SFBayStyle

New Designer Alert -- Lauren Nevada

It’s rare that a clothing line that’s not nationally known that can translate well to several different cities.

Well, maybe we should say that those clothing lines might not be nationally known now, but soon could be.

Lauren Nevada, a line from Brooklyn-based designer Lauren Nevada Batchelder, is currently being sold in Barneys in several different cities, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and our very own San Francisco. How is Batchelder able to design a line that sells in cities that are very different from each other, especially when it comes to fashion?

It's A Good Idea to Vote for A Good Idea San Francisco

If charity is your game, A Good Idea San Francisco might be something you want to note. And fast! Round 2 of the Chase Community Giving campaign is in action. This program is giving the opportunity for a charity to win $1 Million to give back to the community, and A Good Idea San Francisco, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, has a good chance of winning.

A Good Idea San Francisco garnered enough Facebook votes to win $25,000 in Round 1 of the campaign, and if it keeps earning the most Facebook voters, it will win an additional $100,000 or $1 Million.

A vehicle for positive social change ideas that connect people in need with people who want to help, A Good Idea will be bringing a fully accredited residential high school for homeless teens to San Francisco called Hope Academy of Arts & Sciences (HAAS).

Help San Francisco's Good Idea & Vote Now!

Bay Area Trend -- Winter White Coats

There's a new addition to the San Francisco woman's quintessential wardrobe now that it's December. Worn over the standard skinny jeans, boots and sweaters and under the scarves are winter white coats.

These coats are a bit more high maintenance - any stain will show, so think twice before you wear them out to a bar or before eating pizza in it - but they look it, too. High maintenance, classy and upscale, in any style from a military style or pea coat  to a standard overcoat or a take on the trench (like G by Guess has done in the picture above), the fashionable women of San Fran just got a bit more fashionable.

Acme Chophouse to be Reinvented

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Acme Chophouse has always been a good fit for San Francisco. After all, it only serves naturally raised meats from organic farms and locally caught fish, doing its part to support the environment -- and California, San Francisco in particular, is a hub of green activity. 

Well, Acme Chophouse will be changing...but since the change is being brought on by Chef Traci des Jardins, chances are its environmentally conscious and hormone-free food won't.

Des Jardins is turning the chophouse into two new restaurants. You read that right: Public House, a sports bar/gastropub on one side, and Mijita, a follow-up to des Jardins' Mijita restaurant in the Ferry building.

Besides both new restaurants having drastically different menus -- Public House will have grass-fed hamburgers, crab cakes and falafel, as well as a huge selection of draft beers and cask ales; Mijita features tacos, homemade tortillas and margaritas -- they'll also both have dine-in and carry out options. Both restaurants are slated to open March 2010, so this means the first diners will be locals in the neighborhood, office workers and baseball fans. 

Ginnifer Goodwin Wears Art Students' Design to EMA Awards

Talk about luck - Ginnifer Goodwin wore students' design to the 20th Anniversary Environmental Media Association Awards, and now those students can add celebrity stylist to their resumes. A group of Academy of Art University students, Priscilla Guimarais, Kumiko Haruyama, Nui Tanapornwattana, Audrey Wang and Tramaine Tillman, designed a collection of sustainable dresses for a class project. To them it was just another project for school, and a fun one at best.

Little did they know one of their sustainable designs -- a strapless dress made from hospital scrubs with three front ruffled tiers that fell just above the knee and a black sash -- would be worn by an actress. And not just worn anywhere, but to a red carpet event. The students created an entire collection for their project, so maybe, after the press from Goodwin, they'll have requests for orders. All of the outfits in 1Oak (which stands for one of a kind) are made from start to finish with sustainable practices. The hospital scrubs used to make Goodwin's dress were treated, dyed and pleated using sustainable practices.

So for the students out there, this just goes to show that some homework assignments shouldn't be blown off...you never know who you might impress.

Attention Fashion-Crazed High Schoolers: Passion for Fashion 2010 Competition

Most all high school girls are interested in fashion, but high school girls are interested in fashion in different degrees. There are the girls who obsessively thumb through Seventeen , Teen Vogue and, on occasion, Glamour, Vogue and InStyle, looking for the latest trends. But then some girls have such passion for fashion – and artistic talent – to actually pursue a career in it. If you know one of these girls, please read on...

