the light

Say hello to my new chandelier! I got the idea from Design Sponge and it has truly brightened up my room. Learn how to make your own here. 

J'adore

Snow

Saturday there was Snow in San Francisco. It was a "White Fashion Event" that featured white collections from eight Bay Area designers; Acta Non Verba, Dcepcion, Cari Borja, Dahae Kim, Gr.dano, Daniel Sudar, Varreries & Sako, Joseph Domingo. The audience, like the models, were all dressed in white, which I thought was a terrible idea but it looked amazing. However, the person who decided that only white wine should be served is an idiot. Anyway, here are some pictures of the crowd.

 And  a few on the pictures I managed to get of the collections.

AA nail polish recall

Yesterday I was reading the style section of the NYTimes and I got to that section 10 Things to Talk About this Weekend and one thing on the list was American Apparel is suing their nail polish manufacturer. So I decided to do some research since I open a few bottles of AA nail polish. I found this article and decided to call the Berkeley store to see if I could trade in the bottle of butter that I bought in July. I was transferred twice and then a manager agreed to swap out my old defective bottle for a new. He even told me I could choose a different color if I wanted, so I seized the opportunity. I decided on California Trooper. I look on google images to show you a picture of my new nail polish and I saw some very interesting nail polish pictures. So if you have the time, I encourage you to search google images for  "AA nail polish California Trooper".

National Dinner Party day

Tuesday was National Dinner Party day and coincidentally Liz planned a dinner party.

The appetizers.

Joe and Holly

Bryan Kahler's not-so-homemade corn and lemongrass soup.

Espardenyes

These espardenyes are my very late Christmas present that came all the way from Barcelona. I was already excited for spring and then came these! I'm hoping my new footwear were braided to last because they feel so delicate. They don't feel anything like wicker. When I wear them I feel like I'm walking on a purse or something. I'll keep you updated on how they hold up.

Je suis fan

Spring-a-ling

Now that the stores have started to roll out their spring lines, I guess I can start thinking about spring and stop wondering which coats I should get on super sale. This spring, I want white everything, sheer blouses and a maxi dress, is that too much to ask? I revisited Style.com to see the Spring 2011 lines since I was not paying attention in September and here's what I liked:

I really love the color combination of this look. If I could only get one item from this outfit, I'd take the sweater hands downs.

Beautiful Lanvin.

ditto.

I'm really hoping American Apparel does a knock-off of this pretty pretty Prada dress.

Dear Bottega Veneta, this one is perfection.

Love this sheer Vanessa Bruno blouse.

Sonia Rykiel can do no wrong. 

Blanket

Friday, I went to the Print Workshop book launch at the Curiosity Shoppe in the mission. The Shoppe is small but had a lot of interesting treasures in it, though I'm not sure what it usually looks like because it seemed like they put a lot of stuff up from the book. Anyway, I bought Christine Schmidt's new book Print Workshop, which so far has kept me busy. I made this yesterday.

Old blue blanket + potatoes + paint + carving instrument = new park/beach blanket.

Charmonix

I have a new interest in Bottega Veneta after reading that article in the New Yorker on Tomas Maier. Such an inspiration. In my next lifetime I'd like to be an artisan who weaves leather to create beautiful purses in Italy. Or even in San Francisco. Ohh which reminds me of my resolution: to create some dope shit with my own two hands. Today I made my first candle. I'm still waiting for the wax to dry. I'll show you tomorrow.

Square

While walking through one of the casinos in Las Vegas I saw a Wolford store. Since I hadn't been in a Wolford store in so long I decided to go in and I saw the fence tights (pictured above). The woman in the shop told me that since they're fall winter they should be going on sale a week before or a week after Christmas.  I cannot wait!!! Who wants to go to Maiden Lane with me?

 

The number of people who wanted to get their hands on Lanvin for H&M was insane. I literally had no idea about the collaboration until 11pm Friday night. After going out for noodles I stumbled upon the news that the collection would be in San Francisco Saturday morning. Little did I know, Friday night people were already lining up for wrist bands. So when I found out I texted the one person who I hoped would skip the big game and come with me to H&M. The next morning I woke up at 8, met Joe on BART and got to H&M. The plan was to stroll in with the huge line of people at 10am when the store opened. We got to H&M around 9.45am and there was no line and Joe spotted a few people on walking on the streets with Lanvin <3 H&M bags. We rushed up the hill got into H&M and couldn't find any Lanvin. Joe (the diplomatic one) ask a sales associate, "Where's the Lanvin"? He explains, "Oh, it sold out! The women's are upstairs but you need a wrist band and those are all gone too." I panicked. So we go upstairs and they have the Lanvin section roped off and guarded by SFPD. I still can't believe they got police to keep people out. People buying clothes from H&M is what keeps them in business right? Anyway then we run into this guy.

