Los Angeles, CA – November 19, 2010 – Simple, elegant, austere, cool… are a few of the terms major media and men’s style writers use to describe men’s shop Douglas Fir, now part of the Taigan.com website, the Internet’s best shopping community of online specialty shops and one-of-a-kind finds.

Douglas Fir was founded on the belief that a retail store should be about simplicity and accessibility. Storeowners Jon Noble and Tino Abarca merely filled a shop with all things they loved; and for the last 10 years, Los Angeles and major men’s style publications have lauded their efforts. To sum up the elegantly unstuffy shop in the words of GQ, “it’s pretty much impossible to go wrong here.”

Specialty retailers like Douglas Fir are tapping into Taigan’s turnkey e-commerce solution to join an exclusive community of the best shops and products online; styled and edited by Creative Director Julia Reed.

About Douglas Fir

Founded in Los Angeles, California in 2000, Douglas Fir has long been a fixture on trendy West 3^rd Street. Named one of GQ’s Best Stores in America and featured on Men.Style.com, owners Jon Noble and Tino Abarca put their technique simply: “We buy what we like, put it in the store, and hope other people like it, too.” Douglas Fir and accompanying shoe store DF Feet carry designers such as Seize sur Vingt, Steven Alan, Paul Smith and Yohji Yamamoto Y’s.

About Taigan

A recent winner of the Retailer of Excellence Award in the Internet Innovation category, and named Technology Start-up of the Year, Taigan is recognized as the online shopping destination for a highly-curated collection of boutiques, designers and purveyors.  Showcasing specialty retailers of women and men’s fashion, home décor, art, antiques, jewelry, gourmet food and wine and fine gifts, Taigan brings the best shops to your fingertips. For the shopper, the collector, the epicure… Taigan delivers an extraordinary and ever-expanding collection of shops and purveyors.  Julia Reed delivers a collection of Elusive Finds, facts and profiles in Taigan’s fetch, Taigan’s online lifestyle magazine. Shopping is free, guests are asked to provide their email address to use the site’s messaging service with shops.

For more Taigan news, subscribe to the Taigan newsroom, stay connected on Taigan’s Facebook Fan Page or Follow us on Twitter @TaiganFinds.

The Los Angeles-based botanical perfume house comes to Taigan.com in time for the holidays

(Los Angeles, CA) – (October 27, 2010) – Strange Invisible Perfumes, the California-based botanical fragrance house, is pleased to announce its debut on Taigan.com, the Internet’s best shopping district of online specialty shops, designers and purveyors.

Winning editorial accolades in the April Harper’s Bazaar Green issue and this year’s W Magazine’s Fragrance issue, Strange Invisible Perfumes, now on Taigan, offers a collection of authentic botanical fragrances.

“The art of perfumery begins with the art of distilling essences…making perfume without real essences is like writing a book without real words,” notes Alexandra Balahoutis.

Botanical loyalist and perfumer Alexandra Balahoutis founded her fragrance house in 2000 with the firm belief that fine perfumery should be made of real botanical essences. Sincerely committed to environmental consciousness and green business practices, the fragrance house uses only natural botanical essences and ingredients.

“We welcome Strange Invisible Perfumes to Taigan’s growing collection of online specialty shops and making these organic and botanical perfume lines available to the online community,” said Taigan founder Elizabeth Nichols. “Taigan bridges the gap between specialty retailers in local markets and the online shopping community by opening up more opportunity for both the retailer and the consumer.”

About Taigan

A recent winner of the Retailer of Excellence Award in the Internet Innovation category, and a finalist for Technology Start-up of the Year, Taigan is recognized as the online shopping destination for a highly curated collection of boutiques, designers and purveyors.  Showcasing specialty retailers of women and men’s fashion, home décor, art, antiques, jewelry, gourmet food and fine gifts, Taigan brings the best shops to your fingertips. For the shopper, the collector, the epicure…Taigan delivers an extraordinary and ever-expanding collection of shops and purveyors. Julia Reed delivers a collection of elusive finds, facts and profiles in Taigan’s Fetch, Taigan’s online lifestyle magazine. Shopping is free and guests are asked to provide their email address to use the site’s messaging service with shops.

For more Taigan news, subscribe to the Taigan Newsroom, stay connected on Taigan’s Facebook Fan Page or follow us on Twitter @TaiganFinds.

