Sara Godwin

Posts Tagged ‘Fashion’

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San Francisco Fall Antiques Show: An Exercise in the Unexpected

In Antiques, Baby Boomers, Luxury, San Francisco, Travel, Women's Travel on October 25, 2014 at 8:23 am
$350,000 worth of gold au natural $350,000 worth of gold au natural

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Not all that glitters is gold, or silver, for that matter. The proof is in this spectacular glass chaise brought from Paris by Steinitz (Steinitz@steinitz.fr) Not all that glitters is gold, or silver, for that matter. The proof is in this spectacular glass chaise brought from Paris by Steinitz (Steinitz@steinitz.fr)
A cache of 19th century gold coins found buried in tin cans in the Sierras by a couple out walking their dog. The estimated value of the stash: $10 million. A cache of 19th century gold coins found buried in tin cans in the Sierras by a couple out walking their dog. The estimated value of the stash: $10 million.

San Francisco has three major social events in the Fall: Only one of them does not require a ball gown. That would be the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show in the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason, going on right now, and you’re invited. Designed as a fundraiser for Enterprise high school students, it draws everyone in San Francisco who has money or wishes they did. The antiques dealers come from all over the United States and many from Europe to create a brilliantly curated collection of some of the world’s rarest and most precious objects — and those objects always encompass an element of surprise.

The biggest buzz this year was an object that showed no artist’s vision and no craftsman’s skills; basically, it’s a lump. A brilliant lump, to be sure, but nonetheless, it’s a lump: A huge, shiny gold nugget weighing more than six pounds (the dealer let me hold it!) found recently in California’s Gold Country and valued at $350,000. It’s in the first booth on the right as you enter the show, and displayed with it are the uncirculated mint-condition 19th century gold coins found last year in a cache in the Sierra Nevada, the cache valued at $10,000, 000. And that’s just the start!

The show runs today and tomorrow, the cost is $15 per person (the catalog alone is worth the price of admission), and the variety of things to see that people hold precious will intrigue and fascinate you. The people-watching and street scene fashion is also fabulous. Coco Chanel would be proud. Go now.

Photos to follow, so keep checking back. I’ll be posting throughout the day.

A mystery menorah, believed to have been made in Eastern Europe over a century ago, no one seems to know when it got here or how it got from there to here. (danielsteinantiques .com) A mystery menorah, believed to have been made in Eastern Europe over a century ago, no one seems to know when it got here or how it got from there to here. (danielsteinantiques
.com)
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The Insider’s San Francisco …

In Antiques, Baby Boomers, Grandparent, hummingbirds, Kids, Luxury, Parent, San Francisco, Travel, Women's Travel on April 23, 2014 at 5:40 pm

Take an extra day or two before and after your business trip and explore San Francisco, referred to by locals as ‘The City’ as though there were no other. And there isn’t, at least, not another city like San Francisco.  Here’s a collection of (mostly) free stuff to do that you really shouldn’t miss.

 

Wave Organ • The Wave Organ, a natural acoustic experience listening to the sound of San Francisco Bay, is located at the east end of the Marina jetty at San Francisco Marina behind the St.Francis Yacht Club. Built like a hobbit house with benches, the Wave Organ has quirky little nooks and crannies for listening to the sound of the water swirling in and out of   variously shaped pipes, pianissimo or allegro, echoed or amplified. Rhythmic, soothing, it’s a lovely place to just sit in the sun and let the seagulls provide the counter-point. It’s best at high tide, but barring that, try for sunset and watch the sun disappear into the Pacific Ocean behind the Golden Gate Bridge.

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• South Park was the first park in San Francisco. Tucked between Second and Third Streets, not far from AT&T Park, it was originally developed in 1855 as a private park by George Gordon, a British sugar magnate, who envisioned it surrounded by the finest mansions  in San Francisco.  The park itself was accessible only by key, very much like Gramercy Park in New York City.  On April 18, 1906, those magnificent mansions were destroyed when the earthquake,  known locally as ‘the Big One’, struck San Francisco.  Over the next 150 years the park itself had its ups and downs, at one point featuring a bonfire that burned for 40 years, and later as the beating heart of the Dot.com boom and bust.

The entire park underwent a massive renovation in 2017, with new trees, new turf, and new architecturally innovative play equipment,  as well as new benches and picnic tables, all funded by the neighbors.  A small urban island of spreading trees, bright flowers, green grass, and sunny seating, filled with children playing and people walking dogs of every shape and size, South Park is reminiscent of the jewel-like parks that contribute so much to the charm of  Parisian neighborhoods.

It was featured at the end of  Woody Allen’s ‘Blue Jasmine’  in the scene where Cate Blanchett as Jasmine quietly divorces reality by planning which designer dress to wear at a wedding to which she knows she will not be invited. The bench she sat on was at the end of the park closest to Second Street, across from the Mexico Au Parc restaurant.

