Scarf-less in San Francisco
Monday, December 29th, 2008On Saturday, we made a post-Christmas outing to San Francisco Centre. I think this trip into the City may become as much of a holiday tradition for our family as making cookies, decorating our Costco gingerbread-kit house, and PhotoShopping my wrinkles out of the family photo.
In case you’re not familiar with it, San Francisco Centre on Market Street is anchored by Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom; the rest of the high-rent space is filled in with a couple hundred other high-end stores. However, when we go there, we’re not shopping for Movado watches or Juicy Couture warm-ups. The items on my daughters’ shopping agendas fall more into the trinket category, stuff that’s fun to shop for but that won’t wipe out all of their Christmas gift money. Jennifer planned to make a beeline to Maido, a Japanese stationery store to get the 2009 version of the calendar that she got there last year. And Valerie was on the hunt for a particular shade of sparkly purple eye shadow.
On our first trip to San Francisco Centre a couple of years ago, it was difficult to focus anything besides the opulence of the mall itself. Between the curved escalators in Nordstrom’s, the glare from the highly polished black-and-white floors in Bloomingdales, and the huge glass and steel dome overhead, I found myself blinking like a camera flash had just gone off in front of my eyes. But I wasn’t too blinded by the light to see that the people shopping there were much better dressed than the mall crowd I’m used to rubbing shoulders with.
On our latest trip there over the weekend, we certainly had the same observation, only more so. While the girls were enjoying their gelato in the very busy food court area, I got a chance to get a good look at what people were wearing. The people there looked darn good. If you watch “What Not To Wear” on TLC, you’ll understand why Stacy and Clinton, the stylists on the show, would have applauded what we saw.
Almost without exception, it was apparent that these people had given thought to what they were going to wear when they came downtown that day. They gave off a sense that “I’m going to a fashionable place, so I want to dress fashionably.” No one was wearing sleepwear as clothing; no teenage girls in flannel pajama pants or guys in baggy logo sweatshirts. Most people were wearing dark jeans and a dark sweater or jacket. The footwear on most of the women wasn’t running shoes, but instead black or brown leather, and many had high boots with the jeans tucked in and were going for the upper-crust equestrian look.
And by far, the biggest style cue that we saw were scarves”¦casually yet fashionably twisted, draped or looped on both men and women. Although we had “dressed up” in our least faded jeans and best jackets to go to San Francisco Centre, we started feeling underdressed without a scarf. Steve joked that he missed the “No shirt, No scarf, No service” sign on the way in.
You might be thinking, “Of course the people who are attracted to the pricey stores in San Francisco are going to look and dress better. After all, they have the means to do it. What’s so notable about that?”
I liked it because it reminded me of when I was growing up and going shopping downtown was something special and we dressed up for it. Clothing is so casual these days that comfortable often descends into just not caring how you look”¦if you’re not at work or church. And I don’t think looking pulled together is necessarily a function of having a lot of money. I think it’s a choice and a way of showing self respect. I know I feel better when I put some effort into how I look. Call it superficial, but I can hear Stacy and Clinton clapping.