San Francisco Travel Guide, Part 1: Shopping

As should be obvious by now, I ADORE my home city of San Francisco. I feel incredibly lucky to live here, as a result of both my own observations and experiences here, as well as comments I've heard from others while traveling abroad. Whenever I tell someone where I'm from, I inevitably get one of two responses: "San Francisco is the best place I've ever been!" or, "I've always dreamed of going to San Francisco!" And comments like that really help a person not to take their city for granted. I've been to a lot of wonderful places, but in the end none of them really feels like home the way San Francisco does for me.

So, having gotten a few requests from readers for a post about what to see and do while visiting  San Francisco, I present to you this mini travel guide to my own beloved home town. This will be a series in several parts, spread out over a couple of weeks. For the first installment I figured I'd focus on the topic foremost in many of our minds: shopping. I won't claim that this will be a comprehensive guide; it's just a collection of some of my favorite spots in town.

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Haight Street

Before I even get started talking about Haight Street, let me just make one thing clear: while the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood was once the mecca of hippies, and while a handful of stores in that area are still trying to capitalize on that history, San Francisco is NOT a hippie far-out peace-and-love granola-eating town where everyone is high all the time and there are vegan restaurants on every corner. I HATE that fucking image! Why can no one do a show about San Francisco and not mention hippies and tie dye and bongs? THE SIXTIES ARE OVER. I wish everyone could just let them go. 

That said, if you really want to see the dregs of what's left of hippie culture, I suppose the Upper Haight is the place to do it. Sigh. Despite that though, there really is some fantastic shopping in that area; I'd recommend going during the week if possible or before noon on the weekends of you want to avoid the crowds. If you want to get the full spectrum of Haight Street shopping in one day, start in the Upper Haight, and when the streets start to fill up with tourists and hipsters (or are those homeless people? It can be hard to tell.), make your way to Lower Haight to finish there (for more descriptions of Upper and Lower Haight, see this post). 

Some of my favorite shops in the Upper Haight: Ambiance (huge variety of designers and price points), Held Over (vintage clothing), Shoe Biz, John Fluevog, Goodwill, Decades of Fashion (high end vintage), Ruby (carries many local designers), Ceiba Records (steampunk/Burning Man styles), and Skunkfunk. As you go from Upper to Lower Haight, take a short detour down Divisadero Street to Swankety Swank (local designers), Prairie Collective, and Backspace. In Lower Haight proper there's a great import store called P-Kok, Lower Haters (locally-made art, clothing, and accessories), and new shops that seem to keep cropping up all the time.

The Mission District

The Mission District, once a largely Latino neighborhood, has morphed into Hipster Central in recent years. That doesn't mean it isn't worth checking out though; the hipsters rightfully love it because it's got cool bars, the best weather in the city (you'd be amazed how the weather can vary neighborhood to neighborhood in a city of only 7x7 miles), a wide variety of high quality restaurants, and you guessed it: great shopping. It also has one of the prettiest parks in town (Dolores Park), the old mission (which was one of the locations in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo), and lots of beautiful murals that adorn the walls around the neighborhood. I'll cover eating, drinking, and sights in other posts, but for now let's talk shopping.

Along the Valencia corridor between 15th and 17th Streets is the heart of the Mission's shopping area. Between Guererro and Valencia on 16th Street you'll find two of my favorites, Sunhee Moon and Candystore Collective; round the corner onto Valencia Street and you'll find Five and Diamond, which has the best variety of steampunk clothing in the city. Further along are MultiKulti, Weston Wear, and Therapy. In the other direction down Valencia (towards 15th) is a clothing-by-the-pound store, and ADS Hats. If you wander outside the 15th to 17th Street center, you'll find additional shops in the 21st to 24th Street area.

image source

Hayes Valley

Tiny Patricia's Green park, which interrupts Octavia Street where it meets Fell Street, is at the center of the Hayes Valley shopping district. Once a neglected corner of the city that decayed beneath a freeway off-ramp, the neighborhood had new life breathed into it when the ramp was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the city opted to tear the structure down rather than rebuild. Since then, Hayes Valley has undergone a complete transformation, and is now one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in town. Here you'll find high end shops mixed with neighborhood drinking establishments, excellent restaurants, some of the city's finest coffee served out of an old auto shop, and an innovative ice cream shop created from a ship's cargo container. Patricia's Green also features temporary art installations that made their debuts at Burning Man; the installation above is called "Ecstasy."

Along Hayes Street between Laguna and Gough are a bunch of great shops: Bulo (shoes), Lava 9, Duke et Duchesse, and several others. Just around the corner on Octavia Street, local designers Lemon Twist have a charming little shop. A few blocks away on Gough  (pronounced "Goff") Street, you'll find the best place to buy a San Francisco souvenir: Gangs of San Francisco. Forget about those dumb sweatshirts they sell down at Fisherman's Wharf; GOSF creates clothing that memorializes forgotten institutions of San Francisco's past, such as the Sutro Speedsters speed skating team, and the Bear Flag Rebels. Along the edge of the Patricia's Green is a tiny alley called Linden, where you can shop for the finest custom corsets in town at Dark Garden, and perhaps see some of my own hat creations as well.