• Budget time for great budget shopping at San Francisco’s best insider shopping destinations: Both of the best consignment shops are within a block of each other. One is Goodbyes (actually two shops across the street from each other) at 3464 Sacramento Street in Presidio Heights which features both mens and womens upscale clothes and accessories. You’ll find popular brands (Gap, J.Crew, Eileen Fisher, Laundry ), American designers (Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Michael Kors), and the serious stuff: Chanel, Dior, YSL, and Armani as well as a wild variety of boots and shoes.  The vintage selections include designer purses, capes, coats, and furs.

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The other outstanding consignment shop is Designer Consigner, less than a block away in their new digs at 3548 Sacramento Street.  The focus is all women’s, the selection is decidedly upscale, and the prices are unreasonably reasonable.  Designer jeans? Check.  Superb slacks, skirts and sweaters? Check. Ball gowns? Check. Mouthwatering shoes? Yes, absolutely.  Costume jewelry to die for at prices you won’t believe? Yes, and yes again.  And then there are the purses, in every color, size, shape, and high-end design you’ve ever lusted after.   It might be wise to fold an empty duffle bag into your suitcase, just in anticipation.  If you go nowhere else in San Francisco, go here.

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Seriously, these two shops are better than any consignment shops I’ve found in either New York or Paris, both in selection and price.

(Photo credit: Charles D. James)

• Want more shopping?   Uniquely original shops  featuring everything from clothes to home furnishings, from antiques to boutiques, from sidewalk cafes to busy restaurants are found on Fillmore Street. Walk either direction from Sacramento and Fillmore. Union Street between Gough and Divisidero Streets is chock-full of art galleries, interior design shops, luxury day spas, and great local hangouts like Perry’s (1944 Union Street; 415/922-9022) or the Balboa Café (3199 Fillmore at Greenwich; 415/921-3944).

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Do a bit of time travel at  the 1861 Octagon House at  2645 Gough Street at Union Street  (415/441-7512). It’s only open on second Sundays, and second and third Thursdays of the month, from 12:noon to 3:pm, and the house is furnished in period antiques.  Don’t miss the charming park-like garden just behind the Octagon House;  It’s a great place to spot hummingbirds when the fuchsias are in bloom.

Xanadu

• So far, you  haven’t hit a single mall, chain, or department store. For those, try Union Square, on Post and Geary Streets between Powell and Mason. Make it an authentically San Francisco experience by wandering down Maiden Lane on the east side of Union Square. Check out  the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in San Francisco at 140 Maiden Lane for a uniquely dramatic take on how commercial space should be designed.

• Just a couple of blocks off Union Square is a treasure house of rare books: Antiquarian book dealer Robert D. Haines, Jr.’s bookshop, Argonaut (786 Sutter Street between Bush and Jones). Argonaut houses a superb collection rare books, maps, and ephemera of San Francisco and early California.

Neat note: Argonaut was the inspiration for the bookstore in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’; as Hitchcock himself put it, “This is what a bookshop should be.” Give yourself ample time to browse; once you’re there, it’s hard to tear yourself away.

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• The hottest spot in town  is Valencia Street in the Mission District. It’s a wild and wonderful mix of hot new eateries, pop-up stores, funky second-hand shops (one of which shares space with a bike rental shop called Public), traditional Hispanic markets with outdoor produce displays featuring tropical fruits and vegetables , and the best hot chocolate place on the planet. Go to Dandelion (740 Valencia;415/349-0942), on Valencia at 18th Street, and order the European hot chocolate.   

It’s a mouthful of ecstasy. Serious chocolate occurs in other forms as well, but the European hot chocolate qualifies as an epicurean epiphany. (Photo credit:  M. DeCoudreaux)

Scallop Chairs

 

• At the opposite end of Valencia is STUFF (up toward Market Street, at 150 Valencia Street; 415/864-2988), a huge antiques collective with three stories of, well, stuff, from mid-century furniture to name designer costume jewelry to Japanese fishing net floats to stainless steel plated custom office furniture to architectural artifacts, and this description barely scratches the surface. They always have coffee, and often have cookies or cake free for the nibbling. STUFF Jewelry

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Speaking of eating, San Francisco has some of this country’s best food, bar none. The James Beard Foundation named Chef Charles Phan’s Slanted Door Restaurant at the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street the best restaurant in America.

Use OpenTable.com (http://www.OpenTable.com) to book your table well in advance of arrival; reservations are notoriously hard to score.

