Style-Ist: The NYT Shines Its Spotlight On S.F. Style, and Our Various Fashion 'Tribes'

On the eve of Fashion Week in NYC, Guy Trebay devotes his Fashion Diary this week in the NYT to San Franciscans and their rugged, often vintage or vintage-inspired style in "this foggy, sports- and green-obsessed city." He points first to Nice Collective, the primarily menswear label that made a splash in 2007 when GQ gave them some national attention for their "hooded scarves, trilby hats, Ernest Shackleton-style parkas."

Also mentioned are the "Holly Golightlys" about town, like Tartine waitress Rachel Corrie and her bicycle-ready vintage threads. Trebay waxes:

"Girls like her are all over the Mission. You see them flying down Valencia Street on Vespas, their wildly improvised get-ups composed of, say, rags scavenged from the Bay Area’s fabled thrift shops (Out of the Closet in the Castro, Eco-Thrift in Vallejo, the Goodwill outpost just off the 101 Freeway in San Rafael), Marni skirts, vintage SM leathers culled from an eclectic assortment of goods at Marc Josef’s locally legendary antiques shop, Tradesmen, and wingtip shoes. You see them particularly on a stretch of 18th Street, where Dolores Park vies for landmark status with Tartine, the upscale pizza joint Delfina and Bi-Rite grocery, a kind of foodie Vatican."

Also quoted is boutique owner Dema Grim of Dema on Valencia, who after living in New York is happy that "[this] town is remarkably free of fashion hierarchies and in-crowd tyrannies."

Oh Guy, we needed a new reason to feel superior to New York today. Thanks for the love.

Hat tip: Mission Mission