Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. This week, in addition to our usual suggestions, we’re offering a Mother’s Day gift guide, with recommendations on what we’re coveting for ourselves and considering for our maternal figures. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at [email protected].
Lounge Act
Airy Boxers Fit for a Sunday Stroll
By Laura Regensdorf
If there’s an underlying theme to the usual clothing gifts for mothers, it’s comfort. Robes, slippers, monogrammed pajamas: These are the sartorial equivalents to a well-deserved breakfast in bed. But what if such soft styling were a little less domesticated? A new wave of ladylike boxers suggests an indoor-outdoor ease, with refined detailing and elongated cuts. The cotton poplin Stave shorts by the French Danish brand Baserange have a breezy fit and sun-faded disposition that would be at home on a Mediterranean ferry. Vaquera’s knee-grazing pink-and-white boxers offer a subversive edge — especially when paired with tall leather boots, as seen on the label’s spring 2025 runway in Paris. On the side of whimsical restraint, the Garment’s Cyprus shorts are trimmed in a series of micropleats with a scalloped hem; they come in crisp white or black, in keeping with the Copenhagen line’s monochromatic palette. For fans of smooth-on-skin silk, Comme Si’s La Boxer Bermuda marries an athletic silhouette with a delicate floral by Liberty. The garden print recalls the boxer Muhammad Ali’s self-described winning technique, which also sums up a mother’s protective instincts: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
Aegean Treat
Made-in-Greece Pantry Goods
By Luke Fortney
In ancient Greece, Rhea, the mother of gods, was honored each spring with cakes, flowers and fine wines in an early iteration of Mother’s Day. Draw from that history with a range of Greek imports that are now available in the United States. Damian Primis, a bassoonist with the New York Philharmonic, started Primis Imports during the pandemic, when performance halls were closed. After selling out of olive oil, he expanded into pantry staples, like sea salt flakes and seeded sesame brittle. “They’re some of the most addicting little treats you can have,” he says. The Athens-based company Daphnis and Chloe specializes in organic seasonings and teas, including one variety made for wine lovers. The tea’s notes of sage and chamomile — meant to be restorative after a night out — were developed with the Barcelona-based Natural Wine Company. In Thessaloniki in northern Greece, Yiayia and Friends produces its yellow fruit vinegar with local grapes, orange, lemon and mandarin. Each 200-milliliter bottle features custom artwork from the Greek studio Beetroot Design. Psyche Organic is based in Copenhagen, but its small-batch olive oils come from single-estate Greek farms. Its founder, Theophilos Constantinou, ships his oils in one-liter pouches, inspired by budget wine, that seal in precious aromas and flavors.
Growth Potential
An English Estate’s Take on Japanese Gardening Gear
By Aemilia Madden
Even the most experienced gardener is bound to face some failure. That’s why Niwaki, a company that specializes in Japanese tools, and the Newt, a country estate and hotel in Somerset, England, turned to the Japanese proverb “nana korobi ya oki” as inspiration for their four-piece collection of horticultural accessories, launching May 2. The saying, which translates to “fall down seven times, stand up eight,” evokes the patience and persistence required in tending beds of tulips or patches of strawberries. To accompany gardeners on that journey, Niwaki and the Newt have created a Samue work jacket with deep pockets and a kimono collar, a Hori Hori knife for digging and weeding, carbon steel Higurashi secateurs for pruning and a hedge green canvas tool bag, all designed with a quaint English garden in mind. But the stylishly austere, durable designs make them a utilitarian choice for all those exercising a green thumb, no matter where their patch of dirt may be.
