Where's our Uniqlo?

Here's a question I've been pondering lately, especially after returning home from New York in September: Why doesn't San Francisco have a Uniqlo?

Here's my reasoning (beyond the fact that I love Uniqlo and don't want to have to get on a plane for my favorite skinny jeans, or have to beg New Yorker friends to buy pants for me):

- San Francisco is full of denim fanatics -- we have Self Edge in the Mission, and just digging around Yelp for a tailor, I found people talking up and down about finding good tailors for their fancy jeans. While, obviously, Uniqlo isn't the same as Self Edge (I'm sure there are people gasping and clutching their denim-covered pearls that I would even mention the two in the same sentence), it could be a good way for people to work their way up into Japanese-style denim. Plus, they'll hem your pants for you at Uniqlo, which means you don't have to go searching through Yelp for a tailor who will keep the original hem when they shorten your jeans. (I am not one of those people.)

- Right now, San Francisco's Japantown is having a boom period -- with the new New People World mall, which features fashion boutiques Baby The Stars Shine Bright and Black Peace Now, Japantown is more of a shopping draw than before. Of course, they don't need to put Uniqlo in Japantown; they could easily put it in the Union Square area along with H&M/Zara/Mango etc. And, frankly, Uniqlo's much more accessible, affordable, and wearable Japanese fashion than BTSSB or BPN.

- Technically, when you get down to it? San Francisco is closer to Japan than New York is. They wouldn't have to ship things as far. Basic logistics, yo.

- San Francisco does have a lot of retail real estate open, along with people who need jobs. I would die of joy if we had a big giant Uniqlo in the Virgin Records building... but I'd die of joy no matter where it would be in the city.

- We had to wait forever for H&M to come to SF, so why not get Uniqlo sooner? We've been very patient with the rollouts. So come on. It's our turn.

In the meantime, Uniqlo's got an online store for their HEATTECH products, so you can buy camisoles, 3/4 length tops, turtlenecks, and leggings online, then check out through PayPal. Fair warning, they charge in yen and the exchange rate is pretty lousy. Alas.

Other than that, all I can do is look at the Uniqlo explorer and shake my fist that I don't live in New York... while my wallet breathes a sigh of relief that I don't live in New York. Or that Uniqlo doesn't have a full online store.

Seriously, though -- where's our Uniqlo? Are there any stores that you wish were in your town? I know that if there were a Sephora in my college town, my years there would have been very different...

Another favorite pair of earrings for fall!

I have a pair of earrings that I've been wearing on a regular basis -- to the office, out to dinner, and even when I met Tim Gunn in July! I'd planned out my outfit so it was perfect, and the earrings from sofiamasri.etsy.com were the final touch.

I picked up my earrings at the Renegade Craft Fair this summer; I walked by and saw these bright, darling, unusual glazed-ceramic earrings, and knew I had to have a pair. Apparently I wasn't the only one -- she was so popular she ran out of business cards! I have a little handwritten tag with her Etsy site.

Mine are the Dahlia dangle earrings, as pictured here, but instead of the lovely coral color, I have "blueberry" glazed ones. (Aren't those beautiful? They remind me of Wedgwood plates...) Really, though, there are so many pairs I'd like to have...!

I like to wear them with pink, grey, white, and black tops -- the periwinkle really pops against a pink or raspberry. Considering that I've realized just how much of my wardrobe is pink, grey, white, black, or blue... I'm wearing these earrings a lot! I think this week's count is four or five days I've worn them, including out to a fancy French dinner on Saturday for Meeting The Parents for the Boyfriend's Birthday.

What are you reaching for over and over again this fall?

image from sofiamasri.etsy.com

Deodorant Soap That Doesn't Stink

This is embarrassing, but I am 90% sure that many of you share this problem. I'll be damned if I can't find a deodorant or antibacterial bar soap in the drugstore that doesn't already smell like rank body odor. (Clogged pores from sweating+bacteria=B.O.)

Regular drugstore bar soaps billed as deodorant/disinfectant just don't smell CLEAN to me, they all have that distinctive smell that says, "YES I TOOK A SHOWER THIS MORNING, WHY DO YOU ASK?" After trying out all different kinds of bar soaps for the last few years, many samples thanks to various family members' and my own stays in nice hotels with tiny bars of fancy-schmancy soaps, I still haven't found a bar soap that will both get rid of body odor, keep me feeling clean, and doesn't completely melt after two minutes sitting on my shower rack.

