boutique report

Shopping in San Francisco offers a huge variety of choices. You can go thrifting down in the Mission District, do some high-end designer shopping in Union Square, or find a cute little boutique on Fillmore Street.

For the thrifter who loves great deals on fabulous clothes, there is Jeremy’s in the SOMA district (2 South Park Street at 2nd Street). It is a designer outlet department store, carrying brands such as Diane von Furstenberg, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Martin Margiela, Kate Spade, and Miss Sixty. The store carries a huge mix of high-end designer to contemporary down to a bit of vintage, which contribute to the large amounts of merchandise that this store has for the shopper to go through. It is definitely not for the shopper who doesn’t like to dig and find their treasured pieces. However, after all that hard work, it just might be all worth it to find a Y-3 jacket for only $45.

Another cool find in San Francisco is Harput’s Market which on located on the trendy Fillmore Street (between Geary and O’Farrell). Harput’s is known for its hip, conceptual designers, such as Y-3, Martin Margiela, Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, and Junya Wantanbe. They also carry their own line: harputs OWN, which has a really cool concept behind it, to create a seasonless line of “generic” garments and convert them into statement pieces. One of their most eye-catching pieces is their trademark “swacket” which is a mix between a sweater and a jacket that can be worn multiple ways. Visit their website, and you can see the versatility of it on their homepage. If you’re looking for one-of-a-kind statement pieces, then this is the place to go to.

There’s the shopper who likes to mix designer pieces with awesome vintage finds, and Shotwell SF is a perfect place for that. This cute little boutique on Geary Street (and Kearny), is another great find in San Francisco. Shotwell carries lesser-known contemporary brands such as Cheap Monday, Surface to Air, Scout, and Society for Rational Dress, and they have a well stocked area of vintage clothes in the back corner of the store. Shotwell is the type of store that doesn’t have a crazy amount of stock, rather they have a few really well picked out pieces. It really is more about quality over quantity here. Also, the owners here are an avid supporter of local designers including Rebecca Beeson, Minnie Wilde, and Turk & Taylor.

Milan FW report

The Italians are known for their quality and workmanship, so when it comes to Milan Fashion Week, there is an expectation for what is to be put on the runway, and let’s just say that Milan did not disappoint.

Prada Fall 2009, Photos by Marcio Madeira

At Prada, Miuccia Prada worked with heavy, thick wools and created gorgeous coats, suits, and day dresses. The suits and jackets were a bit oversized and cinched in at the waist with skinny belts. She also put a pair of wool shorts over a long cardigan peeking out from below. One very interesting styling choice was the super tall wader boots that she paired with that particular outfit. Those boots and variations of it made the collection have an entirely different mood. It carried this rustic quality to it, yet it was still very chic in a way. What would have been somewhat of a boring collection, she worked with unusual weights and textured fabrics along with some great styling to bring her vision out onto the runway.

Missoni Fall 2009, Photos by Marcio Madeira

Another veteran of Milan Fashion Week is Angela Missoni. The brand is known for knitwear, and the Fall 2009 collection certainly showed that she knows what she’s good at. The look was tons of layers of soft knits mixed with heavy boucle coats. The collection was very light and airy even with all the layering, which was due to the peachy pink, lavender, cerulean blue, and gold color palette.

Long scarved cardigans paired with hooded scarves were reminiscent of an old Romania lady but in a very good way. It was a very comforting and cozy collection. Even the pants would make one want to curl up into bed and snooze all day.

Burberry Prorsum Fall 2009, Photos by Marcio Madeira

Another brand that went back to what they’re good at is Burberry Prorsum. Christopher Bailey went back to the trench coat that made the Burberry label famous. He brought back the original khaki colored raincoat, but also did it in a black and white tweed, shearling, and a heavy black wool. There were mid-knee day dresses in the different types of fabrics as well. Overall, it was one of the darker collections that went back to the basics.

Overall, it seemed as if the designers at Milan Fashion Week went back to what they knew what they were good at, as some sort of re-assurance in this rocky time where things are very cloudy and unclear of what the future holds.