Star Shine
Zodiac Pendants for Every Aesthetic
By Jaclyn Bloomfield
A zodiac necklace can be a stylish way to honor your mother, whether it features her own sign or that of someone she holds dear. Van Cleef & Arpels has been reimagining the zodiac theme since the 1950s — its current offerings include sculptural gold medallions that depict each astrological symbol. David Webb’s zodiac necklace features a reversible design, one side with the sign outlined in diamonds, the other molded in 18-karat polished gold. The New York-based company Renna references each constellation with hand-carved pendants: The stars are engraved in rock crystal and backed by lapis lazuli, with diamonds surrounding the exterior of the medallion. The Brazilian jeweler Sauer also incorporates lapis lazuli, pairing it with graphic gold accents and the astrological sign name carved into the bottom of the pendant. Renato Cipullo, an Italian-born jeweler now based in New York, first designed his zodiac pendants in the 1970s, drawing inspiration from ancient Roman culture. His latest iteration, made with 18-karat gold, uses negative space to create a suspended design. The New York-based jeweler Jade Trau’s diamond-adorned zodiac charms are more delicate in scale and can be worn on a chain or slipped onto a huggie earring. And the Los Angeles-based brand Darius Jewels crafts each of its charms in the shape of the zodiac symbols, accenting them with antique old mine cut diamonds for a more vintage feel.
Surreal Settings
Ceramics That Bring Whimsy to the Table
By Mackenzie Oster
My mother tends toward practical purchases, so I make it a point to give her the little luxuries she wouldn’t buy for herself. These vegetable-shaped spoons, handmade in Turkey by the ceramist Victoria Baba, definitely qualify. Inspired by the bountiful countryside of Baba’s hometown in Belarus, the utensils are made to order and available in a variety of shapes, from a leafy radish to a snap pea. A spoon set could be paired with a hand-painted chocolate box by the Italian manufacturer Este Ceramiche for a trompe l’oeil bundle. For an alternate array of produce, the Parisian housewares brand La Galine offers a set of knife holders that look like slices of cantaloupe, lemon and fig (among other fruits). The Seoul-based company Iaac Crafts takes a more minimalist but still whimsical approach with a set of eight pearly porcelain knife holders that mimic the coiled shape of seashells.
Comfort Food
Meal Delivery Companies That Have Postpartum Mothers in Mind
When my mother-in-law is staying nearby, she’ll sometimes arrive at our apartment with so many containers of frozen soup that she needs a hand truck to transport them. There is, in my opinion, no greater gift a person could bring to a household that includes small children than healthy prepared food. When our freezer is empty, and especially when we’re all sick, I fantasize about more homemade soup magically arriving to replenish our stock. And it turns out that is in fact an option, thanks to the chef Marisa Mendez Marthaller, also known as the Soup Doula, who makes dishes, including kitchari and mushroom-and-vegetable broth, that can be preordered and picked up in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood or delivered locally. As I think about entering a second postpartum period later this year, I’ve also been looking into the many new larger-scale services that provide meals for parents in the months and years after birth: There’s Chiyo, which ships weeks’ worth of nutritious postpartum meals within the contiguous United States; Welcome Home and LaRoot, which deliver within the tristate area; and Milky Oat in the Bay Area. These companies all offer gift certificates, but I don’t know any new parents who would be mad about a surprise delivery of nourishing meals showing up at their door.
Color wash
Swirled Soaps Made in Small Batches
By Jinnie Lee
For the mother who doesn’t ask for much, an artisanal swirly soap is not only a nod to self-care but an artistic addition to the bathroom. The Toronto-based brand Sssoaps uses local ingredients to make its hand-poured bars. For its Batch 091 mixture, founder Sandro Petrillo combined floral essential oils like bergamot and lavender with French green clay and indigo powder to give the bar its verdant hue. Kimberly Waldropt, who launched her natural skin-care company Terra-Tory in 2017, offers a moisturizing ocean blue body bar made with aloe vera leaf juice and peppermint that is intended to have a cooling effect for any summer sunburns. Umé, an Oakland, Calif.-based home goods design studio, sells a larger soap shaped like an abstract mountain range with pointy peaks and scooped-out dips. Its jasmine ylang-ylang iteration is marbled black and white, and can be purchased with a custom ceramic dish shaped like an oversize shirt button. In Rockland, Maine, Trillium is a family-run soap business that launched in a farmhouse kitchen in 1992. All of its bars are made with rainwater and organic aromatics, then imperfectly hand-cut from a larger block. The lemongrass-and-lime bar, with French green clay and poppy seeds sprinkled in, has a gentle exfoliating texture for hands that could use a little more love.
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The post This Mother’s Day, Consider a Pair of Boxer Shorts appeared first on New York Times.