He tells us he saw people lining up Friday at 4pm so he got in line and after hours of waiting in the wind and rain got a wrist band. They had wrist bands for every half our from 8am to 1pm. They let people in to shop/try on the collection every 30 minutes. This obviously created insanity. After your 30 minutes were up you weren't allowed back in the fitting room to try things on again. So this guy, let's call him James, after shopping the men's for himself waited up 10.30am to shop the women's for his sisters who both don't live close to an H&M. Fortunately, I looked up the collection the night before and knew exactly what I wanted and James offered to grab it for me!!!!! I was soooo excited.  This is what he looked like during his 30 minutes of shopping.

These are all of the people waiting behind the police barricade.

So once James came out with the skirts, I tried them on. I was a little sad that white one wasn't my size but really happy to take the black. We ended up trading the white skirt with girl for a bow tie for Joe (pictured above)! He also got a shirt from James.

We were exhausted at this point, it wasn't even noon and this is what the lines for the registers looked like!

I also met this guy at some point. Inside his beautiful bag is a really nice shirt. The bags are so cute I have yet to throw mine away. I need to figure out something to do with it, it is way to cute for the recycle bin.

 

You can sort of tell, these people were one of the lucky few who got their hands on Lanvin for H&M. Saturday morning was such a fiasco in San Francisco, I wonder if it was that crazy in other cities?

Film Festival

I just finished watching a bunch of short fashion films on W's site. Yesterday they launched a fashion on film festival, where they compiled short fashion films. It is a great way to pass the time. Especially, if you're sick in bed all day like me. I liked the Vanessa Bruno F/W 2010 video best. I loved everything about it; the music, the clothes, Lou Doillon. My second favorite was Act da fool with Proenza Schouler's fall collection. I'll keep checking in on this film festival that doesn't appear to have an end date.

fall back

This is my friend Pegah. She has the most amazing suede over-the-knee greenish brown boots ever. I didn't fully appreciate them until recently when I traded in my sandals for socks and boots. They are really cute, this picture does not do them justice. They're perfect for fall/winter except for on rainy days. Suede always looks so good, but it's high maintenance, which usually isn't a problem for me but it sucks how you can ruin a pair of beautiful shoes or boots with a few drops of rain. I digress.  The boots are awesome if my feet weren't so damn big I would have modeled them myself.

Taiko

So last night we went to the International Taiko Festival in San Francisco, 'twas amazing. Some of the pieces where a little too modern for me but it was nice to see some gaijin up there getting down (though most of the drummers were Japanese). Although, I decided one thing I don't like about Taiko is how the audience doesn't get to get down. I saw heads bobbing, people smiling, and I thought taiko would be so much more appealing if you could dance to it. Nonetheless, last night was amazing but walking around San Francisco at night without a coat made me really not miss Nayoro....at all. This "winter" is going to be amazing.

NO.6 Club

I joined the club and bought the boots. I love them! I heard about NO.6 from this article a few years ago and ever since I've wanted a pair. They came this morning and they're amazing. I haven't taken them out but I've tried them on and the 41 fits my huge feet! I'll keep you update on the woes of breaking them in.

...

This bag should be mine. I saw it last week while shopping with my friend Sanch at Therapy in the mission. That store is amazing. It´s the first place I´ve ever seen Nixon bags. They had a few of them. When I got home I looked online and they´re a San Diego, CA based company with surfer/skater edge. I was surprised I like their stuff since I don´t surf nor skate and the boy I think is hot doesn´t either. I love this bag. It came in a few different shades but pink is best.

Faux Fur Buckle Gilet

        I really want one. This one is from topshop. Since we don't have topshop here on the west coast I'm going to have to be creative but if I don't find one by friday I'm ordering online. Any ideas on where to find one in San Francisco?

MJ&C

I was looking at the fall 2010 ready-to-wear collections today trying to decide what I wanted to get for this (very mild) winter. This year there will be no snow (!!!) so when I´m shopping for winter wear I can think stylish not survival. I narrowed what I really want down to brown, chunky knits, coats with buttons, coats without buttons and pretty much anything from Marc Jacob´s and Chloe´s collections. Oh, and I´d also like a faux-fur gilet. Pleeeease.

wild wild west

When I heard there was a black cowboy parade on Saturday I knew I had to go. It was so much more than I anticipated. There was a cowboy with dreads who literally made his horse dance. There were some cowgirls and the largest horse I've ever seen in my life (the 3rd picture)! Since I'm not a photojournalist, I completely forgot my camera so I had to use my blackberry to capture the magic. Oh, and as I suspected, no one said yee-ha.