Treasures from The Mexican Museum at the Palo Alto Art Center

For those who think it's too far, time-consuming or expensive to get to Mexico, fear not - there are ways to bring Mexico to us. The Palo Alto Art Center will present Treasures from The Mexican Museum: A Spirited Legacy from September 26, 2009 through April 18, 2010. If you've ever heard of The Mexican Museum, maybe you know it's the first and the oldest-operating museum outside of Mexico and the world to exhibit Mexican and Mexican-American art and culture. The collection at The Mexican Museum represents a treasury with a collection of over 12,000 objects spanning thousands of years of art and culture in the Americas. 

The Mexican Museum is located in the Mission District for visits any time, and the Palo Alto Center will highlight this particular collection, featuring five focal areas of acquisition: Pre-Conquest (Pre-Hispanic or Pre-Columbian) Art; Art of Colonial Mexico (1521-1821); Modern and Contemporary Mexican and Latino Art; Arte Popular (Folk or Popular Art,) and Chicano Art over the next six months.

So if you're looking to get inspired, see historical art, or just want to get out of the house, check out the exhibit at the Palo Alto Art Center. It's free -- that's also nice.

Concept Store - Edition

Retail's answer to the recession appears to be concept stores with reasonable price points, like Bebe's 2b and most recently Banana Republic Edition, which opened in May on the second floor of the Westfield San Francisco Centre. Edition’s new lines of limited edition handbags and jewelry include edgy designs like, State of the Art Clutch, a mixed-media look made from Argentinean leather. And artsy designs, like the Cortina Collection, which features handbags made of alligator embossed nubuck leather and smoky hues in graphite and bordeaux.  Even classic handbags are included - something Banana Republic is known for - like the Gstaad Collection, which features brown bags with gold hardware. These supple leather bags are all under $280.

Summer Soiree with Appel and Frank

August 13 might be a little late for summer clothing in the rest of the country, but here in the Bay Area, we know we can count on being able to wear summer clothes through October. So for those not ready to start setting up fall closets just yet, Appel and Frank are having a girl's night with great discounts from a variety of designers, and the first 300 guests get an eco-friendly gift bag with products from a variety of local companies. Popchips, Nature's Path Organic Foods, StyleChick.com, SF Weekly and Alice and Isa are just a few companies that are helping to fill those gift bags to the brim.

The event happens on August 13, 5-9pm at the Regency Center, Sutter Room, San Francisco. Go to www.appelandfrank.com for a discount of two tickets for $10.

Bebe's Concept Store... A Not So Great Concept?

In January, Bebe, the tight-clothes selling retailer with a price range of about $80 to $200, announced it would open a less expensive concept store in the Bay Area called 2b, with a price range of $29 to $79. This new store wouldn’t exactly appeal to the mid-20s to late 30s clientele who shop at Bebe… instead, CEO Greg Scott said it would cater to a younger demographic (late teens to early 20s). But whoever was looking for clothes similar to Bebe’s in this economy would be a fool to at least not check it out. We can always use more stores like H&M.

So…now that it’s July…what do people think of 2b? 

The ‘Britney Spears of Taiwan’ Gets A Clothing Line in the U.S.

Wednesday, Jolin Tsai, the Taiwanese pop star, was in town at Nordstrom Westfield San Francisco Centre to promote her new clothing line, Seventy Two Changes.

Tsai designed a “pop star meets street” daytime to nighttime clothes with a menswear feel. With lots of tight leggings, loose tops, boyfriend blazers and menswear shirts in slate black, white and light and dark gray, her line fits in well with the upcoming trends for fall '09.

Inspired by contemporary jazz, the modern clothes lean towards a younger crowd while enabling both comfort and a chic look. It works well with the older, more sophisticated L.A.M.B. line to which it's attached.  Not sure what to think?  Stop by Nordstrom and see for yourself.

Express Makes A Fashion Statement: Stop Driving While Texting!

The world is a scary place, and new technology has made it even scarier.  Not only do we need to worry about drunk drivers on the road but there’s a whole new breed of irresponsible drivers – those who drive while texting.

Luckily, an easy way to bring awareness to this new epidemic (you know you know at least one friend who’s texted and driven, don’t lie) is with fashion.  Hey, people check out what everyone else is wearing, so what better way to prove a point?