This roundup of things we liked this week originally appeared in the October 19, 2023, 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.
This week, a dispatch from two vacation spots: Paris (our stylish friend Fiorella Valdesolo had some shopping suggestions), and Martha Stewart’s house (via image, where we discovered a type of quilt previously unknown to us). Plus, some aquatic pillows, and various other cheerful things for the house.
This Week’s List
* Buried in a recent Lauren Sherman newsletter was this warning and a tip: “Let’s just say that there is a huge difference between Scottish and Italian cashmere! Buy Scottish cashmere on Etsy and you will thank me.” She explained further to us: “On Etsy, I mostly search for ‘Ballantyne,’ ‘Hadley,’ and ‘Pringle’ sweaters. A lot of the Scottish makers had deals with department stores, so it’s pretty easy to find them.” Here’s what we turned up: this hunter-green crew neck, this tan ribbed cardigan, and this periwinkle collared button-down.
* Look at this picture of all these 12-year-old girls sleeping over at Martha Stewart’s house, ensconced in beautiful quilts. We’re especially taken with the one on the far right, which we’ve ascertained is a “Suebonnet Sue” quilt — you can buy a similar one here.
* This wavy Jorge Zalszupin magazine bench is just the right amount of wavy, we think.
* Can you believe this handsome pom-pom trivet is from … Trader Joe’s??
* We spotted a very nice fish-shaped pillow hanging in the studio of towel maker Autumn Sonata the other day. It was an eBay find (we asked), but they said their own version is coming soon. In the meantime: we’re fans of this tuna-shaped pillow from Neighbour, and this nonspecific fish-shaped pillow from the new East Village store Common Things.
* This minimalist cuckoo clock is delightful, appeals to kids and also adults, and is surprisingly not annoying to the ear. Muji makes an even more streamlined option.
* Just back from Paris, our pal Fiorella Valdesolo texted us a list of things she picked up: “I got the chicest little monogrammed lip balm made at Officine Buly. You customize it by choosing the case and exterior. And that popular vintage store with the awful name Thank God I’m a VIP has a lovely in-house line. Lots of people come for these oversize shirts to wear as pajamas or a shirt dress but I left with one of their woven leather purses.”
* Annie Leibovitz’s newly listed Upper West Side duplex has four (from what we can tell) of these telescoping floor lamps. Nice, simple option for basically any house, if you can afford them.
Check These Out Too
Mexico City–based writer and curator Su Wu shared a few things she recently bought and liked. Since its getting to be that time of year, a few of these would make really nice gifts — especially the water boiler and the carafe and the teapot.
* I was having lunch and a person walked by with an Innerraum handbag and I must have made a noise of longing because my friend, who is much quicker on the uptake, jumped up and asked after it for me. The bag fits neatly into ideas I’ve been thinking through, about tropes of materiality, and whether our ideas of craft are broad enough to encompass post-industrial materials and, like, things made of garbage?
* Then again, sometimes I’m just blissfully right down the middle myself, like in this appliqued top and hand-knotted fringe pants and cone bag from Seire Collective, which is a new handcraft project based in the Philippines that collaborates with artisans from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
* Someone famous I didn’t know came over recently, a surprise, and she looked astounding, like I cannot begrudge anyone who spends it well and looks so exciting. And she was wearing these shoes that I couldn’t ID, but in my hazy recollection they were very prim Chanel-ish slingbacks with the barest slice of a heel and the sides and cap-toe had been airbrushed with palm trees against a sunset. It led me anew to these one-of-a-kind Tercer Mundo pieces, which combine airbrushing not with, like, luxury whatever but with the rugby/cycling/tracksuit/shinguard “sportsmix” feeling that seems to be in the air.
* Speaking of which, everyone who comes over to my house for tea asks after my water boiler. It’s the Ottoni by Carsten Jorgensen for Bodum from the 1980s, and a few examples are usually available at all the usual vintage sources, and in copper here.
* I’m a notoriously terrible romantic matchmaker but I’m an upper middling to excellent friend matchmaker, and it’s a karma I’ve gotten back a hundred-fold. Anyway, my besties did a collaboration — a Building Block blown glass carafe, with a resin stopper by Minjae Kim and, ahem, generous scale.
* It has been one of the luckiest experiences in a whole life of undeserved luck to be part of the new afternoon tea service at Salon Rosetta, which is on the top floor of chef Elena Reygadas’s legendary restaurant Rosetta, until November 11. We collaborated on more than 100 new pieces of teaware for the space — all by Mexico-based designers — and I love everything including these “shiboridashi” handleless teapots commissioned from the mother-daughter team of Maxine Álvarez and Natalia Ramos and their new line, Maremoto, which can be ordered with bougainvillea or myrtle ash glaze. They are great for my favorite daily drinking kukicha twig tea, or with our Té Ahorita house blend of wild-foraged mint, biwa leaf, and pericón (a plant whose medicinal properties were mentioned in the Aztec codices, the written books predating the arrival of the Spanish). Might I suggest you top with red pine nuts to add a little unctuousness, a little fattiness, in the mouthfeel, like Elena does in the restaurant? There are few better hostess gifts than a tin of tea and a beautiful teapot and a story, especially in the winter; these are available to ship internationally or in shop at Mesa Rosetta.
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.
