If there’s an pointless trinket to be purchased, relaxation assured I will probably be shopping for it. Silver spoons and ring holders; minaudières and photo-lockets; jewelled vaporisers and Art deco lipstick holders; all the above could be discovered — although usually not when wanted — someplace within the neighborhood of my self-importance. (Piece of furnishings, not private trait.) Imagine my delight once I discovered there was one other bejewelled little tchotchke I may spend (waste) cash on? My coronary heart leapt.
I first noticed an ornamental lighter case on jewelry model Mejuri’s web site, in that ominous late December vacation purchasing haze. It was glossy and stylish, ribbed with a gold exterior — virtually architectural. It was pleasant, stunning and completely non-essential. It didn’t meet any necessities for gift-giving. I needed to have it.
Sophie Buhai is an LA-based designer with an eye fixed for the esoteric
Sophie Buhai
Mejuri’s senior director of jewelry design, Nicole Ghosn, explains that introducing a lighter case to the model’s product vary was borne of a private bugbear that become a realisation — that her personal distaste for the plastic lighter sitting amongst her rigorously chosen homewares could be mirrored in Mejuri’s prospects. “It was the one thing that didn’t belong,” Ghosn says. “That disconnect brought back memories from growing up when everyday objects, like candlesticks and incense holders, were treated with care and beauty. Our coffee tables deserve to feel as adorned as we do.”
Designers like American smoker-friendly label Edie Parker have put out their very own stunning lighter instances, as has Saint Laurent. The French home’s model prices upwards of £400. Ami Paris additionally has a model, striped within the artwork deco fashion and emblazoned with its kitschy coronary heart brand. I used to be significantly taken when shopping items by Sophie Buhai, the LA-based designer with an eye fixed for the esoteric. Hers are sterling silver, usually encrusted with a single stone or a trio of them, moody and pearlescent. They are decadent, like one thing discovered on the backside of a velvet purse, the place it will have jostled between a tube of Rouge Allure and a ticket stub to some esoteric limited-run present. “People love the lighter cases,” Buhai informed In Magazine in 2025. “I think they love these kinds of naughty objects.”
Therein, I feel, lies the fascination. Unfortunately for our lung well being, there’s a sure romance in regards to the act of smoking a cigarette (though, after all, the lighters housed in these stunning instances will probably be simply as possible used to spark an incense stick of a Diptyque candles, one solely imagines — Mejuri is obvious that it doesn’t market its lighter instances for smoking). These lighter instances, of their uselessness and their magnificence, are pulled from one other world, the place folks danced in hazy rooms, blissfully unaware of the risks of the smoke that allowed the haze. They’re a bit of illicit, a bit of cheeky, and completely frivolous.
But it’s not about cigarettes; it looks like a purple herring to dangle the truth that smoking is up once more (although it’s, apparently). It’s not about that, probably not. If it had been, why not simply go for the flat metallic countenance of a vape, its lack of thriller cinched by a blinking LED mild? Really, it displays this nostalgic undercurrent in style for instances when issues had been glamorous and refined. It’s the attract of the pointless object, the glamour of a bygone period and a need to really feel issues in a flattened world. Mine — silver, gem-studded — sits winking on my self-importance, a reminder that performance could be overrated.
The finest stylish lighter instances to purchase
Mejuri
Shop now: Mejuri Charlotte lighter case, £78, mejuri.com
Friend Paris
Shop now: Ami Paris briquet holder, £70, amiparis.com
Juju Vera
Shop now: Juju Vera shell lighter holder, £449, jujuvera.com
Sophie Buhai