

But I have no cuff links. My husband has no cuff links. (He doesn’t even wear long sleeves if he doesn’t have to.) Even my daughter Ella has no cuff links, despite being a dedicated fashion magazine reader who effortlessly incorporated ankle boots into her wardrobe while the more fashioned-challenged among us were still wrestling with the concept of opaque tights.

Men have been wearing cuff links since they had the bright idea in the 17th century to abandon ribbons to hold the ends of their sleeves closed. But the long history of cuff links wasn’t enough to make them widely available in the local stores I haunt.

I turned to the Internet. There I found the traditional (silver double-knot cuff links from tiffany.com for $250), the silver pendants (reversible cuff links, set with colored saucer stones at babette-wasserman.com, for $:55, or about $103), and the vintage-inspired (mother-of-pearl cuff links at brooksbrothers.com in four styles, $115 a pair).

I also found a wide selection of irreverent styles from contemporary designers, including Sonia Spencer, whose site, soniaspencer.co.uk, shows a pair of tiny eight balls priced at $:16.99 ($32). At detailsart.com, the designer’s painted bone-china pair decorated with tiny martini glasses are $30.

I saw cuff links at simoncarter.net that were shaped like aspirin tablets (in which you can actually carry your aspirin), for $71.37, and like antique typewriter keys at barneys.com, which sells each cuff link as a single for $75 so shoppers can buy initials separately.

It’s easy to understand the appeal of the tongue-in-cheek cuff link. Unlike a necklace, which attracts immediate attention by dangling close to eye level, the cuff link is hidden at the end of an arm. Cuff links are like tattoos; they can stay demure and hidden, or pop out provocatively with the flip of a wrist at a cocktail party.

A cuff link can telegraph all kinds of messages, for instance, ”Despite this plain white shirt I’m wearing, I have hidden depth,” as in the case of the Murano-glass Vesuvio cuff links, available at effetdemanche.com in six colors for 42 euros or $53 a pair.

But what kind of message did I want to send?

For advice, I turned to my friend Amy, the only person I know with cuff link experience; she has a pair of cool ones shaped like bull’s-silver earrings, inscribed with the date 2000.

”The bigger the better, the chunkier the better,” Amy said.

I should point out that Amy is the kind of person who, upon hearing that I wanted to look presentable while standing in front of strangers in out-of-town bookstores, staged a wardrobe intervention. She not only lent me her cuff links, but also brought over armloads of clothes, all of them so stylish and unusual — here I am thinking of a heavy linen Doris Day-style circle skirt printed with butterflies and insects that she found at Barneys and that I have begun scheming to keep permanently.

Her wardrobe is so far beyond my black-pants-goes-with-white-shirt sensibility that I feel as if she’s explaining a foreign culture to me when she tells me how to wear her clothes.

I wanted her to know I’m trying to learn. So I asked, ”What about cuff links that send a message that once was witty, but is now a cliche, but maybe it’s so cliched that it’s witty again?”

Silence, while she tried to decode that.

”Like what?” she finally asked cautiously.

”Like cuff links shaped like a pair of dice?” I asked.

”Stay away from them,” she said. ”It would be like wearing a bad tie.”

”Oh,” I said.

She took pity on me.

”I did see a pair of really fun shamrock cuff links at redenvelope.com back around St. Patrick’s Day,” she said. ”Those would qualify.”

She said it would also be fun to have one cuff link that said ”Republican,” and one that said silver key rings.” ”You could wear them to a dinner party and flash them at the people seated on either side,” she said.

It is in fact possible to procure such a pair of politically charged cuff links, by buying both the donkey pair and the elephant pair for $45 each at cufflinks.com and wearing one of each, but this is my idea, and I am not sure how Amy would feel about the bright red-white-and-blue colors.

”Duncanquinn.com,” Amy said. ”Take a look at the cuff links there.”

I quickly took a look. The white-and-aqua enamel cuff links with little clubs on them ($225) were adorable. So were the white-and-purple fleurs-de-lis ($225). But Amy was headed into an entirely different realm of men’s wear, musing about whether she should buy the purple postmodern paisley tie on the home page.

While she was distracted, I asked: ”Can I keep your skirt for a few more days? I need to wear it to a tea at a women’s club.”

”Sure,” she said.

”Thanks,” I said.

I’ll return the skirt. Someday. Probably. In the meantime, I bought the shamrocks for her. (Called clover cuff links, they’re marked down at redenvelope.com to $29.99 from $85 .)