Sartorial Blunders

I was recently introduced to a wonderful fashion blog, the Sartorialist. Scott Shuman, who was in the fashion industry for years (in menswear) posts pictures of real people on the streets, all over the world, wearing awesome ensembles. Sometimes he makes comments about a trend or observation, but most times the pictures just speak for themselves. No stylist could do it better than real people - I have always believed that. I always love the personal touches - a scarf, a vest, a bright pair of shoes. When I worked on 57th Street in NYC in the early 90's, I would often spot Bill Cunningham shooting away for his "On the Street" pitorals for the NY Times. His patience always amazed me.

I was thinking that it would be fun to do a fashion blog as well, but in a more quirky style. Often people's choices puzzle me - not in the sense that I am making fun of them, I just want to know the backstory. Recently we were at a wedding up in Sonoma, and I spotted this guy dressed nicely, but clearly wearing 2 different colored socks. A mistake (in a rush, dressing in the dark?) or deliberate ("I may be dressed up but my socks clash! Yeah! Rock 'n roll!")?


Hmm, I wonder what the Sartorialist would have to say about that?

Well-Shod

If you know me, you know that I have a shoe fetish. These are my favorite shoes purchased this year, by French brand Coclico. They cost a small fortune but are so worth it - every time I wear them, no matter if my outfit is many seasons past its due date, I feel elegant, special and a la mode. One thing that I have learned over the years is that a well-made pair of shoes is worth the hefty price tag. They will feel more comfortable, last longer, and look better than cheaper brands. Never trust a shoe made in China - your feet will feel like victims of foot-binding in no time. Italian shoes are the best, followed those made in France and England, then Spain. South American shoes can be good, such as the handmade dancing shoes I bought in Argentina a couple of years ago. Men know these truths better than women and tend to have less shoes, but of better quality, whereas women go for quantity. For me, I can only afford the occasional splurge, so the trick is not to go too trendy so that I can keep them for years and get the most out of them.

To live vicariously through those who can afford the latest and greatest styles, there is a website called Shoebunny which is strictly dedicated to celebrities and their shoes. I love how they downplay the celebrity photo and focus on the shoes themselves. You can go through page after page and covet to your heart's delight. So delicious!

It's a guilty pleasure to be sure, but far less calories than a piece of chocolate cake. Then again, a piece of chocolate cake while looking at Shoebunny...I certainly wouldn't complain.

A Perfect SF Day

Today was one of those picture-perfect San Francisco days, a day when it's hard to imagine living anywhere else. Despite a horrible, misery-inducing cold that has crept up on me, I managed to get out and enjoy my fair city.

Kirsten was in town visiting from Chicago, so we met for lunch at one of my favorite new restaurants, Serpentine. To start, we had their scrumptious Savory Bread Pudding, made with Nettles and roasted onions and topped with swiss cheese. The roasted carrots and salad were especially good today. I had only been there for dinner, and at lunch time the sunlight really emphasizes the airy/industrial space.


Then we did a little shopping in Hayes Valley, where we spotted this sign on the front window of new restaurant Domo. Precious.


I found, to my surprise, a new pair of Mauro Giuli boots at Bulo, and at 50% off! I have spent an entire season looking for the perfect pair of flat black boots, and they just looked up and said hi to me. I wore them the rest of the day, and I am still wearing them now!


A stop at Flight 001 yielded a purchase of some inexpensive and adorable Envirosax, the lightweight and ergonomic extra bag that folds up to practically nothing and can be slipped in your purse. We each got one for ourselves, and I bought one for my friend Jude for our upcoming trip to Vancouver. I also found a just-right slim black umbrella there, which has also been my list of travel necessities for a long time.



Miette Confiserie was looking especially cute and charming today, so we stopped in for a look-see and a chat, and of course a couple of sea-salt caramels to take with us. We learned from the owner Kaitlin that the kids from the French-American School are very much into Jawbreakers these days, especially the giant ones, and they have different methodologies on how to eat them. They will stop at nothing, even bleeding tongues - I don't know, after seeing the movie Jawbreaker oh, about 100 times, I don't think I could handle one.

We ended our Hayes Valley excursion at Christopher Elbow, where we shared a decadent cup of Venezualan drinking chocolate in their lounge (see below), then headed off to West Portal to the Bookshop and then to the spa for a little treatment.


Now it is off to dinner at Blue Plate - we are taking Jerome, the manager and one of the owners of Garcon, to this iconic restaurant. Charles is bringing a bottle of Joseph Phelps cab - a real treat, making this a far cry from a regular Monday night outing.

Tomorrow is going to have a hard time living up to today!

Back in Black

Hello, my lovelies.

