The Stuff Students Are Bringing on Their First Day Back
we polled 39 students—from pre-K kids to high-school seniors— on their favorite lunch boxes, thermoses, and fidget toys.
For Preschool, the Hottest Lunch Bags Are From Pottery Barn
They have prints and patterns to satisfy budding paleontologists, princesses, and superheroes as well as unicorn fiends, mermaid enthusiasts, and glitter freaks. PB Kids Mackenzie Ombre Glitter Lunch Box,$29
Several middle schoolers we spoke to had an aversion to no-show socks. “I don’t think that looks cute,” says Tess, a seventh-grader who made her friends switch to these long Hanes.
Hanes Women’s Crew Socks, $10
Middle Schoolers Love Long Socks … for Some Reason
JOHN TURTURRO WASN’T necessarily looking to buy new glasses when he met Selima Salaun, owner of Selima Optique, through a friend in the late ’90s. “I was eating lunch near her shop on Wooster,” he says, “and she didn’t like the glasses I had on. She said, ‘Come over to my shop.’ ” The first pair he bought was bright red: “I kept thinking I wasn’t going to wear them, but I ended up wearing them all the time.” Salaun, who designs most of the pieces sold at her four shops, began her career as an optician in Paris, opened her first Selima Optique here in 1993, and has since amassed a following among not only celebrities but also designers and stylists: Mickey Drexler has worn the square-shaped Mike frames ($385) for 20 years now, Carolyn Kennedy long sported the lowset, round Aldos ($385), and Marni creative director Francesco Risso wore a pair of clear Sarahs (the shop has only a few “vintage” pairs left, for $650) to the Met Gala. Selima eyewear is “quirky but fashionable,” says book publicist Sheila O’Shea, who adds that the New Wave–inspired profiles and color choices make them feel distinct from the more bookish styles seen at other shops. Stylist Michelle Li compares shopping at Selima to “walking into the wand shop from Harry Potter,” where the shopkeeper has a preternatural sense for matching the merchandise to the customer; in Li’s case, the Selima staff sold her on a thickrimmed tortoiseshell pair that she never would have expected to fit her small face, but it did, perfectly.