This roundup of things we liked this week originally appeared in the December 12, 2024 edition of the Secret Strategist newsletter, a weekly email where we share the stuff our staff — plus a rotating cast of writers, design-world people, and various others with very good taste — would otherwise keep to themselves. If you want to get our picks straight to your inbox each week, sign up here.
We told you about the Parisian outdoors brand A Young Hiker a few weeks ago. Then recently, we saw our stylish photo director, Jody Quon, wearing the brand’s utterly fantastic puffer in navy. We want it badly! —Katy Schneider and Simone Kitchens
Editor’s note: A Young Hiker lists all prices in euros, so the price shown is an approximate conversion to U.S. dollars.
This Week’s List
* Another puffer — this one for kids, one of the few out there long enough to cover their butts. We heard they usually go on sale closer to Christmas.
* Our friend Amy Liang reupholstered a vintage turtle footstool (in alpaca bouclé) for her son, and now we’re thinking of doing the same. Found some on Etsy.
* Ending Soon, one of our favorite vintage shops, uses all red wooden hangers. They look so nice we’re thinking of replacing all of our hangers with red wooden hangers.
* A batch of 40- to 70-percent-off &Daughter sweaters from the Outnet. Crewneck, turtleneck, cable-knit. All in the $200-something-ish range.
* And an ever-so-slightly-less-expensive Shaggy Dog-like brushed-wool sweater from Front General Store.
Check These Out Too
Filmmaker Rel Schulman has a truly enormous Swatch collection and is a longtime fan of giving the watches as gifts. He explains how it all started here.
* “Gifting Swatches started with my dad. Backstory: Swatch started in 1983. He was flying through Paris that year. They weren’t available in America yet, but they were at this one store in Charles de Gaulle airport. And they were so cheap, like $40 for Swiss quartz technology. So he bought one; then he starts coming home with a handful from every trip to Paris, then with a suitcase full. By the early ‘90s, he had the most Swatch watches in New York. We’re talking 2,000 to 3,000 different watches, in every drawer in the apartment. I have really specific memories of being a kid, on Saturday mornings, watching cartoons with my brother, eating cereal, and two guys would come over with suitcases full of cash and would buy his limited-edition ones from the ‘80s. They were like baseball cards. When we were in grammar school, we were given a different one to wear every week or two. We had really colorful Kiki Picasso watches or Keith Haring watches. They were so bright and they’re funny and had a sense of humor and told time. And the other kids didn’t have them. I started wearing three watches on each arm. It was sort of my first exploration into funky fashion, or expressing myself with accessories. For the next 15 years he would slowly dish them out to us, and at some point I became the custodian of the remains of his collection. They totally dropped in value, I couldn’t tell you why, but for whatever reason he got out at the right moment. Keith Haring is not worth $10,000 anymore, but it’s still rare.
I would say I’ve given 12 or 15 Swatches as gifts, sometimes from my own collection, sometimes a brand-new one. I recently gave my auto mechanic a Swatch Skin, the super thin one. I took it off my wrist and said, ‘It’s yours.’ He took a huge bejeweled Michael Kors watch off his wrist and gave it to me, which I don’t like as much as the Swatch Skin. People are really consumed with Cartier, Rolex — status watches — but sorry, not getting you that for Christmas. It’s a great gift because it’s affordable and they’ll change the battery for free for life. They’re in every airport. You can’t go wrong. Get the ugliest one you can find. If you’re going to wear it, it might as well be totally gauche. But then again, there’s the black one with the white face, that will never go out of style. And they’re waterproof.”
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
