Photography by Michael Caronchi
When it comes to searching for unique gifts, Bruno Dhain brings a global perspective and an eagle eye. Born in Madagascar, Dhain has lived in several countries in Africa, France, Spain, and even Thailand, before moving to the United States 25 years ago. He ultimately landed in Naples in 2000, and partnered with his friend Rick Goldstein nine years later to open BR Uno in downtown Naples. The smartly curated shop offers a mix of jewelry, handbags, gadgets, and gifts. “It’s exciting and fun,” Dhain says. “You don’t look at the same thing every day, and you always find something for someone.”
Where do you find inspiration for the unique items you sell?
We are observing what’s going on in Europe, mostly for the trends. We visit all the shops in Paris that carry the trendy items to see what the trend is going to be. Then we go to the Maison & Objet gift show in Paris and look for the products. We also go to the gift show in New York.
What’s trending right now?
Puzzles are coming back like crazy, and so are board games and playing cards. People spend so much time on devices now, it looks like they are realizing or coming back to being around family more and doing stuff together. This winter we sold so many games I could not believe it. The new Royal Bingo was a best seller for Christmas because of everything happening with the Royals now.
What do you recommend for the person who has everything?
A decorative Safe-T fire extinguisher, which is very trendy in Europe. Everybody needs an extinguisher but these look cool in the kitchen and they add to any décor in your home.
There is even one that looks like a bottle of wine for those who have a wine cellar.
What are your top three bestselling items?
Izipizi sunglasses, reading glasses, and screen-reading glasses, which have a special coating on the lenses that cut out 40 percent of UV light coming at us from our phones, iPads, and computers. We just brought in a kids’ line of the screen glasses for ages 7 through 15, too.
Then there’s the Secrid wallet that’s made in Holland and uses a special metal to block any devices that scammers use to try to steal your credit card information. And of course, Sugarfina, which is elegant candy.
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