When I saw Mandy Moore’s kitchen renovation Instagram reveal, with its open shelving and all-blush Year and Day dishes, it awakened something in me. I needed those dishes. Needed them. My own diner-inspired, blue-ringed white dishes from Macy’s (now unavailable, but these are similar) dulled in comparison. So shiny. So … not Mandy Moore’s dishes.
Though the dishes aren’t outrageously priced (a set of four large dinner plates in one of the brand’s four signature muted hues of blush, navy, white, or gray runs $52), I couldn’t justify the cost of replacing my full set. But more than a year later, I was still reminded of my missed connection with the Y & D dishes that I couldn’t quite hit “buy” on. I frequently work at The Wing, the carefully designed women’s coworking space in New York, where the majority of the glassware is Y & D. I would wrap my hands around those blush mugs with their soft matte finish, pick the crumbs off their fog-gray little plates and then lurk quietly on the Y & D website once more, admiring them from a distance.
But luckily, I stumbled upon a near dupe in suburban New Jersey. When I moved there recently, South Orange’s Jackie & Son restaurant quickly became a weekend go-to for me: The space is all light wood and plantfluencer-esque large-scale greenery touches. Their food is plated elegantly in low-wide bowls with a soft matte ceramic outside and glazed inside. One day, my mint tea arrived in a pale blush mug. I’d assumed it had been crafted by some local artisan, but when I flipped the cup over, I was shocked to see a World Market logo stamped on the bottom. I’d heard about the hidden gems in World Market’s eclectic inventory, but I wasn’t expecting this.
As it turns out, World Market has an entire line of Element dinnerware, which is very similar in vibe to Year & Day’s sets, with a few notable differences. The most obvious differentiator is the intentional imperfection in the Element dishes. While Y & D pieces are as smooth as river stones, World Market’s have a sort of wabi-sabi aesthetic, with slight indentations and imperfections. The color choice is sort of different, but close enough: Both companies offer white, blush, and light gray; World Market also has a darker gray and minty sage green in the mix, while Y & D does not (but they do have navy).
The bigger notable difference is in price: World Market’s set of four dinner plates are about twenty bucks cheaper than Y & D’s. And while Y & D, like many other direct-to-consumer brands, doesn’t offer sales, World Market does frequently, as well as clearance markdowns, which some of the Element line is currently under. I’ve decided to go for a mix of the blush and stone pieces. I think they would look just darling on my Instagram … I mean, my table. On my table.
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