Embrace Your Inner Basket Case at Vogue Director Erin Pollard's Chic Weaving Class

I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say you've never made a basket before. I mean I'm a practicing devotee of all things wicker and woven, my apartment riddled with rattan, and I've never even come close.

Now that I've mentioned it, doesn't it sound like the most charming, you-should-probably-live-upstate way to pass the time?

Erin Pollard's 9-to-5 gig (if those really exist at all anymore) as Executive Director of Fashion Partnerships at Vogue certainly keeps her busy to the brim, but her lifelong passion for the art of baskets, having learned the craft as a child from her mother in Maine, persists in the form of her annoyingly chic studio, UNDERWATER Weaving Atelier.

Her mix of homeware and fashion pieces are a thoughtful study in simplicity... with a wink. 

Don't even get me started on this Venus flytrap-inspired bowl or brilliant bouquet sleeve! 

Curious to learn a thing or two from the avid reeder?

On November 16th UNDERWATER will be joining ONE/OF's Patricia Voto at The Orior Showroom over on Mercer Street for an evening of good old fashioned basket weaving. Pick up a new skill, drink some wine and make something you'll be able to peacock with this holiday season.

Which do you reckon makes a better hostess gift? 

A diptyque candle that everyone knows is an obvious regift, a bottle of wine from a store up the street that's the reason you're late, or a handwoven breadbasket elegantly trimmed with a luxe, up-cycled bow you fashioned with your own two hands?

It's just like they say - don't put all your eggs in one basket, learn how to make baskets and then put them in as many as you have time to whip up.

[Photos by Chelsea Gehr]