By Sunny Angulo

In recent style and design rumblings, the launch of the new lookbook for local woman-owned Mission boutique and style house, Mira Mira, happened over the weekend. Owner Mira Pickett teamed up with friend and neighbor, Georgia Rew, of Pretty Pretty Collective to throw down a runway party in celebration of their new fall looks - and their impending style takeover of 22nd Street.

Pretty Pretty Collective, a production company/beauty salon, and Mira Mira both hold court next to Boogaloos in SF’s Mission District, and have carved out a niche for themselves in the past year with an aesthetic built around a mixture of haute and hip. The fashion show featured a range of curated looks, with bold and utili-feminine pieces by myPetsQuare and Laugh Cry Repeat, among others, and was modeled by several familiar SF style blogging faces: Laura from OnTheRacks, Blair from Atlantic-Pacific and Jennie from Going West.

Under a rustic wooden ceiling dripping with light-bulb clusters, we got a chance to pepper Mira Pickett with burning questions.

SFist: What is the inspiration for your boutique, and how would you describe the aesthetic?

I am super inspired by runway trends and wanted to bring that aesthetic to my shop. Mira Mira is basically comprised of a lot of small independent designers from around the world, many of which are not commonly found in SF.

I love how these small designers are influenced by current trends but are able to distill them at lower price points. I’m definitely inspired by so many of my favorite little shops I’ve visited from around the world. I want people who shop here to feel like they are finding unusual treasures from faraway places.

I think that the aesthetic of the shop is definitely influenced by my own personal taste. I love gorgeously soft fabrics that lay comfortable on a woman’s body. I like to mix high and lower fabrics together in a sort of very relaxed look. I like pieces with tiny details that make them unique but in a subtle, understated way. While I want my clothes to reflect current trends, I don’t want them to be so trend-specific that they will not last for years to come. I think my aesthetic is definitely very understated but adding interesting details that really make them pop.

SFist: What kind of woman wears items from Mira Mira? Can you describe her?

One of the biggest joys so far at the shop has been seeing how many different types of woman want to wear these clothes. I definitely originally had a very specific girl in mind when I started… to be honest, my girl was most of my closest friends. But then the other day, I sold a pair of floral denim jeans to a women in her 70s and I knew that the common thread of my customer is that they love fashion and they don’t mind taking a risk and making a statement. Some of these fabrics are so soft and the cuts are so flattering that they really fit a variety of women’s bodies, regardless of age. I love seeing how my customer really has no exact identity, she is a woman from 18 - 75 years of age. I think she loves fashion and wants to have a little fun with it.


SFist: There has been a trend of small woman-owned boutiques and clothing retailers opening in the Mission- what sets you apart and how are you different?

I think it’s an incredibly exciting time for the Mission and for San Francisco in general. I have never seen this city so interested in fashion, and I really feel like the fashion bloggers in SF have had everything to do with that. I think they really highlight in a public way that San Francisco has always had very fashionable people and we have had a lot of the most influential businesses coming out of SF (from Levis to Esprit to the Gap…). I love that so many more small businesses are opening to cater to this fashionably evolved client.

I think that what sets me apart is that I’m trying to carry styles that are not seen elsewhere in SF at a lower price point. Styles that incorporate a lot of very fine jerseys and silks. Fabrics that feel rich and soft but I scour the lines to find the lower end of the spectrum price-wise. I have heard from my customers that they haven’t seen clothes like the ones in my shop elsewhere in SF. I think that may be because I am really influenced by a lot of street-style that I see in NYC or on foreign style blogs. I would say that my look is definitely more NYC then SF but it’s also just very me. It’s a hodge-podge mish-mash of high and low. It’s a bit risky but also classic. I think it’s hard to pinpoint into one look and is reflective of women’s natural changing moods and aesthetic from day to day.

Hmmm - women changing up their style day to day, mood to mood, street to back alley? That actually sounds very San Francisco. Basically: you can eat it, Danielle Steel. San Francisco continues to have some fierce fashionistas who never liked your books, anyway - but apparently will be frequenting Mira Mira and Pretty Pretty Collective’s regular “ladies nights” for a spoonful of style and a nightcap.

Photo credits: Kurt Manley, Josie Perez-Ramondetta, and Dan Zaslavsky.