13 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From Superior Graters to Buzzy Baggus

This week, Baggu released a new collaboration with British fashion designer Molly Goddard that includes frilly crescents, snap-embellished shoulder bags, and, of course, some new prints. Our senior writer Liza Corsillo, who tested a few pieces ahead of the launch, says this Mini Ruffle Crescent bag “feels similar to the Sandy Liang Baggu collaboration with its dangling bow ties.” The surprise baby-blue print fabric lining is a nice touch, too.

We’ve long been fans of Zara Home’s notably European offerings. (In fact, we featured one of its hefty iron-aluminum table lamps in the inaugural issue of Secret Strategist.) Still, as we combed through pages of its couches, stationery, kids’ stuff, and handbags, like this leather number reminiscent of The Row’s Margaux, we began to wonder: What should we actually be buying at Zara Home? After digging into the brand’s pieces and materials, our senior writer Lauren Ro reports, “It makes sense to me that Zara Home should be a place to pick up some inexpensive décor, maybe even a nightgown, and leave the rest alone until Zara Home ever decides to open here.”

According to our fashion writer Ambar Pardilla, culottes “are a walking identity crisis — not a pant or shorts or a skirt — and that’s what makes them ideal for the transition between seasons.” Naturally, a hunt was in order — specifically for a not too long, not too short, full but not too full pair of culottes that didn’t make her look “like Louis XVI.” After trying a variety of pairs that were either too shorts-y, too skirt-y, or too pants-y, Pardilla landed on this billowy pink pair that fits just right. “I now know how Louis XVI felt every day — that is, like a few million livres, or however much Marie Antoinette’s diamond necklace was,” she writes.

It was only a matter of time before sneakerinas (sneaker ballet flats) and snoafers (sneaker loafers) were joined by sneaker mules, or as Pardilla calls them, “smules.” For a pair with a feel that’s akin to the Puma Speedcat, she recommends these from Vince, which are “low to the ground, with enough wiggle room in the toe box and some cushioning.”

After over a decade of using her OXO rotary grater to grate parmesan, Strategist contributor Alyse Whitney stumbled upon something, well, greater (sorry!): Susteas’s rotary grater, which can shred and slice any cheese or vegetable with ease. After using it to cut potatoes into uniform slices, crinkle-cut carrots for a salad, and demolish a block of cheese in less than a minute, Whitney has but one complaint: There isn’t a lid for the included storage box, but “that’s just a minor quibble when my house can be just as joyous as an Olive Garden,” she says.

This week, we got a dispatch from Jay Duplass about what it was like to film the upcoming horror film Other Mommy: “You are running around like an idiot, getting beat up, and doing fight scenes, screaming and yelling, and your body hurts,” he says. It wasn’t until his co-star Jessica Chastain loaned him her red-light-therapy band that his 52-year-old body actually got some relief. “It comes on set with me, just in case some shit goes down and I need to tame an angry hip,” he says. “It is shocking how well it works.”

“As we surveyed fall’s new stores, we noticed that a lot of them are refreshingly strange and, in their specificity, reminiscent of the city’s retail scene of yore,” writes our senior editor Hilary Reid. So if you, like us, increasingly get the feeling that the only things to buy are beige leggings and an iced matcha, we encourage you to venture into some of New York’s newest (and most delightful) stores, such as a midwife-owned boutique that sells Plan B alongside Le Bon Shoppe pants and a children’s store with one-of-a-kind pieces sewn from vintage textiles, like this buttercup-yellow romper with a scalloped Peter Pan collar made with fabric from the 1940s.

Last weekend, thousands of Squishmallow-loving, Samba-wearing tweens crammed into American Dream Mall to catch a glimpse of 15-year-old YouTuber Salish Matter and her mega-YouTuber dad, Jordan. The pair was there to celebrate the launch of their new skin-care brand, Sincerely Yours, which debuted with four products — a mineral sunscreen, gel cleanser, hydrating mist, and lightweight moisturizer. “So far, the early reviews are promising — especially for the soothing serum mist that multiple tweens I spoke to liked for its refreshing cucumber scent and lightweight feel,” reports our junior writer Bella Druckman.

Like many of the other tennis dresses in Ro’s closet, Prana’s Luxara dress has all the features you’d expect of an exercise dress: an A-line cut, adjustable straps, a scoop neck, a supportive built-in shelf bra, and shorts with a side pocket for extra tennis balls. But unlike those other dresses, it’s so comfortable that she keeps wearing it long after her time on the court. Plus, she says, “It’s cute enough to run errands in and is great for chasing after my two kids and, of course, tennis balls.”

As the mom to a 2.5-year-old, Strategist writer Liza Corsillo has learned that toddlers don’t understand time very well unless they have a good visual representation of it. Accordingly, she has a batch of visual timers on her Strategist Brain, including this wrist watch for toddlers with two buttons to set timers for two and five minutes, respectively. “As time runs out, lights appear around the edge of the buttons so kids can see how much time is left,” she writes. “It’s also water resistant, very cute, and seems like fun for kids who are seeking more independence.”

A word to the wispy folks: Our beauty writer Rio Viera-Newton uses this Japanese styling stick when her “flyaways are staging a full revolt.” While it’s small enough to keep in a bag, the stick “tames stray strands without flattening volume or leaving a ton of residue, and the precision is what makes it addictive — you can target a patch of new growth or that one rogue strand sticking straight up, and it actually stays put,” she writes.