The New Best Underwear, Capybara Plushies, and Other Recent Strategist Finds

If it’s small enough, any lamp can be a bedside lamp. But when the Strategist’s home-décor writer Erin Schwartz consulted 17 experts, Hay’s Matin Table Lamp (available in eight colors) was far and away the most recommended option. The Matin got the nod from interior designers as well as our style columnist Chris Black and SNL’s Chloe Fineman, who owns two. Fineman said it “creates a beautiful glow” (she has a purple one for her place in New York and a yellow one in L.A.). Schwartz, who tested the lamp, found it was easy to toggle among the three brightness levels and liked how it filtered the light for nighttime reading. Evan Dent, the manager of Shakespeare & Co. on the Upper East Side, who got one as a gift from his girlfriend, agreed. He said, “The shade shapes the light pretty well so that you can keep reading without disturbing someone trying to sleep next to you.”

“Without being shiny, this serum smooths out my skin and gives it a bit of a glow. While we were filming Janet Planet, it was basically the only thing I wore on my face besides moisturizer because the director, Annie Baker, likes showing ‘warts and all.’ ”

“It goes without saying that every Arab household has to have za’atar. There’s sumac berry in this blend, which gives it sour notes, and sesame seeds, which are toasted and add a little bit of nuttiness. Like my mom, I always have it blended with olive oil as a spread.”

“Our Irish wolfhound is 180 pounds. He’s a big boy, and he requires a very large bed. This XXL bed can actually fit two wolf- hounds comfortably, which has been a game changer. The covers on them are great, too. You just remove them and wash them.”

Before axolotls were everywhere, the “It” stuffed animal was a sloth, and before that it was a llama. Now, there’s a new kid in town: the capybara. The South American rodents are furry, stout, cartoonishly oversize, and have cute personalities in real life. They are smart, social herbivores that like to swim and are often kept as pets, like an irresistible mix between a corgi, hippo, and pony. And they’ve been rising in popularity. Encanto featured a scene-stealing capybara back in 2021; there is a viral capybara song and countless memes and GIFs. Toy-makers are taking notice: Jellycat recently released Clyde Capybara. And Pusheen’s capybara was so popular it sold out in two days. Alexis Bobbitt, owner of toy store Little Green, told me that when kids come into her shop, they seem to prefer these offbeat rodents to the traditional bunnies and cats. –Liza Corsillo

I didn’t know that I’d been missing a sandal that combines the freedom of flip-flops with the sock compatibility of slides until I found Montbell’s Sock-On Sandals. I learned about them during the summer of 2019 while living in the French surf town of Guéthary, near Biarritz. My friend Aï Kato recently opened a boutique grocery store there, and in addition to selling crates of fresh fruits and vegetables, there was a whole shelf full of these Sock-On Sandals in every size and colorway. Unlike most flip-flops, Sock-On Sandals don’t rely on a thong strap between the big toe and second toe to secure the foot. Instead, a swoop of silken rope extends across the top along the inside edge of the sole, while two bits of webbing anchor the rope to the outer edge. The sandal wears more like a minimalist slide—perfect for when you want to wear a sock with a slip-on that’s less bulky than a Birkenstock or Adilette. It’s also timeless-looking in a way that would feel right at home in a Hiroshige woodblock print. Yet the saturated colors, which match the straps to the textured rubber sole on many styles, wouldn’t look out of place under a pair of Homme Plissé pants either. I will still reach for my Chacos if I know I’ll be hiking on uneven terrain, but for most quick errands and jaunts, the Montbells are more than enough to get out the door—or indoors, for that matter. I liked them so much that I ended up getting a second pair to use as summer slippers. –Michael Zhao

I’ve long been a fan of Commando underwear, but Jockey’s Elance String Bikini has uncrowned them as my top pick for the best women’s underwear. Made from 100 percent cotton, they’re comfortable and breathable. They’re called bikini, but the cut is closer to a brief with full coverage in back and a fairly adjustable rise. They stay put, too. They go up only to a size 14, but still, for the price, it’s hard to do much better: It’s just $24 for a three-pack at full price, and you can almost always find them on sale. –Ambar Pardilla

“This doodad has become my go-to baby gift: I loved mine more than anything else I got for my third child.
The small countertop device dries and sterilizes pump parts, bottles, and pacifiers using UV lighting, getting you bone-dry, sterilized baby gear in as little as 30 minutes. This is a low-maintenance device (unlike the steam sterilizers I had tried), which was crucial because with my third, I exclusively pumped and had a lot of stuff to wash and dry every day. This saved us so much time and counter space. It looks neat and organized and holds a lot of stuff. It’s expensive but so worth it.”

“I can wear this on a hike or tucked into a suit and get compliments,” says Jason Stewart, a DJ and co-host of How Long Gone. His big tip for any polo, though, is lots of washing to break it in. A collar that’s a little worn in, a slight fray to the hem—these are the details that make the potentially stuffy style feel lived-in.

“They make an absolutely killer all-cotton-crêpe polo that breathes insanely well in the summer but holds its shape,” says Cody Min, the founder of the creative studio Astronaut Monastery, of this polo from Philly-based brand Junior’s. “It has a knit hemline that stays tucked in nicely and tapers the body perfectly.” Min always tucks them in.

Years of wearing a uniform as a kid have turned James Hirschfeld, co-founder and CEO of Paperless Post, into a polo connoisseur. “The material needs to be a fine cotton piqué or wool-cashmere knit to avoid the back-to-school-uniform feeling,” he says. This one from Zanone is well cut for his slender arms and the perfect length to wear untucked.

Xavier Donnelly, creative director at Ash hotels, prefers a knit polo with “a ribbed trim at the waist and the sleeves. And I hate when they are too long.” This vintage-inspired option from Abercrombie satisfies both
of those specs at a reasonable price.