Read more about the SF phenomenon known as the parklet here.

Noe Valley

Among locals, Noe Valley is known for its suburban feel; it's a little further away from the bustle of the city center, and it feels cleaner and quieter than other parts of town. People who can afford to stay in San Francisco after they have kids generally end up either here or in the Marina District. As much as I like to poke fun at people who live there, it really is a charming part of town, and one that's pretty well off the tourist path. It also boasts one of the finest restaurants in town; like I said I'll cover food in another post, but it bears repeating that Incanto is not to be missed. Make a reservation far in advance, spend an afternoon shopping in Noe Valley, and end the day enjoying one of the most phenomenal dinners you'll ever eat.

Along 24th Street between Castro and Church Streets is where you'll find most of Noe Valley's shops. There's another Ambiance store there, a number of other small clothing boutiques, as well as some cute antique shops, used book stores, and interesting handmade jewelry at Qoio.

Thrift Shopping in San Francisco

Some great thrift shopping can be done in San Francisco, but in general, expect to pay more than you're used to elsewhere. My favorites are the Goodwill flagship store on Mission Street, Clothes Contact (the aforementioned clothing-by-the-pound store), the Goodwill on Haight Street, and Out of the Closet at Church and Duboce. There's also Thrift Town on 16th and Mission Streets, but in my experience it takes a little more patience to find any real treasures there. The first two, as well as Thrift Town, can be wrapped into a Mission District shopping day (though the flagship store is a few blocks' walk away from all the rest); the Haight Street Goodwill is in the Upper Haight and Out of the Closet is a couple blocks away from the Lower Haight.

Another option would be one of several local flea markets. Every Sunday there's the Alemany Flea Market, which is free. On the third Sunday of each month is the massive Candlestick Park Antiques and Collectibles Faire, which is well worth the trip if your visit happens to coincide. There's a $5-10 admission to get in, but the selection is amazing and the prices are surprisingly good. Many vendors sell vintage clothing as well as other antiques. Finally, across the bay on the first Sunday of each month is the Alameda Point Antiques Faire, which is one of the largest flea markets around.

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Well, I think that ought to keep you busy; if you need more after all that, you're a far more dedicated shopper than I am. One final thought: I didn't cover the obvious shopping mecca that is Union Square, where you'll find all the big department stores, chains such as All Saints, Desigual, Urban Outfitters, and H&M, and high end designers such as Prada and Louis Vuitton. But my feeling is that you can get that same shopping experience in any big city; if you don't have those stores back home then it's worth a visit, but if it's a uniquely San Francisco experience you're after, you need to get away from downtown and head into the neighborhoods.

Spectacle

Yesterday Mark and I walked down to the big parade and celebration for the Giants, and what an amazing spectacle that was. It's estimated to have been the largest attendance for any San Francisco event, ever. I originally intended just to go for the morning and then head off to work, but I ended up taking the whole day off because the city was so jammed up with traffic there was no way I was going to get out. It was an ideal day for such a celebration; our weather has been glorious the last several days, and yesterday it was sunny and in the low 80's.

This denim jacket was a thrift store find, and I was mighty excited to find it. A denim jacket is something I've been seeking for well over a year now, and for some reason I got it into my head that I wanted to find one second hand. It's one of those items that I just can't bring myself to pay retail price for. The jacket is by Tulle, one of my favorite brands, and has all the elements I wanted; lots of shaping, cute pocket details, dark wash, and short but not cropped length. At $7 this was a fantastic find.

The ankle boots are new, purchased a couple of weeks ago during some sale that Endless was having (damn you Endless, for tempting me with all your sales!). I purchased them along with another pair of soon-to-be-revealed boots, and since these bumped my total purchase price into a bigger discount level, I essentially got these for free. They received mixed reviews on comfort, but I took a chance because I've had good luck with the brand, and it turns out that my finicky feet really love them. The common complaint in the reviews is that they are a very high heel, but since high heels tend to be more comfortable for me than flats, these feel great. I'll be getting a lot of use out of them, I'm sure.

The outfit was inspired by Sheila's casual Friday looks, in which she usually incorporates a graphic tee with other dressier items such as skirts and heels. Underneath the graphic tee I layered a chiffon-trimmed tank to echo the color and texture of the skirt. I chose leggings that matched the boots in order to give my legs a long, interrupted line and keep the focus on the top half of the outfit.

Jacket: Tulle
Tank: Anthropologie
Graphic tee: All Saints
Skirt: Anthropologie
Leggings: Noa Noa
Boots: MIA

Relaxed Suit

Sal wrote recently about this season's thriftable trends, and mentioned velvet as one of them. And what did I find during my most recent thrifting experience? This cropped velvet waistcoat by J. Crew (coincidentally, the shirt is also a thrifted J. Crew find). To me this is a great way to wear velvet -- I'm not so keen on a whole dress made out of the stuff (not since the 80's, anyway), but a waistcoat or blazer adds that soft texture and sheen without dominating the outfit. I totally forgot to photograph the adorable back of the waistcoat, but I'll show it to you the next time.

