Blood from a Stone --- Days 13/17 & 18

Walks: Marin Errands    AMC Metreon

Distances: 3 miles    6.5 miles

So Ciwt can certainly see why Emma Stone has been winning all this year's movie awards and should absolutely recive the Best Actress Oscar.  Her performance in Poor Things is astounding -  breathing vitality into a scientifically cold, cynical, raunchy but very well done movie.

Moving On With LUGG --- Day 13/16

Walk: Public Storage

Distance: 3 miles

Bye, Bye 43+ Years of Stuff

So San Francisco has a service called LUGG that has been invaluable to Ciwt in her moves out and in and out.  You can call them and request nearly instant service, and, with bells on, they come through.  

For instance, today Ciwt woke up finally ready to let go of a lot of things - furniture,etc - she was done with but still holding on to.  So she hurried her fingers to the LUGG app and chose the option of a small van with two men in less than 30 minutes. And in 15 minutes they were at her home.  Things from there were loaded into the van first, then it was off to Public Storage for the rest.  Two hours later the stuff was on to new homes and Ciwt was home and free.  Yay, LUGG or whatever similar services her readers may have where they live.

Only Your Hairdresser Knows --- Day 13/15

Walk: Hood

Distance: 4.5 miles

Pooh with Peace Plant

Over time Ciwt's hairdresser has given her a couple of meaningful gifts - besides great haircuts.

At various times she learned that Ciwt did yoga and that her nickname growing up was Pooh.  So a few years ago when Ciwt moved she surprised her with a sweet Peace plant in an adorable black pot.  And this week Ciwt received a nearly original copy of Winnie the Pooh which her hairdresser had found at a garage sale.  So thoughtful.

Final Touches --- Day 13/14

Walk: AMC Kabuki (All of Us Strangers)

Distance: 3 miles

A few finishing touch notes from Ciwt on the de Young's current Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style.  

*  The de Young has tied the fashion in the exhibit to historical events, places and people in San Francisco which adds a level of interest and brings the clothes on display alive for Bay Area locals as well as visitors. It celebrates not only fashion artistry, but also San Franciscans’ role in harnessing it: the women who wore it, the philanthropists who supported it, the city that nourished it. The rooms of the exhibition are built around iconic locales in the city: Early fashion is displayed in a facsimile of the Palace of Fine Arts, the little black dress is found in Grace Cathedral, the ballgowns festoon the Opera House. In many ways the exhibition a love letter to the city and its residents.

**

Christian Dior, Junon (above) and Venus (below), Fall-Winter 1949

Among the many gorgeous haute courture gowns on display two that rise to the eye as the most superior were actually never worn.  They are Christian Dior and were brought from France to the exclusive Union Square department store I Magnin.  But, instead of selling them, I. Magnin immediately designated them as 'museum pieces' saying "They represent the absolute pinnacle of creativity and draftsmanship."

(This is the official story, but Ciwt secretly wonders if the gowns were simply too high priced even for the wealthiest San Francisco buyers. Or if there was some concern about a fashion war over who would be allowed to purchase them). 

In any case, the gowns glow with freshness and artistry and are a delight to the eye).  

***

As might be expected in the Bay Area, there is a high tech touch to the exhibition.  Through some sort of Artificial Intelligence (AI for those in the know), visitors can stand in front of mirrors and suddenly be wearing a few selected gown and outfits, all fitted to their particular sizes and shapes.  

Ciwt assumed this would be tricky and work only for the most tech savvy.  But not so.  Even Ciwt could easily step into the gowns.  She just stood on a round pad across from the mirror, and voila, there she was all dressed up and ready to go to the ball.

Retail RX --- Day 13/13

Walk: de Young Museum, Hood

Distances: 5 miles

Callot Sisters (Marie, Marthe, Regina, Josephine), (French, active 1845-1927), Ensemble bodice and Skirt, ca 1908, silk.  Worn in San Francisco by Ethel W. Sperry Crocker (1851-1934)

Not that many years after the 1849 Gold Rush, the sparsely built territory named Yerba Buena with no more than 1000 residents had become a cosmopolitan city, renamed San Francisco. The population had exploded to over 400,000 with a constant stream of national and international visitors.  It was home to elegant restaurants and hotels as well as an opera house, a museum, a grand park and a multitude of social and cultural events.  Luxurious department stores located mostly on Union Square were busy meeting demands for dresses and gowns imported from New York and especially from France.

