SFBayStyle

Rosebud Revisited - Peter Finch & Thunderbird Theatre Production in SF

What do H. G. Wells, Orson Welles, Huey Lewis and Tom Stoppard have in common? "Aaah! Rosebud," a new play by KFOG News Director, Peter Finch, directed by Dylan Russell and produced by the Thunderbird Theatre Company. A comedy of Evil Dead proportions, featuring an "evil sled" (often referred to as a "she-devil" by multiple characters in the play), the play takes us "Back in Time" to retell the story of Citizen Kane, where a collection of crafty champion curlers fight a killer cabal.

The theme of the play twists the tale on why Kane's final word was "Rosebud", taking it in a comedic direction vs. a serious one. Finch, a veteran actor for the Thunderbird Theatre Company, wrote the play with the theatre company and several of their regular actors in mind according to the Chronicle article. He acts splendidly in the two roles he plays. My husband, brought up in Michigan, was cracking up at his Canadian curler accent as Mack.

Floating Reggae Wine Tasting and Trunk Show in SF

This is cool (thanks Pamela!) - a floating wine bar, reggae party and trunk show happening this Thursday night by Red Dot. The trunk show features Nancy Higginbotham, Kiele Designs, and Blue Pacific. They'll have raffle prizes from The Lodge at Tiburon, Three Degrees Restaurant, Servino’s Restaurant, Tea Garden Spa, Sam’s Café, Angel Island Ferry, Sheila Kelley’s S Factor, Red Dot and of course bottles of wine.

Here's the invitation. It doesn't have an RSVP number or link but there are phone numbers for the stores - 415-346-0606 is the store in SF. The boat departs Tiburon at 5:30, stops in SF at 6:15, post-party's at 7:45 at Sam's Cafe and departs Tiburon to return to SF at 8:45.

Live Earth T-Shop

Live Earth is going strong with concerts still happening in the U.S.. If you want to get an eco-friendly t-shirt or belt to support the cause, check out the Live Earth Store. They have shirts made from bamboo and organic cotton as well as belts from recycled fireman's hoses. They look great too! Also take a peek at the shop if you want to see the auction of "high profile concert memorabilia" (via eBay) and a way to purchase carbon offsets, check out this Live Earth Shop link.

Also check out this cool widget for watching the Live Earth Charity Auctions...

Fashion Show Event Downtown Palo Alto Today 4-9pm

My husband's running errands in downtown Palo Alto and he just found out that there's an event going from 4-9pm - "In Style Palo Alto", presented by Boutiques on Bryant Street, benefitting Downtown Streets Team. (Suggested donation $8.) The Streets Team and InnVision just launched a new campaign to raise funds to help homeless in Palo Alto by placing donation cups in downtown retailers and encouraging people to give there vs. directly to the homeless.

Activities include: fashion show, silent auction, trunk show featuring local designers, childrens' arts & crafts, complimentary make-overs, music, dance performances, half-pipe skating demo and food sampling from local restaurants.

Wilkes Bashford & San Francisco Symphony Present Fashion Show

Last night, we were privileged to attend a fashion show at Wilkes Bashford in Palo Alto (at the Stanford Shopping Center) featuring fall/winter gowns for events like the San Francisco Symphony Opening Gala, scheduled for September 19th. The fashion show was organized with the SFS and most of the people invited are active in the Symphony and have shopped at Wilkes Bashford. Representatives of the Symphony were present, as was information about the gala in the fall. Beth, the other founder of this site, came as my guest and took the photographs shown along with this post. (That's Beth on the left and me on the right. Normally we wouldn't put our photos in posts, but since we are in the process of introducing this blog, we're introducing ourselves as well.)

Before the event, I was wondering how they would fit a fashion show in the Wilkes Bashford at Stanford, given the size of the store. They managed to do it well, utilizing the entire main area of the store in-between the mens' and ladies' departments (for anyone who's been in the store). Wilkes Bashford himself introduced the show and one of the gown designers, Donald Deal. Deal designed many of the gowns shown on the runway and after the show.

To rewind a bit - if you haven't heard of Wilkes Bashford, it's worth explaining. Wilkes Bashford is a man and a group of stores. The man founded the stores and the stores sell high-end designer clothing and accessories. The original store is just off Union Square in San Francisco, and he has 3 other stores in Palo Alto, Mill Valley and Carmel. The designs selected for the stores tend to lean on the conservative side fashion-wise, and aim toward the luxury lifestyle.