The waistcoat is a deep chocolate brown, which is more apparent in the detail shot. The back is a striped yellow, black and brown silk, the sort of pattern you might find on a man's tie or lining a suit jacket. The mixture of the menswear shape and back of the vest with the feminine texture of the velvet gave me the idea to pair it with trousers and the casual waffle-weave shirt in order to give the outfit the appearance of a relaxed suit. Instead of an actual tie, I added the scarf and let it hang straight down the center just as a tie would do. If it were a little less bulky I'd have tucked it under the waistcoat, but I didn't want to look like I have a beer gut.

By the way, I tied the scarf using the first technique I demonstrated in my video tutorial.

Shirt, waistcoat: thrifted
Scarf: Banana Republic
Pants: Anthropologie
Boots: Bronx

Patchwork

This outfit isn't a super exciting one; it was a comfortable, casual look that I threw together in the morning when I was running around trying to get everything together for meeting with my tax guy. But I wanted to show it to you because it features this beautiful suede jacket that I found while out thrifting with my mom in Oregon last month. This jacket is a perfect illustration of patchwork done really well; the patches have subtle variations in texture and color, giving the jacket depth without making it look like it was just thrown together from a bunch of scraps. It also looks like it has never been worn, which is unusual for a suede piece found in a thrift store.

The other thing I did with this outfit was to throw in the scarf for a splash of unexpected color. This is one of the easiest ways to jazz up a casual outfit -- anyone could see that pairing the purple top with brown pants and purple boots would work, but adding the green scarf is a bit more adventurous and interesting.

Scarf: Rhapsodia
Top: Just Angels
Cords: Marlowe
Boots: Fly London
Jacket: thrifted
Bracelet: Betsey Johnson

Casual Friday

This was a casual Friday outfit, but is very much something that I'd wear on a weekend day (and anyway, casual Friday doesn't mean a whole lot when people are already in jeans and t-shirts every damn day). This outfit features another newly-thrifted item, this Fair Isle cardigan sweater, as well as the thrifted J. Crew waffle weave top that I'm already wearing the crap out of. This top is going to be perfect for traveling, since it is light enough to be washed in the sink and dried overnight, and makes a perfect warm but not-too-warm layering base.

I loved how the pendant went so perfectly with the sweater, adding a different pattern but several of the same colors.

Sweater, top: thrifted
Jeans: Acne
Boots: eBay
Pendant: Foxy Originals

Thrifting Philosophy

This is the second time in as many weeks that I've featured my handbag, which is something I rarely show in my outfit photos. But the rich brown of the bag added so much to the outfit that I felt I needed to include it. This is also the second time I've featured this thrifted sweater in the last 2 weeks. Truth be told, I'm practically living in this sweater in my behind-the-blog life; it's the perfect thing to throw on when I'm at home and it's a little bit chilly, or if I need to dash outside to take Georgie out.

Because it was thrifted, the sweater is already down to less than a dollar per wear, and even more satisfying is the fact that upon closer examination I realized that it's an Anthropologie brand (Sparrow), which means it probably retailed for well over a hundred bucks when new. With the other major pieces of clothing being from All Saints, this outfit really sums up the crux of my thrifting philosophy, which is to bring down my average cost-per-item by owning a mix of thrifted, mid range, and high end items. Going thrift shopping and scoring a quality sweater for under $5 means that when the next week I want to drop $200 on a pair of shoes, I don't feel one bit guilty because while one piece may be expensive, the overall cost of my wardrobe remains reasonable.

I lack both the skills and the patience to thrift for my entire wardrobe, and to be perfectly honest I don't really need to from a financial standpoint. But I do have a reasonably good eye, and enjoy both the treasure-hunting aspect of thrifting as well as the notion of recycling clothing and giving it new life. One of the important things I've learned more recently is to apply the same scrutiny to thrift store clothes that I would to new ones. So whereas I used to go thrift shopping and come home with a load of clothes that I liked, these days I come home with one or two carefully-selected items that I love.

One thing I want to try out this year is dyeing thrifted shoes. A friend told me of the joys of restoring a pair of leather shoes by dyeing them, and I thought it'd be a great way to end up with shoes in a hard-to-find color, or even two-tone (If you try this yourself, keep in mind that overdyeing white leather shoes does NOT work; the leather can't have a painted finish or else the dye won't penetrate.). I also want to do more overdyeing of clothing, having been inspired by Sal's recent post. I tried this once last year, and it turned out so well that I'm keeping that option in the back of my mind when I go thrifting now.

What is your thrift shopping philosophy? Have you tried dyeing or otherwise modifying thrifted clothes, and how has it turned out?

Cardigan sweater: thrifted
Argyle sweater, skirt: All Saints
Belt: Lazaro
Boots: Doc Martens
Handbag: Lucky Brand