Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Style myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.© Marili AndreThe hardest part about compiling the HTSI gift guide every year is editing the people who might contribute to it. Of all the stories that anyone wants to write, the guides are the most popular. Competition is fierce between the eventual contributors: who has the most tonally pleasing byline pic? Who has created the most sincere – and surprising – range of options? I acceded long ago to the fact that my page of beige was looking rather inferior, so this year’s selection involves both yellow and blue additions, all colour-matched with my current artist obsessions: woven furniture by the Orkney Furniture Maker Kevin Gauld and paintings by the St Ives native Peter Lanyon. Now, however, I’m really lusting after the Pentax 17 included in James Harvey-Kelly’s edit, and a gold bone cuff by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co.Elsewhere in this festive issue I am particularly fond of the story shot by brothers Tony and Douglas Irvine, taking us to the misty hills around Gleneagles. The shoot was executed in the days around Dior’s women’s resort show in June, which took place in the grounds of nearby Drummond Castle, and captures the kilts, tartans and woollens integral to the Scottish sartorial identity. Competition is fierce between the gift guide writersI’m also thrilled with our profile of Paulina Olowska, who invites us to her Artist House Kadenówka, an hour south of Kraków, ahead of her exhibition at Pace Geneva this month. Olowska is an extraordinary character: her work evokes a rich folkloric landscape, while she has the persona of a woodland witch. She claims that when she first found the house, it was abandoned and “completely haunted”. “Lightbulbs were smashing. People were screaming. And I had lots of mushrooms…” Her works are mischievous, weird and enchanting. I’m deeply envious of Victoria Woodcock, who got to spend time with Olowska in Poland and hop on her wiccan energy.What would the holidays be without the ballet? It’s another festive custom without which many would feel the season incomplete. Francesca Hayward has performed many Christmas favourites in her role as Principal of The Royal Ballet. As Clara in The Nutcracker and as Romeo’s Juliet, she has performed some of the best known roles in the repertoire, but she has also taken on major pieces by Wayne McGregor that have become part of the contemporary dance canon. As this week’s Aesthete, she talks about the things that inspire her as she prepares to star as Cinderella. In real life, however, her glass slippers are exchanged for black rubber recovery slides from Hoka. So precious is this princess that her “bare feet literally never touch the floor”. @jellison22