About Strange Invisible Perfumes

Strange Invisible Perfumes blend certified organic, wildcrafted, biodynamic and hydro-distilled essences with genuine inspiration and compelling narratives. Each perfume is a layered composition crafted with pure botanical essences and 100% certified organic, beverage-grade grape alcohol. All are designed, hand-blended and bottled within the botanical fragrance house in Venice, CA. An in-house master distiller heads the laboratory, customizing distillation projects locally and all over the world. By producing essences and sourcing the rest directly from trustworthy distillers, Strange Invisible Perfumes relies on firsthand knowledge, not paperwork, in matters of quality control.

Creating + sharing wedding registry videos is gaining popularity for couples as online boutique marketplace Taigan.com partners with noted home & gift retailer The Mercantile to offer a unique twist to bridal registry

New York, NY – March 30– The digital age brings even bridal registry to a new high-tech level: the video bridal registry. Taigan, a collection of wonderfully hand-selected retailers, introduces the new online video bridal registry in partnership with Atlanta-based retailer The Mercantile. The service gives engaged couples a convenient way to share their registry with friends and family around the world via video.

Once the couple creates their bridal registry from a posh line of gifts, home accessories, furnishings and art found at The Mercantile on Taigan, the shop creates a video of the items selected, describing the inspiration behind the couple’s choices, how the pieces work together in their new home, and reminds shoppers how each piece will add to the new life of the couple.

When the registry is completed, couples send the video bridal registry to friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, or any other social media networks, making it convenient and fun for friends and family to shop. Whether across town or across the country, buyers can view the video online and with a click of the mouse, purchase the couple’s registry selections, knowing the special story and meaning of their purchase to the happy couple.

The rewards of video bridal registry

As the cherry on top of this chic sundae, The Mercantile gives the couple a store credit worth 10% of the total registry purchased, which can be used on additional items such as a L’Objet Evoca Footed Cake Plate or a beautiful John Matthew Moore Framed Giclee.

Julia Reed on weddings, amour and more

Says Julia Reed, Creative Director of Taigan’s shopping magazine, Fetch, and Vogue Magazine alum, about shopping on Taigan for weddings, amour and more, “The romance of Taigan is that it’s the next best thing to being on the most well-edited, fabulous shopping district in the world. And once you are on it, you’re taken care of personally by these great visionary retailers and their staffs to select the best bridal registry, gifts or that special something for you or a gift.”

About Taigan

Launched in September 2009, Taigan showcases retailers in some of the hottest markets across the country including New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Palm Beach, Chicago, Aspen and New Orleans. Featuring a hand-selected collection of specialty retailers of apparel, home décor, art, antiques, jewelry, and gourmet food, Taigan is making it more fashionable than ever to shop right from your home. Connect on Taigan’s Facebook Fan Page or Follow us on Twitter @TaiganFinds.

About The Mercantile

The Mercantile is a fashionable, upscale boutique created to bring gifts, furnishings, accessories and art to both Atlanta’s trade and retail communities. The Brookhaven design destination overflows with styles to suit every taste. Among the long list of the intriguing lines are George Smith furniture, one-of-a-kind accent pieces from emerging glass artisan Elizabeth Lyons, and spectacular lamps from Swank Lighting.

Well, as I am creative director of a new retail website called TAIGAN.com (which the dear and always amazing Liz Smith so generously announced in her wOw column a few weeks ago), I am very high on online shopping right now.

Taigan differs from most online shopping sites in that it is not a retailer itself — it collects wonderful, one-of-a-kind boutiques that are already known for having great merchandise and great customer service and steers the shopper directly to them. It’s like being on the most well-edited, fabulous shopping street in the world (containing purveyors of everything from estate jewelry to cured meats and coffee), and once you are on it, you’re taken care of personally by these great visionary retailers and their staffs. Continue Reading…

It is a boutique shopper’s dream come true. Until now, browsing your favorite local or holiday destination’s stores required a trip uptown or cross-country, but in this very special Advent On the Range post, I am delighted to introduce my dear readers to Taigan…

Continue Reading…

Launched in time for holiday shopping, Taigan.com, named after a rare breed of hunting dog, features uncommon wares from more than 30 topnotch purveyors-faux-shagreen desk accessories from Georgia Tapert’s New York shop, Atlanta chef Anne Quatrano’s charcuterie, English pasteware from Suzanne Rheinstein’s Hollyhock in Los Angeles many of whom had no Web presence until now.

After catching up with noted author, professed gourmand and style arbiter Julia Reed, we may have come away loving her newest enterprise, Taigan, just as much as the proprietress herself. A quick perusal of the new members-only Web shopping portal, which just launched in September—with Mrs. Reed on board as Creative Director—reveals many of the penchants that she and AH&L editors share: those for stunning photography, quality writing and the finest that Atlanta has to offer. Continue Reading…