THE FIERCELY INDIVIDUALISTIC , creative, and entrepreneurial spirit of the Bay Area has allowed small-scale e-commerce to survive alongside the Amazons, eBays, and Froogles. And the idea of shopping at home in your underwear is just a natural fit with the relaxed NorCal lifestyle.

Cottage industries aren't exactly big players in the e-commerce scene, but locally there are some products to be found with a unique and tragically hip San Francisco flair. Hemp clothing, designer sweaters, Sonoma County produce, and soy wax candles are just some of the items available only through local online merchants.

Clothing is often something shoppers just browse for online, but on Fabric8 (www.fabric8.com), people are buying. The site serves as a portal connecting local, independent designers and consumers, and it focuses on "mind-expanding urban design," meaning stylish men's and women's clothing, bags and accessories, and electronic music on local labels.

Fabric8 contracts with Bay Area artisan clothiers such as Toast, Eat Designs, University of Fuck, and Marco Hulzar, and the constantly changing inventory showcases the best in homegrown design talent. Some hot new items include rice-bowl panties by Oakland-based company Jean Wa, the ultrafresh Ninja Kitty hoodie and T-shirt series by Gama-go, and side-zip pants emblazoned with to-die-for illustrations of Cher. Fabric8's user-friendly and attractive site allows you to search by designer, product type, and budget.

Another choice for finer duds is San Francisco-based StyleMaven (www.stylemaven.com), a portal for local and international designers. The site emphasizes a magazine-like experience, offering fashion reviews, designer interviews, staff picks, and listings of local indie fashion shows. One hot item is the fashion map of San Francisco (yep, we have one), as well as fashion maps of more traditional design centers, like New York City, Los Angeles, and London.

StyleMaven's retail lineup features high-end small designers offering bags, shades, and some extravagant clothing, for women, men, and pooches. Some things the site's editors love at the moment are Jonathan Adler's handbags and pillows, and mukluks, Eskimo-style boots. They suggest complementing them with a BocUe handbag, or some Nikk Knitwear to round out your winter ensemble.

Each retailer is independently chosen by the staff, based on "fabulous-ness," with a focus on "small-independent crafty designers in pedestrian-friendly urban neighborhoods." The site's ultimate goal is connecting the often-disjointed groups of style-savvy consumers, retailers, and emerging designers.

If decadent, whimsical accessories aren't your bag, why not try Swirlspace (www.swirlspace.com), which only carries eco-fashions that utilize socially responsible products, processes, and materials. It sells mainly hemp, organic cotton, and recycled fibers with designs by mostly local artists. Peaceniks and suburban Republicans alike would appreciate a hemp shirt and yoga pants or some of the site's tank tops and jerseys.

Of course, there's more to online shopping than just clothing. For instance, everyone has to bathe, and women aren't the only ones who appreciate fragrant cleansing bars and emollient lotions. One great earth-friendly Bay Area company, Solum and Herbe (www.solumandherbe.com), sells some fine suds. The company develops its own organic lotions, soaps, scents, and other bath and beauty products that "cleanse, heal and balance the soul." Founded in Berkeley in 1996, Solum and Herbe has since moved to a small farm in Sonoma County, where all of its products are grown and made.

Everything Solum and Herbe sells is made from organically grown and wild plants, herbs, clays, and oils. And what it doesn't grow itself it buys or barters for from other organic farms. Think organic almond and macadamia oils, and shea butter imported from a women's cooperative in Ghana. The site also features tons of information on the healing properties of the products, and farming information on the ingredients.

For the food lovers on your shopping list, an array of sites offers a virtual farmers market. Capay Organics (www.capayorganics.com), Eatwell Farm (www.eatwell.com), and Laguna Farm (www.lagunafarm.com) are "community shared agriculture" businesses that sell their farm-raised, organic fruits and vegetables directly from farmer to consumer. A subscription to any of these produce delivery services is a great way to give a gift that's healthy for both your diet and the planet. Some services also offer organic breads and farm-fresh eggs. Recipients receive high-quality produce (at low prices) and, more important, a direct and more meaningful relationship between consumer and farmer, sans Safeway, excess packaging, and waiting in line.

Also in the foodie realm, your spice-loving friends will sweat with glee from a gift by Sonoma's Tierra Vegetables (www.tierravegetables.com). It specializes in organic chile peppers – serranos, chipotles, habaneros, and dozens more. Tierra also uses its fresh and pungent products to make ready-to-gift salsas, piquant chili jams, chutneys, and other peppery treats.

Wine is a common holiday gift, and the Web offers local access to vintners' best stashes. One great place to buy Sonoma and Napa wines is Petaluma-based LombardiWine (www.lombardiwine.com). The family business's lifelong ties to the tight-knit vintner community make it a great purveyor of specialty wines from artisan wineries. Shipping is reasonable, or free if you buy a whole case.

Giving the gift of the Bay Area can mean something practical too. Want a new set of towels or kitchen accessories? Local e-commerce offers more than a trip to a Pottery Barn or Home Depot.

GreenSage (www.greensage.com) offers a dizzying array of eco-friendly housewares and bric-a-brac. The site's gift section purveys vases, tumblers, and goblets of recycled glass; soy wax candles; hemp shower curtains; and decorative natural fabrics to make that custom pillow cozy. The site is also geared to inform and inspire the eco-friendly do-it-yourselfer. You could remodel your entire apartment with lead-free towel racks, recycled wallpaper, and furniture made with wood harvested from a sustainably maintained forest.

But if saving the world one towel rack at a time isn't your top priority, there are also social and cultural mementos that just make San Francisco San Francisco. Take, for example, the gift of Burning Man paraphernalia. The group's year-round office in San Francisco makes the Bay Area, not Black Rock City, the real home of the otherworldly techno-desert extravaganza, and while common retail isn't allowed on the Playa (bartering only), Burning Man purveys a "small amount of schwag to the public, created by and for participants ... to communicate the experience of Burning Man and your involvement in our culture." The site (www.burningman.com) sells gift certificates for items only available through the online Burning Man marketplace, such as crafts and dearly priced event tickets. The patient shopper can also score new items by trading goods on the site's barter board. Here, we spotted spidery leather pants and froofy-tassled hats to wear to the office holiday party or on the Playa. So far, the site doesn't offer pyrotechnic gear or portable discotheques, but keep your eye on the marketplace board – you never know.