But the catastrophic 1906 earthquake and fire effectively destroyed the city and certainly downtown retail activity. How did the new San Franciscans respond?  Well, in the midst of rubble, lawlessness, still burning fires, gerry built shelters, that disperate group of resilient, visionary, ambitious, entrepreneurial, often flamboyant souls, acted instantly.  Within weeks! retail was back in business.  The store owners banded together, quickly erected a temporary shopping district, made arrangements for the delivery of French-made clothes, and affluent San Franciscans got themselves downtown through the rubble strewn streets to purchase them.  This, dear readers, was Retail Therapy, San Francisco style.

Who 'Invented' the Little Black Dress? --- Days 13/10,11 & 12

Walks: Hood, de Young Museum (Fashioning San Francisco Exhibition) - both days

Distances: 3 miles 2 miles, 4 miles

Jean Patou (French, 1887-1938), House of Patou (estab. 1914), Afternoon Dress ca 1926, silk crepe

 Worn in San Francisco by Imogen Abbott Mendoza (American, 1894-1989) 

If you were like Ciwt, you guessed Coco Chanel as the 'inventor' of the little black dress. But she learned differently at yesterday's Press Preview of the de Young's Fashioning San Francisco exhibition. Turns out the French Houses of Premet and Patou designed the earliest versions: calf length, straight, easy to move in, very little adornment. Some of the dress's immediate popularity was related to ease of wear and resonance with the style demands the early 1900's.  Women were increasingly out of the home with many in the work force.  They needed affordable, easy to wear garments. In addition World War I began in 1914 and widows were expected to wear black, the color of mourning, for four years.  Added to all this, the little black dress could be and was styled in numerous becoming ways. Ie, women looked good in it and enjoyed wearing it.

We weren't entirely wrong about our Coco Chanel guess though.  In 1926 Chanel made a landmark contribution to the black dress by publishing a picture of a short, simple black dress in a 1926 American Vogue. In the issue the highly influential and widely read Vogue called the dress "Chanel's Ford" because it was simple and accessible for women of all social classes.  And many sources do credit her with being the inventor of the dress.

PS   If Ciwt had been shopping for a little black dress in the 1920's, she might have at least tried on this elegant version:  

Louise Boulinger (Fr. 1878 - 1950, active 1923-1939), American Copy of Louise Boulanger Evening Ensemble, silk crepe with glass rhinestones 

 

 

Memo to Self --- Days 13/8 & 9

Walks: Hood Shopping

Distances: 3.5, 5.5 miles

More often than she cares to admit Ciwt finds herself thinking about her old home.  So quaint, so cozy, poor Ciwt.

Then she gets a delivery at her new home for 1.8 years like the one leaning against her wall above.  It is 10' tall and weighs 43 pounds.  The doorman helped her put it into the elevator, but when she reached her floor she couldn't budge it.  Noticing the elevator hadn't returned, the doorman came up to her floor and took the cumbersome bundle (it's a carpet) into her place. The whole process took no longer than 10 minutes.

When he had left (with a voluntary thank you tip from relieved Ciwt), she remembered other things about her old place.  Specifically the 73 stairs from the sidewalk to her unit.  If this delivery had been made there, it is questionable the driver would have even brought it to the downstairs front door.  If he had, she would have had to call a service like Lugg to carry it up the stairs. Since today is a holiday, they might be closed so the bundle would be outside overnight.  And then there is the matter of the neighborhood crimes around here these days......

Memo to self: No more Poooor Ciwt.  Life without 73 stairs and with the added luxuries of a doorman and elevator is wonderfully liveable.
 

Review or Movie? --- Day 13/7

Walk: AMC Kabuki

Distance: 2 rainy windy miles

Ciwt has a habit of not reading any reviews before seeing a movie.  She does pay attention to Rotten Tomatoes and word of mouth.  So when she heard Sandra Huller, who was so outstanding in Anatomy of a Fall, was equally as good in The Zone of Interest she put that movie on her list.

It took a while to get to San Francisco, arriving yesterday. Ciwt went today.  And, oh my. Oh. My.  Maybe she should have read a couple of reviews.

Sandra Huller was indeed impeccably excellent - as was the whole movie.  An impeccable portrayal of the banal, soulless efficiency of pure evil.  The movie is methodically chilling, disturbing and unremitting; no fantastical events or remotely pretty music. You know precisely what is happening and there's no place to divert your attention.  It you are prepared for this, this presentation of the Nazi death camps, go because The Zone of Interest is an excellent some say masterpiece production.  If not but you're curious, Ciwt suggests just reading a few reviews.