This is, of course, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, in a wonderfullly goth/cabaret spread in this month's W Magazine. I can't wait to see them in "the Other Boleyn Girl" tomorrow night! Lace up your corsets and let's go!

I have always loved black, but it seems to have taken on a new edgy freshness this season, starting with Christian Siriano's beautifully constructed garments for his Bryant Park collection on "Project Runway" (with a special nod to Chris March, who I think presented an innovative line using saftety pins and human hair before getting eliminated last week).

W also showed some new shoe styles, that were, in no uncertain terms, fierce.



I think a dark and stormy Spring is on the horizon. And I can't wait.

Don't Shoot the Messenger

Meet my new bag. It's the size of a purse, with all of the functionality & endurance of a messenger bag. I think that the model name is "Classic Messenger Bag", size X-Small. Made with limited-edition fabric, so it is one of a kind! (or maybe one of a one-of-very-few-of a kind). I LOVE IT!!!

This is actually a late Christmas present, the best kind - the kind that comes 3 months later, when you are dying for something new. The truth is, it was given to me on a slip of paper, something to the effect of "this paper entitles you to receive...", so not a physical present, more like the promise of a present. So I kinda forgot about it.

My purse was driving me crazy - these days, I have to have an over-the-shoulder style (hands-free, don't you know), and my beautiful black one from Amsterdam fit the style requirement, but didn't hold very much. i.e. I had to choose between bringing a/wallet or b/sunglasses. I don't think anyone should ever have to make that choice.

I was in Hayes Valley today, and went by the Timbuk2 store and found this precious little gem. I love it, have I mentioned that? I immediately took it home and got hyper-organized:


I firmly believe in the concept of bags-within-bags. No loose stuff. And I have enough cute mini multi-purpose bags to choke a horse*, so that part was easy). Done!

Now I have a bag that holds all of my stuff, will stay dry in the rain, has a spill-proof interior, fits over my shoulder, is cute & original, and was hand-made in my very own city of San Francisco! Next time you ask me to borrow a pen, just watch how fast I produce it from my bag. Just call me Quick-Draw!

Next step, finding a cool urban bike to go with my bag...so I can be a real faux-messenger. :)

* do not let this discourage you from buying me mini-bags and pouches as gifts. I adore them, and the key to good organization is variety.

The Hillary Sweater

Sir Edmund Hillary died today, at the age of 88. As I heard this on the news, my first thought was "the Hillary Sweater"!

The Hillary Sweater was one of my major challenges when I worked for TravelSmith Outfitters, as a Menswear Product Manager. At that time, the Men's Division still featured some products that were rooted in the history of travel, and my boss Scott (the company's co-president), was determined that we were going to find and sell the Hillary Sweater, the original sweater worn by Hillary on his climb of Mount Everest. I think that Scott had gone to school with Tenzig Norgay's son and was always fascinated with Hillary. We were going to run that sweater, and I was going to be the one to find it.

Finding this sweater was like climbing Everest. My sherpa came in the form of our Product Assistant, David. He was better at navigating the internet, and had the time to put in the many phone calls it would take to track this thing down. Months went by. We did not find the sweater. It was like climbing Everest in a blinding snowstorm. I began to refer to it as "the fucking Hillary Sweater".

Remember on "Seinfeld" when Elaine worked for J. Peterman? Remember the Urban Sombrero? This was my Urban Sombrero episode. I did not understand the significance of this sweater or why we needed to run it, but Scott was determined and it was my job to get it done.

Finally, we found it. I don't remember exactly how, but we tracked down the original company that made the sweaters, who unbelievably were still manufacturing them exactly as they had been made so many years before. It was a little factory on one of the Shetland Isles in Great Britain, with very limited production and could make only the sizes that their looms would allow. We had to explain in the catalog copy that a size Large was more like today's size Medium, as the specs had not changed in 50 years, when bodies were not Supersized as they are today.

In the end, we didn't sell that many of them. But it gave the Holiday catalog a little romance, and it was definitely something that you wouldn't have see anywhere else. But really, the end product was not what we were most proud of. What was important was the journey, what we learned along the way, and that we didn't give up until we found it. I think that Sir Hillary would have appreciated that life lesson.

South Ken and the V and A

Spending time in Knightsbridge and Chelsea makes me feel like Holly Golightly with my nose pressed up to the glass in front of Tiffany's. I love it there, and have no trouble envisioning a life in one of the well-appointed townhouses filled with antiques and shopping bags full of shoes from Emma Hope and French Sole. Exiting the South Kensington tube station, everything seems brighter and more polished than before, and even the air in the Tube around there seems less riddled with soot than elsewhere.

