The underwear celebrities would’ve never told us about themselves … until they did

In December 2016, I sent a cold email pitch to a website that had existed for about six weeks. I randomly stumbled across it while frantically shopping for a high-quality pair of nail clippers (the above) and knew I’d met my match. That first pitch had three ideas: socks with deliberate holes in them, the velvet hangers that saved my closet, and the underwear I bought for both myself and the actors I dress as a wardrobe stylist for film and television — Commando’s revolutionary no-seam, no-show, buttery-soft underwear. I’ve been here yapping about the life-changing products I’ve stumbled across ever since.

Launched in 2005, Commando’s signature “no VPL” underpants were the solution to a historically grim situation: For years, the only way to not have your skivvies show under tight-fitting clothes was to submit to the torture of a thong. How do I know this? I was boots on the red carpet, giving actors a choice between butt floss and, well, going commando under a premiere gown.

Seamless undergarments are everywhere now, but something easy to lose sight of in the sea of blatant copies and AI-generated recommendations is that Commando really did invent the category. To quote the brand’s founder, Kerry O’Brien, “When people told me that my vision for my first product, underwear without elastic or trim, wasn’t achievable, I didn’t believe them.”

My seamless-underwear article was only the beginning: The Strategist has since become the internet’s go-to place to talk about your underthings. We’ve run the underwear gamut around here, seeking out the very best all-cotton non-granny panties, workout undies, non-shapewear shapewear, and period underwear. Over the years, it’s even become a safe space for a few brave celebrities to share their undergarments with us — like June Squibb and Joanna Goddard’s favorite Jockeys and Lucas Gage’s beloved J.Crew boxer briefs.

But it’s not just underthings — the Strategist invited in the behind-the-scenes experts no one usually talks to to gab about the stuff nobody ever talks about. Wardrobe stylists like me, makeup artists on their low-key drugstore buys, executive assistants on their bosses’ wildest asks, and retail employees on what’s really going on at Anthropologie. One by one, they’ve shared their particular industry’s most useful tips and tricks, insider information, and secrets you’d otherwise never know.

Ten years on, the Strategist has endured because (yes, I’m waving my Strategist foam finger in the air here) the collected experts, writers, and editors are out here doing the dang work. We wear the underwear, find the right sources, and stick our nose in other people’s business. Here’s to ten more years! —Alison Freer, contributing writer