Posts tagged San Francisco
Chronicle Books Back To School Warehouse Sale
12 years ago
Chronicle Books is having an amazing Back To School Warehouse Sale. They will have HUNDREDS of titles for everyone, but a few extra snags for parents and children — at up to 65% off! Stock up on back to school items, gifts for yourself and friends. Choose from cookbooks, children’s books, lifestyle + home, arts + crafts, art + design, photography, travel, pop culture, and music titles. Plus, journals, stationery, and much more!
When:
Wednesday, 8/22 from 9:00 am-7:00 pm
Thursday, 8/23 from 9:00 am-7:00 pm
Friday, 8/24 from 9:00 am-7:00 pm
Where:
Chronicle Books Corporate Headquarters
680 2nd St., b/t Brannan Street & Townsend Street
Gallery of Jewels Kicks Off Summer With 10 Day Bridal Engagement
12 years ago
Gallery of Jewels, San Francisco’s most respected destination for independent designers, is holding their first ever ten-day Summer of Love Bridal Engagement beginning June 21st, 2012 through June 30th, 2012 to help couples kick off the wedding season in style with access to over fifteen designers’ complete bridal collections.
“We’ve been partnering with independent designers for over two decades, way before it was cool to do so,” said Bill Hoover, owner of Gallery of Jewels. “Now as more couples are moving towards modern, alternative jewelry styles for their weddings, we are happy to provide our designers a special event to show their beautiful designs to these customers.”
The ten-day extravaganza will feature romantic, modern, organic and alternative styles from designers specializing in unique settings, unusual textures and uncommon stones. Shoppers headed down the aisle can buy off the shelf or custom build their ideal ring with one of Gallery of Jewels talented designers.
The vast selection will include: engagement rings, wedding bands (his and hers and stand alone), white gold, rose gold, yellow gold, platinum, silver, damascus steel, mokume gane, hand hammered or carved bands for men and women and colored sapphires and diamonds in all types of cuts, available for purchase loose and in settings.
The designer bridal collections will be spread across each of Gallery of Jewels three locations, allowing shoppers to tour the city in search of their perfect tokens of admiration.
In the Noe Valley shop (4089 24th Street), designers Jennifer Dawes, Jessica Fields, Stephany Hitchcock, Alberian and Aulde and Rebecca Overmann will be featured. Downtown in Union Square (427 Post Street), designers Sethi Couture, Just Jules, Megan Thorne, G.Phil Poirier and Emily Johnson will be showcasing their collections and over in the Fillmore (2115 Fillmore Street), shoppers can find bridal designs by Anne Sportun, Steven Battelle, Ananda Khalsa, Sarah Richardson and Dahlia Kanner.
The fun starts with an opening reception in each gallery Thursday June 21st from 5-8 p.m. with champagne and refreshments being served. The first fifty guests will also receive a gift bag filled with treasures.
For more information on Gallery of Jewels, please visit their website at www.galleryofjewels.com
Chronicle Books Warehouse Sale – Up To 65% Off!
12 years ago
Cuddle up with a book from Chronicle Books Warehouse Sale. It might be Summer in other parts of the country, but in San Francisco this week it’d going to feel a lot more like cold and foggy Fall weather. The Chronicle Sale will have to essentials to get you past the gloom. Stock up on gifts for yourself and friends with 65% off hundreds of selected titles. Choose from cookbooks, children’s books, lifestyle + home, arts + crafts, art + design, photography, travel, pop culture, and music titles. Plus, journals, stationery, and much more!
When:
Wednesday, 6/20 from 9am-7pm
Thursday, 6/21 from 9am-7pm
Friday, 6/22 from 9am-7pm
Where:
Chronicle Books Corporate Headquarters
680 2nd St., b/t Brannan Street & Townsend Street
Holiday Flannel from SF’s Pladra
12 years ago
Here’s one for the woodsy crowd: San Francisco’s Pladra just unveiled a new batch of their trademark pattern-lined flannels, including this holiday-colored shirt and, of course, a blackwatch model.