The place to go for the most fashion with the least strain to the pocketbook is the wonderful Victoria & Albert Museum. Some of the best exhibits I have seen in recent years have been there. Last year's exhibit on Modernism was truly amazing, and a great example of the amount of thought and work that go into curating one of their exhibits.


Aside from their permanent fasion gallery (a nice-sized although poorly lit room with a good range of displays from may eras), this season the featured exhibit is "The Golden Age of Couture", showcasing fashion from Paris and London from the 40's and 50's. Nowhere but here has it been more evident to me that I was born in the wrong generation, with the wrong social status. The couture creations are breathtaking, from the tiny wasp-waists of Dior to the meticulous tailoring of Balenciaga, to the lavishly detailed Balmain. Scattered throughout the exhibit are videos, large and small, of couture fashion shows, so that you are able to see the real magesty of the garments by their fit on the body. And then you are permitted to get up close (well, close enough) and see the tiny stitches, beadwork, and lustre of the fabrics, from duchesse satin to wool to drapy sheer silk. It is enough to make you want to chuck out your entire mass-produced wardrobe and save up to buy only couture, one outfit at a time. The middle third of the exhibit focuses on fashion sketching and photography, which I adore as much as I do the clothes. The theatricality of pale skin, blood-red lips, a black dress and a perfectly shaped hat cannot be matched. It was one of the few times in fashion that illustration and photography have been so much in sync.


After a giddy hour and a half with couture, I then spent another hour walking through the adjoining exhibit, "The Art of Lee Miller". She has always fascinated me, both as a person and for her photography. This exhibit does a nice job of pulling together the fragments of her multi-faceted life. It shows her modeling days and early years as Man Ray's muse and lover, and then moves into her world travels and photojournalism. The famous photograph of her in Hitler's bathtub is striking, as are the ones of post-Blitz London. In the end she married for a third time, and enjoyed a rural farm life, filled with famous visitors that she put to work. What a life to have led - hard to imagine one of today's fashion models moving so far beyond the runway.


One day I am going to have to take some time to explore the Asian art, silver galleries, and portraits in this enormous museum. But as long as they keep having great exhibits like these, the permanent collections may just have to wait.

Next Stop, Tokyo

I definitely need to go to Japan. I love Japanese culture and style. I even ate a bull's penis at an izakaya restaurant in New York earlier this year. If I were offered one in South Dakota I would never eat it, but on St. Mark's Place? Sure, why not, it's Japanese!

Tonight I was surrounded with so many Japanese things. The evening started out at the Asian Art Museum with Michael. We were there for their Thursday night evening series MATCHA to see the exhibit called "Stylized Sculpture: Contemporary Japanese Fashion from the Kyoto Costume Institute".


Japanese fashion is so interesting. It often seems architectural to me, with its multiple layers, linear shape, and angles. I love what they do with fabric - they truly treat it as a surface material, like marble or clay or canvas. I personally love the most minimal design style, but when you see a dress made with an impossible number of pleats, you have to admire the engineering.

There were pieces by Issey Miyake (no one does pleats like that man, except perhaps Fortuny), Yohji Yamomoto (surprisingly, my least favorite piece in the show), Rei Kawakubo (sooooo amazing with sweaterknits, including a dress with a bustle - my favorite piece in the show) and Junya Watanabe (wonderfully dramatic).

Japanese couture can sometimes sacrifice wearablity for effect. There were some pieces that were stunning, but looked almost painful. Maybe it's because I was in New York for so long that I can't see beyond the practical - if you can't hail a cab or walk at least 5 blocks in it, you won't see me in it. And probably because I am not flat-chested, thin, and 7 feet tall, I don't own any Japanese fashion. But I sure do love to look at it.

The surprise of the evening was an exhibit by the photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, called "History of History". I was first introduced to his work at the de Young Museum this summer. But instead of photography, this exhibit showed his inspiration. So there were fossils, artifacts, tapestries, masks...all so intricate and unique. I loved their quiet beauty.

After our museum visit, Michael and I headed to his neighborhood, the Richmond, to eat dinner at Shimo restaurant. I have been to their sister establishment, but not to the highly-touted original, so I was ready for a treat. It did not disappoint! We shared a Spicy Scallop Roll, Caterpillar Roll, and Rainbow Roll - all perfectly prepared and presented. In addition, I had 2 pieces of Uni with raw quail's egg, which is my version of heaven for the palate.


I remember when I was first starting to get into sushi, in high school. We would go to Daruma in Evanston and order California Rolls and get drunk on sake - we thought we were soooo cool, like Molly Ringwald's character in "The Breakfast Club" (which was based on my high school, so we weren't that far off).