My body odor is not the problem here. Obviously, I smell like roses and baby-soft skin all of the time, because I am A LADY. I do, however, work out hard and play hard, often coming home from a plain ol' workday pretty smelly from stress-sweat. I think you get the picture. Add to that some of those random clothing items that seem to hold on to stink for dear life despite washings with extra-strength detergent, it's a miracle I am ever sweet-smelling at all.

The drugstore alternatives have been exhausted after a decade long search (remember puberty? THE STENCH OF IT!). They get rid of odor, but leave you smelling like a Manly Man who does Manly Man Things and Smells of Great Manliness all day long. I've heard good things about castile soap, but you have to take great pains to dilute it lest you burn your delicate skin with the soap's intensity. Dainty "spa"-ish soaps, the kind you also see at the drugstore and little gift shops, with the lavender buds in them--also all Lush soaps--absolutely disintegrate when exposed to water. You just can't leave those sitting in the shower, or in a soapdish, it's A MESS. I've tried the DHC for Men little round soap, which works great. It is, however, completely translucent and DISAPPEARS in the bathroom. Ridiculous. Your beauty/bath bar soaps with the skin-softening and claims of moisturizing smell lovely and feel great but I think they leave residue on your skin and have zero deodorizing power.

So, we turn once again to our friends at Etsy, where there is a preponderance of artisan soapmakers, for a solution. I started out looking for soaps with natural antibacterial properties, like the ever-present peppermint, tea tree oil, anything that was not a harsh chemical. I don't want to leave my skin all scaly and dry because of my overzealous washing. Smelling nice is a good criteria as well--despite those lavender fancy soaps, I still want to smell lovely and clean, like old-fashioned soap.

-Etsy seller LuckyLather has a sandalwood bergamot shea butter bar soap that purports to heal stretch marks (you know you have them, I sure do). I love the smell of real sandalwood, like antique Japanese carved fans in lacquer boxes, but I'm not sure if it's MY scent. Sandalwood oil is a natural antiseptic, according to LuckyLather! We are big, big fans of bergamot around here, so that is mighty tempting.

-Lobos from Alabama has an intriguing deodorant soap with sea salt and rosemary, which makes me think of yummy Christmas roasts. I am also taken in by the dachshund backdrop in those photos! To my great embarrassment, about 60% of my search results for "deodorant soap" on Etsy came up with DOG SHAMPOOS. Obviously dogs get dirty and smelly, but I AM A HUMAN PERSON.

-CrowleyManor's "Into the Woods" bar soap smells like the forest after a rain, much like the wild white sage and pine-needle tea Jeanne and I split a bag of from the San Francisco Ferry Building farmer's market last year. (It tasted like Christmas and falling snow, only hot--the holidays are on my mind today!)

-The Visions of Violet soaps by SonataSoap look like huge chunks of taffy or vanilla mousse--I'd be hard pressed not to try a bite in my half-waking state during morning showers! Yum. I love the fragrance of violets, it reminds me of young ladies with their bobbed hair and perfume atomizers getting ready to go out for a night of dancing with their young gentlemen callers in the 1920s. Little did you know, I am also an old fuddy-duddy lady stuck in the body of a twentysomething internet addict.

-Did I not just mention the lavender-bud-filled soaps? Here's another one, lavender tangerine dream handmade by Etsy seller DrBubbles! According to expert DrBubbles, this soap is so effective it will remove icky kitchen smells (garlic and ginger, anyone?) from your hands. That should take care of any gym odors, for sure!

-Another soap in danger of sleep-chewing in the shower is this chocolate cinnamon number, oh MOMMA. Have you seen those cupcake soaps that look so real you just want to take a bite out of them? This is the grown-up version, so you can smell like Mexican hot chocolate all day long, YUM.

-For a more unisex scent, Etsy seller mamabird has a bar that smells of oak leaves and acorns, perfect for fall. I think this would be a great alternative to the drugstore's strong-smelling manly man deodorant soaps, leaving behind just a faint trail of fall scents that isn't overpowering.


What do you think? Have you had any success with artisan soaps outside of the drugstore? Are there any drugstore-available (i.e. mass-market) soaps you think do the job?


Sweetheart soap ad from Found in Mom's Basement.

The oh-so-frightening... fanny pack.

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw this charming yet terrifying tweet in mid-October:



How did I come to such a conclusion?

I was walking home for the day and thinking about going out skating -- since Karen and I are in roller derby training, I need to be out on my skates as often as possible. But, I said to myself, my skating gear doesn't have any pockets to hold my keys. My purse is an across-the-body strap (as I did ultimately find a new bag), which means it would swerve and bang around on my legs and hip while I skated; forget a traditional shoulder strap bag that would just fall off or need me to hold it to my body with my upper arm.

