“For sipping any and everything — from a nice chilled red to sparkling water or even your morning juice. ”
Out of all the components of a table setting — cutlery, plates, napkins — a glass is the single piece with the longest lifespan over the duration of an evening. Only a glass, despite being the most fragile member of a dinner table, has the potential to travel with its owner from the dining table to the living room to, perhaps, the bedroom. It is a glass's inherent preciousness that simultaneously compels us to cradle it in our hands and to stow it away in a cabinet to collect dust because it's just too pretty and using it would definitely mean breaking it.
Now that we've all gotten very good at making time inside our homes feel special, and are gearing up for hosting season, identification with our liquid vessels of choice is absolutely imperative. We've gathered a variety of glassware recommendations from the women of passerby to help you enjoy your drink of choice, alone or with company, with a bit of extra flair.
ASP & HAND
Recommended by georgie greville jasper, fran miller, and lynette nylander
Owning a piece of glassware from the husband-and-wife team at ASP & HAND guarantees that you'll drink from something that's one-of-a-kind. Blair and Eli Hansen hand-blow each of their pieces, with some featuring "bits," or small droplet-like protrusions, that improve a glass’s grip and serve as little reminders of the connection between your hand and the objet d'art you're using in daily life.
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Ichendorf Milano
Recommended by kerrilynn pamer, caitlin mcmullen, and abby pucker
Named after the German town where this glassware company was first founded in the early 20th century and the Italian city where it was reestablished in 1990, Ichendorf Milano's products are delicate and contemporary without compromising the artistic tradition from which they're derived. The bubble-shaped Kokeshi wine glasses and playful Desert Plants tumblers are only two of the many designs we want to see in our own homes.
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MAMO
Recommended by natalie guevara and christina crawford
What makes the 7:2 MAMO glass so fun is that its doubly useful hourglass shape invites you to start the evening with a sophisticated aperitif and end it with a shot (or a cocktail you’ve made using the two-ounce base as a measuring tool). Natalie Guevara shares, “I recently gifted these multi-functional cocktail glasses by MAMO to my best friends to match their mid-century modern home décor and they were a big hit.”
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Duralex
Recommended by marina sulmona and jenna saraco
Sometimes you want to have people over without having to hold your breath every time someone picks up one of the irreplaceable hand-blown glasses you thought were a good idea to break out for your dinner gathering turned dance party. Duralex glassware, made by the French company that invented glass tempering (a high-heat, compression method invented to make a broken glass less dangerous), is true to its name: it will endure any situation in which liquids are involved.
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Hudson Wilder
recommended by beverly nguyen and clémence polés
Hudson Wilder’s easy, pared back aesthetic was originally inspired by an equally humble artefact: a vintage Danish dinnerware set found at an estate sale in upstate New York. Specifically created to be an affordable alternative to many other glassware brands, the company draws inspiration from cultures around the world and offers elegant products that stand out by themselves, but form an equally beautiful addition to your pre-existing tableware.
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Murano
Recommended by bambou roger-kwong and marina sulmona
The history of Murano glassware began in the late 13th century when the Venetian government mandated that glassmakers in Venice move their furnaces to the neighboring island of Murano in order to avoid a fire from breaking out in the city. The order also benefited the glassmakers by protecting the secrets of their craft, which has produced world-renowned glassware that's intricate in detail and color. As our former editor Marina Sulmona, who just bought this set, shares "Digging through Etsy to find what feels like a perfectly unique set of these can feel so satisfying. They’re whimsical, cute, and cool."
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NUDE
Recommended by ly ngo and eva giocochea
Part of the larger Turkish company, Şişecam Group, which was founded in 1935 by the man who also established the Republic of Turkey, NUDE glassware evokes not only modernity and minimalism, but the type of organic silhouette that would fit perfectly in the palm of someone's hand, perhaps like the edge of a naked body.
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Baccarat
Recommended by sukey novogratz
Baccarat is, without a doubt, the oldest and most luxurious brand on this list. Each crystal glass could pose as an opulent piece of jewelry reincarnated into something from which to imbibe, or a nostalgic heirloom your grandparents once owned. As Sukey, author of a book on meditation, puts it, “If you can afford four, [that’s] better than buying eight of any other.”
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Sirius Glassworks
Recommended by fran miller
Peter Gudrunas, the artist behind Sirius Glassworks in Ontario, is one of the very few glassblowers in North America still making his glass from scratch, using raw materials like powdered quartz and limestone. Though Gudrunas has been practicing his craft since the late 1970s, his daughter, the artist and filmmaker Iris Fraser-Gudrunas, helped bring his practice back to life in 2014 after the 2008 financial crisis severed much of his business, inspiring him to experiment and make his iridescent Nassau cups and the popular rosé bubble series of vases.
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Vintage Arcoroc Glasses
Recommended by christina crawford
Launched as a glassware brand in the city of Arques, France, Arcoroc has transcended its early 1960s beginnings and is now the ubiquitous aesthetic for the vintage glasses you can find "in every thrift store" as chef Christina Crawford says. In addition to your local vintage goods store, you can find them on Ebay, Etsy, or other corners of the internet. It also doesn’t hurt that they “can be dropped often and survive.”
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Vintage Cartoon Tumblers
Recommended by ariel roman
If the stress-free bliss of the weekend mornings you spent eating sugary cereal and watching Looney Tunes is what you're trying to harken back to as you now drink a green juice and use the television as a means for edification, a set of Warner Brothers cartoon tumblers is what you need. They’re fun and will definitely inspire a nostalgic discussion at your next gathering.
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If you’re not feeling boozy, fill your glass with one of these recommendations and also try drinkware from:
Kimura Glassware (recommended by Ly Ngo)
Waterford Crystal (recommended by Karolyn Pho)
Degrenne (recommended by Ly Ngo)
Carlo Moretti (recommended by Tina Bhojwani)
Isabel Halley Ceramics (recommended by Natalie Guevara)
Hawkins New York (recommended by Maria Geyman)
Ralph Lauren Home (recommended by Karolyn Pho)
R+D.LAB (recommended by Kerrilynn Pamer)
Words by Khiara Ortiz