Description.
It’s uncanny. You just... you look so much like JFK. It’s not really the jawline. No offense. Or the eyes. Or the hair. Not really those things either. Must be the glasses? The pair that he actually wore? Oh. Makes sense then. Claim your frames at RetroSpecs & Co., an LA-based eyewear retailer and restorer peddling truly historic vintage
It’s true. There’s been a lot of Frenchness happening lately. And we’d stop, except for that we’re going to just keep going. Because Acoté has arrived, a big-windowed shop carrying layer upon layer of sleek linen, denim and leather, for layering—it’s now open. Here’s the slideshow. And here’s the backstory, if you want it: this is the first US
You walk into a store. You step around the guy stamping rivets, and the other guy cutting some leather straps. And then, you... Backing up for a second, you’re (probably) in Joshu+Vela, the factory that’s also a place where you can stop in and buy yourself a bag—it’s open now. And it looks like this. You might’ve dropped by one of their pop-ups. You
Customized utilitarian carryalls. Now there’s something you don’t often discuss at dinner parties. That and politics. Put aside the Rand Paul issue for Timbuk2 Factory Store, the iconic San Francisco brand’s new place inside a factory where you can just customize the hell out of a bag, opening tomorrow in the Mission. This place is a factory/HQ/shop all
Pretty typical Italian-suit-maker situation here. Colorful ties: sure. Colorful jeans: ... okay. Cashmere-inlaid surfboards: pardon? Oh, you must be at Kiton. Their first San Francisco store is open now, and it looks like this. And yes, they’re also making surfboards. Upon entering: turquoise jeans. Purple pocket squares. Fritz, the store manager.
This may come as a surprise, but... The most anticipated sequel of the summer does not involve dinosaurs. It does, however, involve pocketknives, nine-ball and a really nice head of hair. Settle in for the second coming of Fellow Barber, the follow-up to the ever-popular Valencia Street shop, now open on Market. (Have a slideshow.) You know the Valencia
You’re penning notes for your first screenplay. You need to make a quick sailor’s hat for a boat party. You’re in front of the Taj Mahal and feel like attempting a blind-contour drawing. You’re dating someone with a thing for origami swans. Point is: paper. Sometimes you need it. So here’s Moleskine, that one French maker of fine leather-bound notebooks
You: Fall is coming. Us: Glad you brought that up, because we have someone we’d like you to meet. Ernest Alexander: Hi. I made you a new sliver of a store called... Ernest Alexander, and it’s filled with nice things for covering your torso and toting around your personal effects. It’s now open in Hayes Valley and here’s what it looks like. Great. Thanks,
You’re on a fly-fishing excursion. You’re pointing at a hawk in Tahoe. You’re by the fire, playing a questionable rendition of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Point is: flannel. Times like these call for flannel. Enter Pladra, a new shop filled with many fine flannel shirts and a few not-flannel shirts, but those aren’t the point right now, open this
Your eyeballs can’t speak. Nor do they have heads to tilt suggestively at places they’d like you to take them. So on their behalf, allow us to suggest Garrett Leight California Optical, a little nook of a shop filled with fine-looking spectacles, open now on Hayes. (Here’s what it looks like.) You know Garrett Leight. Son of the founder of Oliver