When my sweet tooth hit later in the evening, I indulged in a treat from our friendly neighborhood Asian grocery store: Strawberry Ice Cream Mochi. I love mochi! This was something that I discovered upon moving to California. Whoever came up with the idea of putting ice cream inside rice-dough balls (making it the ultimate finger food), is a genius. I get to have both the creamy richness of ice cream and the chewiness of a gummy candy in a few small bites - yum.


Wonderful things in pretty packaging - that's Japan-style to me.

Glasses are the Windows to the Soul

Okay, eyes may be the true windows to the soul, but you're going to have to get through my new super-cool Versace glasses to find them!

I decided it was time for a change. I had been wearing the same black rimless glasses for a few years (to be fair, they were cool too - by Miami designer Edward Beiner). When I went to Lenscrafters with Michael a few weeks ago to help him select his new glasses, I became smitten with these frames. They became like a potential lover to me - I thought of them day and night, I kept inventing excuses to go to the mall to visit them, I showed them off to friends, I kept their item number written down on a scrap of paper folded in my wallet. I kept imagining how much better my every day activities would be in my new glasses. If I had been able to call them and hang up, I would have. Every day my old glasses seemed more and more dull and functional in comparison - familar, yes; alluring, not so much.

Finally, I was able to coerce Charles into agreeing to let me buy them (such is the life of an unemployed woman, sigh). Lenscrafters made me have an eye exam, where I learned, among other things, that my prescription has gotten to the point where it was time for [cue foreboding music] bifocals. I looked at the doctor in horror, and she assured me that they would be invisible. God, how I needed new cool designer glasses more than ever!!!

For any of you out there who pooh-pooh Lenscrafters, let me say these words to you: 30% discount with your AAA Membership. Hello, 30% off of Versace? D & G? Armani? Yes, please! They do not advertise this discount, so whip out that card and show them that you have the inside scoop (thank you, Michael!).

There is a story within a story here, which I will tell in brief. After my eye exam, my eyes were seriously dilated and I could barely see, which made me nauseuos and very wobbly. They said it was probably ok to drive myself home, just a short distance. However I forgot it was the last day to take care of my "Fix-It" ticket, so instead I had to drive all the way downtown to the courthouse. Not only that, but I had to stop at the police station to get a sign-off on my ticket before paying the fine. I was staring at that police officer trying to force my eyes to focus, but I am sure I looked high as a kite! Plus I was kind of burping from the nausea, so I probably looked, drunk, too. I wanted to say, no, my eyes are dilated because I was at Lenscrafters getting my eyes examined for my bifocals! At the mall! Really! Thank god it was close to quitting time, because the officer barely glanced at me before signing my ticket (he didn't even bother to check the car). So I got in line at the courthouse and paid the $10 fine (at least I think I gave them a $10 bill, it could have been $100), and drove back to the mall to pick up my new glasses. Score!

So, I've had my glasses for a week, and I love them. It took a few days to get used to them, as they are much more of a bold statement than my previously mentioned Beiners. But you know what? The time to make a statement is now, I say. These are the glasses of a proud-to-be-40-year-old woman, I say.

I was telling Bruce about my glasses on the phone the other day. And he said the absolute sweetest thing to me, "Lizard, I am sure they are fabulous. You always have great taste - in fact, you are the only person whose taste I never worry about." Oh my god, can I possibly love him any more??

So, yes, you still have to look into my eyes to glimpse my soul, that has not changed. But my new glasses? Well, they make a mighty nice window-dressing.

Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses
- Dorothy Parker

The Bold and the Beautiful

Graphic images are all around us, now more so than any other time period to date. Cities are colored by graffiti (think of Barcelona, Buenos Aires), bodies are decorated with tatoos, our computers now use as many icons as there are words. For the most non-commital statement, there is the screen-printed tee.

Here are some images from around town, plus some photos of t-shirts that I have bought recently.

Some People Use Body By Jake, I Use Charles!

Part 2 of "Welcome to My Home". In which we get more makeup tips, diet & excercize, and we meet Charles & Snow. The look in their eyes says, "Help me!" Look out, Snow. She's starving!

Notice the Slit? These are Bugle Beads

Part 1 of "Welcome to My Home". In which we meet Brenda Dickson, have a fashion show, and get makeup tips. Ostrich feathers, anyone? Follow this advice and you, too, can look this good 11 and 1/2 years from now.

Let's Teleport Into My Closet

Well, hello!

Above is a fabulous video that my friend Laura posted on Yelp. Brenda Dickson is not only the president of the Fashion Club for the Insane, she's a customer. I cannot stop watching her!

I posted part 1 and part 2. There is also a parody voiceover version on YouTube, which is excellent. At the end of the video, you can scroll over the thumbnails to find it.

See if you can count how many times she uses the word "fashion".

White pumps are so versatile!

Brenda Dickson. Bringing Crazy from her home...to yours.