Roll up the cuffs on either one, and you’ll get a splash of Eisenhower-era forestry lining.
Join the Pladra team for their Holiday Party tonight at 111 Minna. Details can be found here.
Define: Beauty Fashion Show – A Socially Responsible Event
13 years ago
Groundwork Opportunities (GO) is a nonprofit organization that funds income generating projects in the developing world. GO hosts a handful of philanthropic events each year, and last month I had the pleasure of attending their event: Define: Beauty at Madrone Studios in San Francisco. The show featured Bay Area up-and-coming designers Dallas Parke and Sarah Liller along with established fashion names: Retrofit Republic, Cari Borja, Ken Chen, MENK, Kajan Padraig and Daniel Sudar. The collections were gorgeous, and the show (produced by Clarissa Nicosia) was entertaining, but the evening’s goal was much more serious: to raise enough money to fund a sustainable clean water well for over 4,000 people in Tanzania.
The runway show began promptly at 7:30 after cocktail hour with wines from Rock Wall Wine Company, and hors d’oeuvres by Beast and the Hare. The collections looked stunning against the venue’s white interiors. Trendy dresses by Kajan Padraig, chic and girly silhouettes by Sarah Liller, urprisingly interesting gender-bending ensembles from Retrofit Republic and menswear from Daniel Sudar were stand-outs of the evening.
Here are some of our favorite looks from the show. Photography by Jayson Carpenter.
Kajan Padraig
MENK
Retrofit Republic
Sarah Liller
Ken Chen
Daniel Sudar
Cari Borja
Dallas Parke
Inspiration for Define: Beauty came to the GO team while working with residents in Moshi, Tanzania to build a sustainable source of clean drinking water. While there, the team was met with unparalleled levels of hospitality and selflessness from a community that existed without everyday resources like clean water. The women of Moshi did not attribute beauty to the latest styles but rather inner strength and contributions to better the community. This experience lead to the concept and creation of first annual event to help impact an insurmountable global water crisis.
Not only was the fashion show itself amazing, Define: Beauty partnered with local sponsors and entrepreneurs that are actively engaged in generating awareness and solutions to environmental issues around the world. Some companies at the event were: Falling Whistles, which fuels awareness for violence in the Congo, and Hydros Bottles, who reduce the amount of plastic in landfills by producing reusable BPA-free water bottles that can filter on the go. Hydros Bottles also shares Groundwork Opportunities’ mission to combat the global water crisis in developing nations and has partnered with Engineers Without Borders to create Operation Hydros, where purchase proceeds go towards providing clean drinking water abroad. Fashion partner, Gilt City San Francisco, has an exclusive e-commerce site where members can access trendy local deals and services. The goodie bags for Press were stocked with all sorts of goodies including a bottle of California white wine from Rock Wall Wine Company, $100 work for hair treatment at CODE Salon!
My Top 3 SF Fashion Designers
13 years ago
Day 16 of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge is about my Top 3 SF Fashion Designers.
This one is tricky because even though I support a lot of local designers by going to their fashion shows and covering the on this website, I still own few garments designed by SF designers.
I’m a huge fan of Kajan Padraig. Cake Carlos and Patrick Steber make up the design duo behind the label. The team met while working under Lily Samii. Not only are their pieces gorgeous, and perfect for every type of event – I also really like their label even more because I know the designers behind the label and really like them. Here’s an interview I did with them earlier this year.
Bacca Da Silva is another local favorite for womenswear – he also does menswear, but I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen it or not. His designs are very cutting edge for SF, he incorporates great prints (in large-scale) and right colors. I think everything Bacca made for his Spring 2012 collection I would love to wear.
I was introduced to Alyssa Nicole and her line during San Francisco Fashion Week 2010 (here’s a link to my review of her collection shown at Fashion Week). She really knows how to make flattering, reasonably priced pieces.
