12 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From CBK’s Sneakers to Status Hiking Pants

As a former footwear designer who dabbled in bag design, too, Strategist deals writer Martha Tuber has strong opinions about what makes an actually good bag. So when she tested a selection of 21 Quince bags, she felt it necessary to examine each from both a technical and a style perspective. Take, for example, this “handwoven” tote that she doubts is actually handwoven — its weave is suspiciously uniform, she says. Still, it’s athoughtfully constructed bag inside and out. “The woven exterior is very nicely made and extends seamlessly from the bag’s body into the straps,” she says. “The interior also shows nice attention to detail.”

If you’ve noticed that brands known for using 14k solid gold (like Catbird and Mociun) have been offering more sterling-silver pieces recently, it’s no coincidence. “The price of gold stands at $5,165.60 an ounce … For comparison’s sake, the price of silver is $85.46 an ounce,” reports our resident jewelry collector Ambar Pardilla. So if you, like her, think it makes more sense to buy something in sterling silver rather than gold right now, you’re in luck: She rounded up a selection of her favorite silver jewelry, including these organic looking earrings that resemble “Elsa Peretti for Tiffany, for exactly $887 less,” she says.

“It took me forever to find a juicer that I felt got the best out of a citrus,” Ariana Debose told us, but she found a winner in this one from KitchenAid. “Every morning, I have hot lemon water as part of my routine, but I don’t always like to have the pulp in my water,” she says. That’s not a problem with this juicer: “There’s no pulp, no seeds — it holds all of that back so you’re only getting juice.”

As cookbook author Anna Stockwell was gathering material for her forthcoming title, The Butter Book, she says, “I paid particular attention to finding the very best butter-serving accessories and have been methodically growing my personal collection.” In doing so, she learned she has an affinity for shell shapes and accessories like this one that creates little butter shells to put on the dinner table. “I recommend using salted Irish butter for delicious golden-yellow shells,” she says. “Soften it to room temp, mash it into the shells, smooth the tops, and cover the whole sheet in wax paper and freeze until firm.”

According to our travel writer and resident hiker Katherine Gillespie, hiking pants “look utilitarian at best and dorky at worst, especially when tucked into socks or gaiters.” In recent years, though, she has noticed more and more outdoor brands designing looser, baggier, and “altogether less crunchy-looking” pairs like this one from Free People Movement that’s “pretty much the most oversize cargo pant you can buy.” In Gillespie’s eyes, as long as the extra fabric doesn’t inhibit movement, “you can actually just wear whatever you feel comfortable in when spending time outside.”

Our Strategist correspondent across the pond, senior editor Ailbhe Malone, tells us, “There are two excellent exhibitions on in London at the moment — a big Tracey Emin retrospective at the Tate Modern and a Catherine Opie show at the National Portrait Gallery.” If you can’t make it to the museums, you can still get some merch like this baseball cap that features Emin’s handwriting.

As it goes, when Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo moved from a two-bedroom apartment with a large living room to a one-bedroom apartment with a smaller living room, she tossed at least a third of her 3-year-old son’s toys and books. But there was one thing she made sure to keep: the reversible Totter + Tumble play mat they’d been using for dance parties, puzzle construction, car races, and toy-train driving for most of his life. It’s double-sided with two pleasing patterns and “in a pinch has been comfortable enough for me to fall asleep on while putting him to bed,” she says.

When Strategist contributor Hilary Cadigan found herself in the middle of a Benjamin Moore–induced “bourgeois meltdown” (as in, too many paint colors for comfort), her Instagram algorithm pointed her toward a company called Alkemis, maker of the “world’s first wellness paint.” Compared with most conventional formulations, which, she says “literally coat your walls in plastic,” Alkemis paint is made from clear quartz and “other natural earthen mineral” — meaning it’s plastic free. A little research was enough to convince her to order paint for the whole house, and after a relatively easy process (sans “paint smell,” no less), one thing’s for sure: “I certainly can’t imagine ever going back to the chemical stuff,” she says.

What does one of the great minds behind Rhode buy at the drugstore, you may wonder? For cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson, it turns out to be a lot of Olay: specifically, the brand’s Super Serum Body Lotion and this related bodywash that smells “fresh yet warm.” Thanks to its key ingredients — niacinamide, BHA, collagen peptide, vitamin E, and shea butter to name a few — “it does a great job of cleansing the skin without drying it out,” he says.

During the outpouring of (decidedly negative) responses to the original test images from Love Story, one of the most disputed items is the Chuck Taylors on Sarah Pidgeon’s feet. This week, our CBK experts Ambar Pardilla, Lauren Ro, and Najwa Jamal proved the naysayers wrong: “As Amy Odell reported in Back Row, the series … got this detail right, and the lack of any photographic evidence (unlike the images showing her in Stan Smiths or Airwalks) has to do with the fact that she wore them before meeting JFK Jr.,” they report.

Through this Tuesday, Everlane’s annual Friends & Family Sale is back, and everything is 30 percent off (that’s 5 percent more off than last year). “You can’t really go wrong with anything from its vast inventory of classic, comfortable basics,” our deals editor Sam Daly says, but these European flax-linen pull-on pants are a nice option for the warm days ahead. (If you’d like to stay on top of more deals like this, make sure to sign up for theStrategist Sales Alert newsletter.)

As a busy mother in perimenopause, Tamera Mowry says, “I’m learning that you gotta keep your body moving to just keep your hormones and your mind stable.” So as she juggles working out, running errands, sitting in traffic, and bending down and picking up her kids, she always wears these comfortable leggings that don’t feel too tight at the end of the day. “I have multiples, mainly in black, so I can switch up the tops. And black is slimming, if I’m being honest,” she says.

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