10 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From Roman Rain Hats to Sunscreen Oil

While actress Kristin Scott Thomas has much more glamorous hats that she wears around town, she counts this rain hat, which she bought in Rome, among the items that she can’t live without — it’s “quite thick,” she notes, also highlighting the leather strap around the top. After using it for more years than she can remember, Scott Thomas says the hat is “really battered, and it’s got a bit of mud on the inside.” Despite the wear and tear, she says, “It’s just a hat, but it’s my favorite hat.”

Editor’s note: Since Grevi lists all prices in euros, we’ve made an approximate conversion to U.S. dollars.

Outdoor Voices founder Ty Haney has returned to the brand, bringing with her the original creative team, whose inaugural collection made this week’s installment of Don’t Dillydally. While the launch includes everything from pleated skorts to pieces made for layering with your workout clothes, this topstitched exercise dresslooks pretty ideal for wearing straight from tennis to Sunday brunch.

It seems like no one can decide whether it’s a No-Toe-Show Summer or Five-Toes-Out Summer, but one thing’s for sure: It’s always time to pick up some vaguely orthopedic summer shoes. Over the past few months, we’ve written about cloudlike Aerosoles, water shoes for regular shoes, gorpy Keens, and now, some barely there Crocs sandals recommended by stylist Laura Ferrara. “People asked me, ‘Wait, is that The Row?’ Or ‘Is that a Givenchy knockoff?’ And I’m like, ‘No,’” she says. “‘They’re Crocs.’”

As the place for all of our most-stood-behind, most-recommended, most-favorite wardrobe staples that have appeared on the site, the Strategist’s Womenswear 100 welcomed some new additions this week, including the sun hat director Durga Chew-Bose wore while shuttling between Marseille and Cassis with Chloë Sevigny, the shortest UGGs, and these Italian gondolieri shoes.

Some bags are so good that they escape the bag of bags fate, and for Strategist senior kitchen and dining writer Emma Wartzman, said bag is this canvas tote from Cozy Earth. Large without being cumbersome, the bag is versatile enough to take to the farmers’ market and the park nearly every weekend. Best of all, it’s outfitted with no fewer than three pockets — “one on the outside (great for keeping my wallet handy while shopping) and two on the inside (one with a zip for extra protection),” Wartzman writes. Needless to say, it has been on her Strategist Brain this summer.

Having grown up during a time when using tanning oils meant roasting in the sun, our beauty writer Tembe Denton-Hurst couldn’t get over the mental hurdle of sunscreen oils. To understand whether they’re as effective as other sunscreens, she chatted with a dermatologist and cosmetic chemist, who told her the buzzy sun oils are protective so long as you use enough — an ounce or about enough to fill a shot glass — and reapply as directed. So if you’re sunscreen-oil-curious, we recommend starting with this hydrating option from Supergoop that isn’t greasy and leaves just a slight, sunscreen-y film.

Instead of, say, breath mints, actress Brittany Snow keeps plastic baggies full of Stevia in her purse. Sure, friends who have discovered the sweetener in her bag tease her a bit, but as she says, “You never know when you’re going to get a coffee and they don’t have stevia there.”

You don’t actually need to spend hundreds of dollars on your suitcase. In fact, this amazingly durable one from Amazon, which comes recommended by two of our writers, will do just fine and run you less than $60 — about the same as an airport sandwich and a cocktail. For overpackers, though, we recommend upgrading to one with a lifetime warranty in case your zipper fails you.

During these increasingly humid, sticky, sunny summer days Strategist contributor Talia Mayden has found herself yearning for the perfect no-bra summer-heat-wave dress — otherwise known as a PNBSHWD. Accordingly, she’s spent the past few months test-driving more than 30 dresses to find one that would fit her like a slip dress on a hanger, be opaque enough to wear sans bra, and have low enough arm holes to avoid frequent washing. While this mini number from Free People wasn’t long enough to be the ultimate winner — leave that to Toit Volant’s Jane Dress — it satisfied all her other criteria. Plus, it’s just $60.

In recent years, Strategist contributor Jordan Page has found himself preferring long, baggy shorts to their very short above-the-knee counterparts, writing, “Not only do loose-fitting long shorts serve as great protection against the sweltering summer sun, but I actually prefer the silhouette on my frame.” As such, he’s gotten into the practice of adding a fresh pair to his collection every summer, and this year, he opted for these striped ones from Awake that “are perfect for the beach, for lounging around your apartment, for a quick errand; they would even be great for a night out with the right shirt and shoes.”