This roundup of things we liked this week originally appeared in the June 13, 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 noticed many of the beds at Villa Magnan, a really special hotel in Biarritz, are topped with these puffy bed-size pillows. (They sit on top of the duvet.) It wasn’t entirely clear what we were looking at, so we emailed to find out more: They’re from Castex, the hotel staff told us, a French company that’s been making bedding since 1870: “The puffy eiderdown was very common in French houses before — it was this madeleine de Proust that we wanted to awaken, bedding that makes you want to throw yourself into it and rest.” We think this sounds like a nice idea. And next week, the hotel will launch its own collection with Castex; we like the heart-shaped duvet. —Katy Schneider and Simone Kitchens
This Week’s List
* !Josef Hoffmann chairs on auction at Housing Works! Same shape, we believe, as the ones at Mr. Chow (though with different seats).
* We now have our eye on ’00 Muxarts. (See here, here, here, and here. And here and here and here.)
Editor’s note: Cheree Cheree lists all prices in euros, so the price shown is an approximate conversion to U.S. dollars.
* Two Strategist writers own and love this Dragon Diffusion bag. One of them, Lauren Ro, says she’s been seeing it a bunch out and about: “A T mag writer was carrying one at the Matouk store opening a few weeks back,” as well as “a stylish assistant to Daniel of Alimentari Flaneur. She saw mine and said, ‘Hey, look, same bag,’ and then we talked about how we both keep seeing it everywhere.” It fits a laptop.
* These, from Muji, could turn a closet into a closet with built-ins, without actually having to get expensive built-ins, we think. (Obviously, they’re also nice-looking and could just go on any old wall.)
* We wrote about the long shorts from Saks Potts last week, but Simone got the brand’s carpenter pants and cannot take them off. Here in indigo on sale.
* Dunton Ellerkamp makes pretty rings.
* On the pretty-yet-slightly-impractical sconce front — these cast-glass guys by Natalie Weinberger.
* Found some cute little design-y kids’ chairs, which, incidentally, might make for nice side tables. Like this one from Zara, this one from Zara, and especially these “Jens Risom–style” ones on Chairish. (Speaking of Zara Kids, we know a five-three adult who owns this great quilted jacket.)
* Grab some $8 water socks for all your upstate weekends.
* An assortment of tanks. Over at Matches, some on-sale Flore Flore: a scoop-neck ($30) and a cropped style ($22). Similar in shape, but cheaper, here at the Gap ($12) and Topshop ($20). Spaghetti-strapped ($34) and boxy cropped ($20) at Los Angeles Apparel.
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