However, don't let that fool you into thinking this store's not for you. At Wilkes Bashford (at least in Union Square, where I've visited more often than Palo Alto), they welcome everyone and treat everyone well. The first time I went in, I had just left my doctor's office up Sutter Street and was wearing grody sweatpants, but I thought, "I've never been into Wilkes Bashford and I've heard it's such a nice store, I'll go in." So I went in, perused the multi-level store, and during my sojourn, at least three kind salespeople asked me, in a not-pushy way, if I needed anything. I asked a few questions about cuff links since they had a surprisingly large collection, and the people I spoke with were all very helpful, non-judgmental and kind.

Rather than being blatantly ignored like I would have been in many stores, I left the store determined to become a customer at a later time. So I did. I haven't bought much there, but I plan to do more shopping in the future. And when my husband was looking for a tux, we went to Wilkes Bashford in SF where they helped him determine the best fit. He opted for a less expensive designer elsewhere, but said, "we'll buy my next one here." This is why Wilkes Bashford has four stores and so many loyal customers. As a tribute to one of the Bay Area's local businesses providing classic style for the community, we selected Wilkes Bashford as one of our "Local Shopping" links on this site.*

Back to the fashion show. It opened with a bang: James Bond theme music and a couple of gorgeous male models to grab the attention of the primarily female audience. The men modeled a variety of jackets and tuxedos during the show, and the female models showed-off the gorgeous gowns and cocktail dresses. Mens' jackets included velvet and satin versions of different styles and a few subtle paisley patterns. Most of the gowns and dresses were black or some shade of cream or gold, but a few jewel toned gowns were in the collection as well.

Two gowns I loved. The first was a black lace halter gown with a beautiful shape and the second was a forest green velvet mermaid cut gown with stones forming stars at the bottom - very much a holiday gown. Unfortunately I couldn't find any programs, so I don't know the designer of the first one, but the second was by Donald Deal. Beth found a pretty green gown and a black gown the she liked as well. We could've stayed trying on gowns and sipping champagne for a few more hours, but we left before the Cinderella hour to go home and tuck our respective kids into bed.

I hope last night's event was successful for Wilkes Bashford because it was a fun show, and I hope they are able to get some additional people to attend the Symphony Gala as a result of this event. As someone who has attended many SFS galas in the past, they are full of fabulous music and style-watching. Highly recommended.

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(*Note: we are in no way affiliated with the Wilkes Bashford store and we're not receiving any payment from them or any other businesses, although at some point in the future we may consider advertisers.)

Atherton Eco Fashion Show Wrap-Up

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to produce a fun eco fashion show culminating the Town of Atherton's Earth Week celebration. Along with SFBayStyle contributors, Melissa Black Palecek, who styled and emceed the show and Sharon Fotre, who trained all of the models for the runway and modeled in the show, we worked in a tight time frame to put the event together.

Valerie Gardner, an Atherton environmental leader and fellow blogger for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, organized the entire week's festivities and Charles Marsala, former Mayor of Atherton, spearheaded the fashion show reception and dance, introducing the show and also appearing as a model. The Pork Bellies, a band led by Alan Margot, played throughout the night.

For the show itself, we set five sets to world dance music. Designers included Cari Borja, who designs intricate garments from recycled materials, Wildlife Works, a company that rescues wildlife and makes their own organic cotton shirts, Del Forte Denim, creating comfortable, organic cotton jeans, Sworn Virgens (courtesy of Pickled in Redwood City), who make luxurious pieces from eco friendly materials like hemp, Kee-Ka, an organic children's line, Lily Achatz and Charmone shoes.

Our first set was casual-chic, women in Cari Borja recycled fleece jackets, Del Forte Denim jeans and Charmone shoes. Next came the men and women in Wildlife Works tees and jeans. The kids came out in the third set wearing Wildlife Works tees and sporting Kee-Ka pants and shirt and hooded baby towel. Then we ended the show with a dressy-cocktail set including a variety of designers - Lily Achatz, Sworn Virgens, and Cari Borja.

The designers were all wonderful to work with and Melissa worked tirelessly to obtain all of the garments from them and return them in good condition. All of the models performed well and had a great time. As the original plan for the show was to do something along the lines of the Global Green "Gorgeous and Green" event in San Francisco last fall, we were lucky enough to have Nadine Weil, that event Chair, as an advisor for our program, introducing us to all of the designers. It was a great experience for all of us involved to learn more about how to be fashionable in eco-friendly clothing.