Thus, I needed an extra exterior pocket that would strap to my body without getting in the way of my motion or weighing me down too much. All it needs to hold would be my keys, my phone, and my ID/some cash.

Which means: yes, I needed a fanny pack.

Hilariously, I knew exactly where to purchase a fanny pack, which was to go directly to American Apparel. I bought the shiny denim fanny pack in black, as pictured here. It's not super-shiny, alas, but it does its job, which is to strap around my waist and hold my keys.

I decided to take a look and see what I could find on Etsy in terms of adorable fanny packs, but found the selection to be rather more sparse when searching through for "fanny pack". Turns out the term we're using these days is "hip pouch". I see what you did there!

- jennyndesign.etsy.com features the "Traveler" bag in various styles and fabrics, including houndstooth (yay, houndstooth!).
- maytreeark.etsy.com has a super-cute and streamlined pouch called the "Hipshack", in fabrics like pinstripe denim. Love it!
- I totally love the Fancypack by carrotcake.etsy.com. It's what Lady GaGa would wear, uh, every day, but especially when skating. They're seriously awesome and I totally want one.
- The ruffled waist bag from kinies.etsy.com is another sweet ruffly option. I have to admit, I also really like it as a bustle, a la Susie Bubble's "bum bag" post. (I'm not sure how comfortable it would be if I, you know, fell on it, but...)

Have you ever had the realization that you might have to sacrifice fashion for function? What did you end up doing? And -- do you think you would wear a fanny pack in public? Considering the cute ones I've found, I don't think it's such a bad thing after all!

images from twitter.com and store.americanapparel.net

Happy Halloween! A Duo of Costumes

Alas, the promised stegosaurus costume did not come to pass (my mom has promised that she will help me for next year), but I love Halloween so much that I felt the need to dress up a couple different ways anyway!

Saturday, Day:


This is a true "from the closet" costume -- I already had the leotard and tights, and actually went to ballet class in this outfit (except in my real Sansha ballet shoes). The black flats are Volatile Harp. The skirt is from H&M. I originally bought it for going out dancing (not ballet dancing) in, but never actually wore it until today. Hooray for having ruffly tutu-esque skirts in the closet!

Bonus: the tights are convertible, which means they have a reinforced opening at the ball of the foot to wear the tights footless or full-foot. I might have to get some more of these in black...

Friday and Saturday Night:


I spent the evening on Friday and Saturday as Edie Sedgwick, along with the boyfriend, who I strong-armed into being Andy Warhol. His outfit is entirely from Crossroads (except for the striped shirt, which is American Apparel), while mine, again, is H&M. They're selling these sequined shirt/tunic/dresses (I want to say it's too short to be a dress, but we all know how these things go...) right now in several different colors for Holiday, and I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to have it. (I think there was some self-talk of "oh please please please let it come in black YES please please please let it be in my size YES OKAY DONE YES AWESOME" as I went through the rack.) The tights are also H&M, while the earrings are Aldo. (I actually bought three pairs of shoulder-duster earrings, because I just kept finding better and better ones; the Aldo ones were the ultimate winners.)

I also had a coat, of course, because Edie needs a coat, and because San Francisco needs a coat:


I took the made-over coat from my closet, and added a fake fur collar from Claire's Accessories with safety pins. I didn't want to get a full fake fur coat, because of the expense ($80 at H&M, no thanks) and because I wasn't sure how often I'd actually wear it. And then there's the whole "even if you buy fake fur you support the aesthetic appeal of fur" thing... anyway. It was easier and cheaper this way, the coat was still plenty warm, and the point came across!

Because so much of what really makes Edie Sedgwick style is above the neck, I've written up the whole Edie look over at Periodic Beauty Reviews, including the perfume I chose to wear as Edie. Because perfume choices are important!

What did you dress up as for Halloween? I love to hear what other people did, since one of my favorite parts of Halloween is seeing everyone's creative costumes! We saw an awesome Dovima With Elephants, which I thought was extremely clever. In fact we were walking through the Avedon exhibit, I said, "gosh, wouldn't it be awesome to be Dovima With Elephants? But no one would get it..." only to see a Dovima with a large stuffed elephant later that night. Whoever you are, anonymous Dovima, you're fabulous!

images from periodicstyle.blogspot.com and flickr.com/sfmoma