For a local neighborhood feel, hit the 102-year-old landmark Swan Oyster Depot at 1517 Polk Street (Open 8:am – 5:30pm; 415/673 – 2757) on Russian Hill. Swan’s offers every type of oyster known to man as well as San Francisco’s native Dungeness crab, shrimp, and a superb clam chowder. Go early: There are only 20 stools at the bar. Lunchtime almost always has a line out the door, but it moves quickly.

• After decades at the corner of Valencia and Market Street, the immense art supplies shop called Flax (415/552-2355) has moved into space at Fort Mason. If you love paper, notebooks, journals, diaries, Filofax, Moleskine, sketch books, water colors, fountain pens, great pencils, and all the other tools and accoutrements of putting your heart on paper, you will fall hopelessly, helplessly in love at Flax. Click on the link for  their website at www.flaxart.com to see the scale of their offerings. If you’re smart,  you’ll take along two friends:  One  to hold your wallet, and the other to carry a crow bar to pry you out of there at closing time.

The visitors bonus they never even mention? The Fort Mason location offers glorious views of San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin Headlands, Alcatraz, Angel Island, and a very good chance to spot sea lions and harbor seals, not to mention seagulls and pelicans.  Just steps away from Flax, dine at Greens, the nationally recognized vegetarian restaurant. With a seat by the window, you can watch  yachts maneuver in and out of the San Francisco Marina, and massive container ships putting out to sea.

You are going to love discovering San Francisco!

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Fashion Forward Fall Fun: Donna Karan & Saks 5th Avenue

In Baby Boomers, New York, San Francisco, Travel, Uncategorized, Women's Travel on October 3, 2013 at 7:45 pm

The invitation offered a champagne lunch with a peek/pique preview of Donna Karan’s Fall Collection at Saks 5th Avenue in San Francisco.  We turned up right on time, taking seats in the front row, “we” being myself, my friend who lived in Paris for many years,  and her ’14 going on 20′ daughter,  tall, slim, beautiful, and bilingual.

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Flutes of champagne appeared on silver trays , as did bite-sized beef sliders,  remoulade  rounds,  vegetarian wraps, and similar dainties.  I attend a lot of events that provide what used to be called hors d’oeuvres ( a friend of mine translates that as ‘hours of work’) in lieu of the complications of a sit-down meal. I know there are many considerations that go into catering for an unknown quantity of people you don’t know whose tastes/food issues/allergies one cannot know, but I do wish that  the criteria for the selection of the menu included ‘easy to eat in public.’  The ladies who lunch — and go to fashion shows — bonded over wry grimaces while fishing bits and crumbs out of their fashionably-attired laps.

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The Fall Collection was notable for elegant dresses and a series of mix-and-match pieces in New York colors — black and a rich dark brown.  Karan doesn’t sketch; she drapes.  Her designs are realized as she wraps fabric around a fitting model to get the line she likes.  The goal is to make the client look taller and slimmer without heavy construction or foundations.  Many of the dresses were elaborately draped to minimize the midriff, waist,  and hips, with a long fluid line leading to a swaying asymmetrical hem.  Her ‘cold shoulder’ top is as well-bred and sexy as a woman who drops her eyes demurely on meeting  an interested glance; the moderator pointed out that shoulders do not generally gain weight in an unbecoming manner.  DK’s body pants are carefully seamed both for a slim line and for comfort.  Indeed,  comfortable would be a fair description of  most of the pieces despite the fact that fashion and comfort have a long tradition of not being seen in the same room at the same time.   Lambskin collars framed the face and  turtlenecks covered the neck in a manner that would have delighted Nora Ephron — her last book was titled ‘I Hate My Neck’.

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Favorite pieces included a lambskin three-quarter length coat with a fur-lined hood — the lamb treated to look like a gorgeous fur, leather from the shoulder through the torso, with a six-inch edging of the same fur-look at the hem.   The look is rich, luxurious fur; the reality is politically correct.

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The show lasted an hour and ended on a high note: a showing of vintage celebrity red carpet dresses.  The Paris contingent yearned for a magnificent burgundy-colored silk gown with a sweeping half-train while the teen longed for a cream-colored leather dress decorated with a silver floral pattern that on closer inspection turned out to be made of 3-inch safety pins.

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The photos here are all the work of the teen — Alessandra Rio, working her first assignment.  To see the 2013 Donna Karan Fall Collection,  please go the Donna Karan website at:

http://DonnaKaran.com

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Start the Year Right with the Perfect Travel Wardrobe

In Baby Boomers, New York, San Francisco, Travel on December 28, 2012 at 7:54 pm

Life is easier when the clothes you need for travel are already in your closet.  The after-Christmas sales are looming large on the horizon, so now is the time to put together your shopping list for the savvy   traveler ‘I can pack in less than an hour’  wardrobe.

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The Core:

Women: A pair of stretch blue jeans;  a black T-shirt; a black turtleneck sweater;  a blazer; good-looking oxfords and/or riding boots.

