My second night at San Francisco Fashion Week did not start off too good. First off, the Dublin/Pleasanton BART was running horrendously late and I didn’t catch a train until 7 p.m. and I needed to be at the SF Design Center by 8 p.m. That’s what I get for choosing cheap rent and suburban life over living in the city and being the hipster that I claim to be.
When I finally got on BART, this guy behind me insisted on talking on his cell phone really loudly as if I cared about his conversation about his plumbing problems.
Here’s a word of advice - don’t talk on your cell phone in places where people have no choice but to listen to your conversation (i.e. trains, enclosed spaces, waiting at the DMV, waiting in line at Starbucks).
I could’ve jumped off the train out of annoyance, but luckily his stop was at Oakland Coliseum.
Things started to pick up and I thought I would just be a couple of minutes late, but when I transferred to Muni to get to my destination the N Judah train seemed to be running late as well.
I just said “SCREW IT” (but with a harsher word) and caught a cab and finally arrived at the SF Design Center 20 minutes late. The shows didn’t start yet, so I was happy enough to walk through the crowd during the opening remarks.
I got to my assigned seat and some lady was sitting there. After I told her she was in my seat, she looked at me and acted as if she was supposed to be there. I was about to use the powers of fashion vs. fashion to take my seat. By far, I was dressed better than her in my DKNY grape colored button down with black and white striped V-neck underneath. Paired with some in-vogue wide leg trousers and my favorite boots - I was a fashion force to be reckoned with.
Luckily, Donna Berry (the go-to person for SFFW), said that I could take her seat instead. She saved me from having to have a fashion rumble with the seat stealer.
Things started to definitely turn for the better when Dcepcion by twin bros Daniel and David Concepcion took the runway:
Bay Area Grammy nominated Jazz musician, Taylor Eigsti was a special guest model
Sexy. Modern. Clean. I absolutely adored this collection. The curious 4-pocket short-sleeve button downs for the guys were savvy and the low-cut women’s wear was very seductive along as well as the ballooning hot pants. There was something so cleverly sinister about this collection that set my sartorial senses ablaze. Bonus points for doing both men’s and women’s!
As the little tykes from Wee Scotty prepped for their show, I started to run into camera trouble - again! This time, I was using the company’s fancy video/still camera and I was running out of room on my SD card. Argh! The looks by Wee Scotty started taking the runway as I rapidly deleted pics to make room…
I didn’t get to catch that many still pics - but I did get some video (which you will see later). I must say, that some of these kids are really talented - they could teach me a thing or two about tailoring. As for that ice cream container dress (second pic above)…it made me crave Cold Stone.
When I saw the frocks from Kirribilla by Amanda Thomas, Faye Davison Rexing and Phoebe Davison, I couldn’t help but be transported to a time of vintage Hawaiiana as ukulele music serenaded me and exotic flowers sprouted from the hair of the models…
My fellow fashion maven Samantha Durbin from Fabsugar.com, said it was very “Zac Posen” - I couldn’t agree more.
The Berkeley-based EVarize by Erica Varize spiced things up with urban casual jersey-centric pieces that were filled with sassy personality, lots of fro’d out hair and a little girl who can walk the runway better than Tyra Banks.
The last walk of the evening was by arts collective Missing Piece which consists of designers Jeremy Parr, Monica Wontorski, Molly Rebuschatis and Lara Grant.
The individual collections showcase the distinct vision of each designer and gave an off-the-beaten-path world of fashion artistry. Parr gave a dandy deconstructed take on men’s fashion; Wontorski had a stylish interpretation of futuristic Girl Scouts; Rebuschatis put out a Tim Burton-esque sexy burlesque show and Grant neutralized things with something that looked post-apocalyptic chic…
Jeremy Parr:
Monica Wontorski:
Molly Rebuschatis:
Lara Grant:
That’s it for now…I’ll probably have a final report on Sunday. And then there’s that print story on the 30th - whoa - that’s a lot of SFFW!