Come Experience Photobooth on Valencia – Grand Opening Party
13 years ago
Vince Donovan and Michael Shindler created the concept for Photobooth – a fun alternative photography experience opening on Valencia (next to Beretta) – one day over margaritas in the Mission.
Both local photographers specialize in alternative processes. Michael is a tintype artist who has been at the center of making the Civil War-era photographic process modern again. Vince has been a fixture on the Mission scene for years shooting portraits on the street and in bars with an old Polaroid Land camera.
Photobooth joins the Valencia arts scene with a unique studio where anyone can walk in and get a one-of-a-kind portrait created instantly using alternative techniques. The Photobooth gallery will feature local alternative photographers and will host openings and events with special guest photographers. Think of Photobooth as a bar, with music, art, and creative conversation– only instead of pouring stiff drinks Vince and Michael are serving intoxicating photographs.
True photo geeks at heart, Michael and Vince really want Photobooth to be an alternative photographers playground – fully stocked with retro camera gear, refurbished Polaroid cameras, the full Lomography line of alternative camera gear and the new Polaroid film from The Impossible Project.
Not Your Grandmother’s Crochet
13 years ago
Seductive, crochet cocktail dresses. Intricately textured wedding gowns. Face framing shrugs and shawls, pleated and laced.
If you want a statement couture dress, you want Violetta Vieux.
The Fabulous Ms. Vieux. Photo: Wild Plum Photography
We sat down for a chat over lattes, just days before her debut in the Couture runway show of the all new San Francisco Fashion Week. Serious Excitement!!
I first met Violetta at FIDM: me as a lowly fashion design student, she as the new draping instructor from Moldova by way of Paris, where she earned her Masters in Couture and Creative Patternmaking from ESMOD International Fashion University. Frankly, I was intimidated. I knew she spoke 5 languages, had stacks of awards, worked in couture houses, and probably dreamed up more amazing designs in her sleep than I could in a year. She also turned out to be one of the nicest people alive. I consider it serious good fortune that I got to be under her tutelage. ( She was also amazingly patient with my borderline seamstress skills.)
Fast forward to a sunny morning in downtown SF, where I got the lowdown on her company VioGemini and the upcoming shows.
Textured mermaid gown in satin from VioGemini. Photo: Wild Plum Photography
Violetta is flush with triumph at finding the music for the show just that morning- an ethereal, haunting piece that perfectly evokes the themes of the new bridal collection: winter, ice, the intricacy of snowflakes and clouds.
Embellished satin gown from VioGemini. Photo: Wild Plum Photography.
” I wanted to present something fresh and original for every bride, as well as continue to explore singular textures” she says – a hallmark of her previous award-winning crochet work. She has a wonderful approach that any modern bride can appreciate; a “design-it-yourself” concept that is realized through several functional pieces that can either be worn together or separately, depending on the occasion. Adding to the customizable nature of the collection, each piece is offered in a variety of colors( yow color!), fabrics, silhouettes, and lengths, with several options for detailing. Rounding out the collection is a full complement of accessories including shrugs, boleros, ring pillows, veils, corsage flowers, shoe-clips, hairpins,and garters—made with matching fabrics and rhinestones.
Crochet wedding gown from VioGemini. Photo: Wild Plum Photography.
I say, “Brides- to- be, get on this like white on rice!” Don’t miss the full collection being shown during San Francisco Fashion Week: Runway #3, Couture/Avant Garde.
Having already been down the aisle, I think I’ll go for the cocktail version
Crochet, fur and metal cocktail dress by VioGemini. Photo: Wild Plum Photography
No wall flowers in LBD’s here! The craftsmanship and creativity continue to amaze. This, my lovelies, is fashion.
For more on Violetta, check out her interview in San Francisco’s 7X7
Need a fresh look at fashion? Come say hello at Downright Red!