Women can add two black skirts, one long, one not, and one pair of black, one pair of  gray tailored pants.  Next pick out a couple of tank tops, one white, one red.  Last are the shoes: one pair of black flats, one pair of black pumps, and one pair of  walking shoes.

Men should have a pair of fitted jeans; a black T-shirt; a black turtleneck sweater;  a tweed jacket (with or without leather elbow patches) and/or a navy blue blazer; black loafers and/or low-cut boots.

Men will want to add a white T-shirt, a red polo shirt, a black crew-neck sweater , one permanent-press oxford-cloth blue long-sleeved shirt, two pair of wool slacks, one gray, one black,  and a bomber jacket or black ski  jacket. For shoes, toss in a pair of loafers, a pair of low-cut boots, and a pair of clean running shoes.

The rest is all accessories. A black-and-white  muffler, a bright red scarf,  black gloves, and a great hat.  For jewelry, all men need is an easy-to-read watch. Women should have the easy-to-read watch plus a pair of pearl studs, a rope of pearls or a gold necklace.  Make it all costume jewelry, please — it looks great, and it will save you a world of worry.   The idea is to look terrific, not to set yourself up as a mark for a grab-and-run robbery.  For a purse, carry a lightweight tote, big enough for your laptop or tablet, your cell phone, wallet/passport, and cosmetics. For men, a good-looking courier’s bag or lap-top carrier will serve the same purpose. A small collapsible umbrella in solid black, bright red,  or a zebra-stripe pattern will ward off wind and rain, and look stylish while it’s doing it.

That’s a little more than a dozen  items plus accessories, and it will all fit easily into a carry-on.  You will probably want some underwear: lingerie and pantyhose or briefs and white T-shirts. Roll them up as small as you can, and tuck them in the toes of your shoes.

A pea-coat or bomber jacket finishes your look, and keeps you warm, too.

How many outfits can you get out of this collection?  It’s pretty amazing.  Here’s a quick list:

For women to travel in:

1. Jeans, black turtleneck sweater, red scarf,  bomber jacket, and boots.

2. Black slacks, black turtleneck sweater,  hounds-tooth scarf, pea coat, and black-and-white oxfords.

For men to travel in:

1. Jeans, red polo shirt, black crew-neck sweater, red muffler, black ski jacket, and black loafers.

2. Gray slacks, black turtleneck sweater, black-and-white muffler, tweed jacket, and low-cut boots.

For casual meetings, women can have a pulled-together look by combining a black mid-length skirt, white tank top,  a chunky gold chain, black-and-white muffler, blazer,  and black pumps.   For coffee with friends, try gray tailored pants, a black turtleneck sweater , the bomber jacket, and black flats.  Lunch with your parents? Black slacks, red tank top, red scarf, pea coat, and boots.  Just out for a walk?   Jeans, a black T-shirt, bomber jacket, and oxfords. Dinner with somebody special? Long black skirt,  black turtleneck,  pearl earrings and the rope of pearls, black-and-white muffler, blazer, and black  pumps.

It works just as well for men.   For a casual meeting: Black slacks, white T-shirt, black turtleneck, black-and-white houndstooth muffler, ski jacket, and low-cut boots.  For a more formal meeting: Gray slacks, blue oxford cloth shirt,  black crew-neck sweater, navy blue blazer,  and loafers.  Lunch with friends: Jeans; red polo shirt; black crew-neck sweater; red muffler; ski jacket; and boots. For a brisk walk on a cold day: Jeans, black T-shirt; black turtleneck sweater;  houndstooth muffler;  ski jacket; and  sneakers. Taking your parents to dinner: Gray slacks; white T-shirt; black turtleneck sweater; black-and-white houndstooth muffler; tweed jacket, and loafers.

That’s five outfits plus the one you traveled in, for six, all together.  These are clothes you can wear in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris or Rome, and fit right in. Best of all, these are all pieces that are as useful at home as on the road.

Pick out the best fabrics you can afford, make sure everything fits well, and don’t buy anything unless it’s comfortable.  Nothing is  a good  buy if you never wear it. Natural fabrics generally look and wear best: Cotton, silk, wool, and cashmere all qualify. Blends of these fabrics also look great. They can all be hand-washed with  mild soap in cold water, and hung or laid flat to dry. In a pinch, ask the hotel housekeeper to toss them in the dryer on the  ‘cool’ or ‘delicate’ setting.  The exception is jeans.  Buy jeans in a stretch blend fabric.  They’ll fit better, be more comfortable on a long flight, and are less likely to be baggy at the knees when you arrive.  Most important, you’ll  be ready to go anywhere anytime, just in case someone you love should happen to call from Paris and say, “Come at once!’

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