Simone Bodmer-Turner’s Morning-Hike Gear
This roundup of things we liked this week originally appeared in the May 15, 2025 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’ve got Simone Bodmer-Turner’s morning-hike essentials, Molly Jong-Fast’s stack of black T-shirts, and lots of glass to discuss. —Simone Kitchens, Lauren Ro, and Erin Schwartz
This Week’s List
* A new collection of colored-glass lights from In Common With, inspired in part by Gee’s Bend quilts.
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* Molly O’Hallaran summer sweater sale (sitewide, use code SUMMER25). Buy the $$$ thing when it’s out of season; this is thrifty mom wisdom. We like the mohair long-sleeve.
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* So many uses for this nice-looking Auger glass bowl.
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* Emilia Petrarca emailed us about these new glass “mugs” from Arc Objects. She sips her martinis out of them. Great for coffee too.
* Sarah Nsikak, our favorite textile designer who’s recently made fabric wall coverings and dupioni silk floor pillows, is part of a New York Design Week group show that opens this week at the Standard East Village. Innerwoven, curated by Tione Trice from Of the Cloth, also features pieces by furniture-maker Nifemi Ogunro, artist Beoncia Dunn, and florist Karla Smith-Brown.
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* These CAP Beauty x Autumn Sonata toiletry bags are truly great everything bags. They officially launch Friday, but Secret Strat readers get early access today.
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* Molly Jong-Fast, whose memoir How to Lose Your Mother is out June 3, has a black T-shirt problem, she tells us. Her favorites are from Majestic Filatures (“they are expensive but look very smooth and are not too tight or too loose”), Mads Nørgaard (“made in Norway and are better for the environment”), and this one from Zimmerman that has a necklace attached to it. “Zara is a personal favorite, but I also love Quince,” she says. “Those are my lower-end go-tos. I wear black because I’m super messy and always, always, always spill coffee or Diet Coke on myself.”
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Ceramic artist Simone Bodmer-Turner left the city for rural Massachusetts about three years ago. “I wound up in this area because a friend of mine who’s an amazing photographer in New York, Andrea Gentl, grew up in the house,” she says. “She really cared about it going to friends. The exciting part about being up there is so much open space. There are fields and an orchard that I’m learning how to bring back to life.” Bodmer-Turner, who reopened her online shop last week after a two-year hiatus and just launched her first new ceramic vessels in five years, says her new work is inspired by her new life in the country. “It’s the first house I’ve ever owned and the first time I’ve ever really designed for myself, so a lot of what you’re seeing in terms of the output of the studio has been for this space.” In addition to gardening and building studios in the barns, Bodmer-Turner makes time for a daily hike. She leaves her phone, packs her binoculars, and heads out with her dog, Mort, every morning before coffee. Here’s everything she takes with her:
* “Kinto 16-oz. water bottle with morning tinctures: I get my water in in the morning, which I’m really bad about unless I force myself. I have some amazing tinctures from an herbalist friend in upstate New York (I love Bitter Ally from Fat of the Land) and the other one is Rosy by Dr. Anna Gold, our acupuncturist and herbalist in the Bay Area. That’s my health morning. I don’t do a big exercise, but I do a 30-minute walk with my water, my tinctures, and no phone every morning.”
* “My hemp boots from Salter House.”
* “I like to be able to stay in pajamas with no one knowing. I have a cotton-poplin pair from Tekla in a dark color without stripes.”
* “Waxed canvas hat keeps rain off face and a little extra protection when you’re still in that waking-up cozy feeling. I have a secondhand six-panel cap that my boyfriend tells me is by a no-longer-existing skateboard brand, but this one has a similar vibe in a nice color, and I also love this cap from Toast.”
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* “My sunglasses are Tejesta’s Araki style from Colbo. Finally found a shape that suits my small face, and the lenses aren’t too dark, so they don’t make me feel separate from the world.”
* “Throughout the colder months I rely on Outback Trading Company waxed canvas duster in black. Around this time of year I switch to the lighter-weight Toogood messenger coat in black (I upsize to an XL). I love that this one works in the city and countryside, whereas the oilskin is really a country-only coat.”
* “Small, foldable pair of binoculars from Nikon for watching the beavers, blue herons, and bald eagle that have been making appearances at the pond. The collapsibility means they’re easy to fit in a coat pocket. It’s really fun to watch this family of beavers, they’re doing impressive work. I’ve learned so much about them being these amazing engineers and transformers of landscape. Also: The Book of Wilding, by Isabella Tree, a conservationist in the U.K., has been really educational about beavers and animals transforming and rewilding habitats.”
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