Rainman

It's been raining all night, a lovely, soft, quiet rain. I'm looking forward to going to bed with the windows open listening to it. Nighty night.

Junklandia

As I mentioned earlier, one of the best things about Diane von Austin-berg visiting here is hitting the thrift stores with her. I have no idea whether it's skill or karma that allows the little devil to find such treasures at every junk hole we visit, but she does. Case in point: the Out of the Closet on Folsom wear she snagged a brown brocade sport coat (okay it sounds peculiar, but it's sweet. Truly.) that fits like it was cut just for me. The down side? A big old faded stripe down the sleeve where some inattentive queen let it hang in his closet with the sun blasting on it. We're trying to fix it by dying the fade with tea. I'll be reporting results as they occur.

Just to show off, she also found a lady's silk and cashmere sweater for herself that had somehow wandered off into the men's wear section and where it was marked down to ONE DOLLAR. That is just egregious.

We were also struck by the many authors one only sees at cheap used bookstores (Belva Plain, I'm talking to you.) Much like movies that are straight to video, these books seem to be straight to thrift stores. It's a concept, but one that seems to be tough for the agents to explain to these writers.

Wine Country

One of the joys about living in San Francisco is being able to run off to the wine country so easily. R Man, the Divine Diane and I hit the road yesterday for lunch in Yountville. The town is about as big as the period at the end of this sentence, but lunch at Redd was delish and R Man and Diane got to guzzle, I mean taste many very nice wines. In fact, I was the one who drove home because R Man had tasted deeply.

It's beautifully autumnal there right now with the grape leaves turning gold and the sunlight both soft and warm at the same time because, you know, it's California. We saw plenty of other tourists up there who were loud and drunk, by the busful, and you have to feel sorry for the people who live there and have to put up with Girls Gone Wild, Napa every time they go to the grocery store, but then, they also have bucolic splendor so maybe it's a trade off.

Rag and Bone

We went out to the underwhelming de Young Museum with the Divine Diane to see the show on Nan Kempner's clothes. The press release on the exhibit identifies Kempner as "the inspiration for the term 'social X-ray' in Tom Wolfe’s novel Bonfire of the Vanities," apparently believing that was a good thing and sufficient identifying information.

Nan's closet rolled out Valentino, Saint Laurent, Gautier, all the big boys, from the 70's through the turn of the century. Big shoulder pads made a bold appearance, to the point that they made me uneasy. Nan, I wanted to ask, what's with the Joan Crawford fetish? It was as fun as a trip to the finer ladies wear department at Saks.

It's appropriate that the de Young should have a society lady's schmata as their featured show. The museum is all about its exterior, a copper clad behemoth athwart Golden Gate Park. Inside it's all gray with odd, dull lighting and a frumpy collection that leans strongly towards a high-end china closet.

addicted to love - robert palmer

I mentioned in an earlier post ( put a spell on who?) how much I admire the Sonique video, primarily because if I ever pulled a big heist, I'd be sure to dress me and my bitches up in tight little miniskirts and bustiers, just like in the video.

after the heist, we’d need a new career, so I figure we could start up pouty lip bitch band. But we’d have to fire Robert Palmer, cause he's just not sullen enough.

Xdress Fashion Show (1994)

Gautier? Fah. What need have I of Gautier when there exists the heavenly Xdress.

Shop Till You Drop

Maybe it's the dawn fresh, unaffected sweet charm of pink lace...

Or maybe you want to be Naughty Tonight! Either way apres noir has got it going on.