Daily Chai

Can you ever have too many bags?

Maybe not, if one of them is this long, quilted shoulder bag from Utility Canvas. It's so multi-functional that it can work as a (large) purse, yoga bag, beach bag or grocery tote.

I love my Viola Fox necklace

Viola Fox charms are sold locally in San Francisco at assorted little boutiques and at Cafe Gratitude. The bad news is that you can't find them anywhere and each one is unique so you can't request a specific design. The good news is that you can't find them everywhere and the one you buy is a one of a kind. In this age of Starbucks in Paris and Gap pretty much everywhere, it's nice to find a product that really is unique.

The charms are made with glass and some kind of industrial metal and typically contain an image on one side and a brief message on the other. The metal is then fused together and the charm is placed on a sturdy chain, though you can dress up the charm simply by changing the chain.

I've had mine for years, but even before I bought it, I'd seen the charms around town for a long time and was always looking for one that had a message that meant something to me. Finally I found it: on one side an image of a teeny little figure making a mad jump from one cliff to another; on the back, the simple words, "Good Luck." One of the things I've learned in life is that often you just have to take a leap, and this little charm has served as my good luck charm.

It also consistently gets compliments from all types, just like my Orla Kiely bag. Sometimes good taste is just universal I guess.

Oh, how I miss my One Step Ahead yoga pants

Buying yoga pants should be the easiest thing in the world, but it isn't. There are pants with legs that are too wide and flap all over the place during invesrsions, pants not made out of cotton that torture during heated classes, and others that are too cropped, too long, too heavy, too flimsy. Etc.

I never appreciated my One Step Ahead Yoga pants, until I tried to replace them. They are totally wonderful pants that will hug you throughout yoga, without clinging uncomfortably.

I recently left my threadbare pair of One Step Ahead pants at my sister's house during a cross country visit. At first I told my sister that of course, I didn't need her to go to the trouble of mailing them back: they were worn out and about ready to be replaced anyway. But then, when I tried replacing them ... that was when I found myself pestering my sister to check the label inside those plain black cotton pants that are lightweight but not paperthin and comfortably lose at the waist without being carpenter-crack loose. (Or would that be child's pose-crack?) You get the idea.

The cut of these pants is so sleek, that provided you haven't gotten them drenched in sweat, you can wear them out to dinner after class. A truly notable item in a product category awash in mediocre stuff.

Groovy urban bags

Classic has its place in fashion, but I'd prefer classic basics and trendy accessories over the other way around any day. Highway bags are the kind of bags you want when you look down and realize that your purse or your briefcase or whatever it is you tote around all day has not stayed as current as your haircut or your footwear.

The colors are edgy, the cuts are a little offbeat, but both in an understated way.

Highway currently just has one retail store,  in SoHo in New York City, but its bags can be found in selected stores around the country -- you know the kind of store; looks like the image to the left. I found my Highway Bag in Hayes Valley, San Francisco's answer to SoHo, in a little store that warrants its own post (stay tuned).

Mine's a soft metallic silver but more sporty than dressy, sturdy enough to carry a laptop and a bunch of books, but incredibly lightweight. And it seems to go with everything. They say metallic is the new neutral.

Just a great designer

A quick Google search has made clear that Minnie Rose is hardly obscure, especially to people who frequent Bluefly.com and can choose from a variety of cashmere sweaters, most of them made of the finest (and by that I mean fine as in fine hair) cashmere, cut in these delightfully feminine ways that put to shame so many of the boxy cardigans that can be found almost anywhere.

But, this is not a label you find all over the place, either. As with so many of the pieces I love most in my wardrobe, I discovered the item first, then found that I liked many of the things this designer made. Sadly, nothing I've seen online matches the sweater I found in a little L.A. boutique: a pale tan and off-white striped (can you tell this designer likes stripes) sweater that opens in the front, has a little hood in the back and hangs long, but not too long. With no zipper or button in the front, it is meant to hang open, unless you decide to tie up the ends at your waist, which looks great, especially with a dress. It's fashionably long, but not bathrobe-length long, unlike so many of those floor-cleaning sweaters made by designers who took the length trend a few feet too far.

Not a sacred cow

If you don't find this t-shirt funny, you probably don't do yoga enough or live in city populated by mat-toting yogis enough to understand the sentiment.

Even for those of us who immediately get the joke, it can be hard to explain. Is it calmer-than-thou (but still very nice) yoga teachers spouting wisdom and theology after getting high right before class? The insistence of so many people with zero percent body fat that they really don't practice yoga for the physical benefits? The so overly serious tone in classes that teachers here in San Francisco routinely instruct students to talk to the person next to them?

Which is not all to say that I don't like yoga very much. I do. But I still have enough of a sense of humor about it to wear this t shirt ... around the house or in the company of close friends. Not sure I'd ever have the nerve to use the Fuck Yoga mat in class.

Now if someone could just explain the "Fuck Frank Gehry" slogan to me...

30% good advice; 70% silliness

How Not To Look Old does have some good advice, though much of it is stuff that the resonably style-minded woman might figure out on her own, like how dark red lipsticks are just not flattering over 40 and how highlights around the face soften the appearance of wrinkles. It even contains a few bona fide tips, like the recommendation of a certain primer that supposedly works wonders under foundation. (Need to check that one out!) And, it argues against facelifts, which the author maintains, serve only to make you look like you are old enough to have a facelift, since "young people don't do that."

But I am surprised by the generally great reviews of this book, which all in all is more one long recommendation for sporting a slim, long blonde haired look, than for looking young, whoever you are. Now, I, like the author, don't believe so much in aging gracefully. I think that women who let themselves go gray before their time are making a mistake -- at least usually. And I think that it's better to try to appear youthful than to embrace your wrinkles and extra fat and dowdy clothing. In essence, I see no problem with fighting age. But I also believe that you can do this without looking like the author herself on the cover of the book ... a lovely look she has, but I don't think you need to become a clone of her to fight age. I think that while maintenance is important, looking young is more about finding your personal style than on following her all of recommendations, including no hair bands and no ballet flats, which after a while start to sound sort of random.

Even stranger, right after she condemns dark hair and hair without bangs, she includes a picture of Demi Moore, complete with her straight long and very dark hair, in a "young and hip hall of fame" in the back of the book. And right after insisting that Uggs are out for anyone over 40, she offers a photo of the book's models, all of them mothers over 40, and guess what? Two of the three of them are wearing Uggs.

Oh and guess who else she includes in her Young and Hip Hall of Fame? Oprah. Don't suppose Krupp had any ulterior motive there.

My very favorite L.A. (Santa Monica) store

You could call this place Dialogue South. (See prior post.) Or vice versa.

Rita's Rags, located at 1211 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, is probably not the place you'll find clothing to wear to a film premiere or a fabulous Hollywood party, but for everyday, understated fabulousness, this teensy little store packed full of everything from pajamas to cowboy boots to cashmere sweaters and a generous selection of unique jewelry pieces is the place to go.

Rita's Rags has that classic L.A. fashion combo of cheap and expensive, plain and frilly, classic and fun  , sometimes bordering on cheesy but never going quite over the edge, down pat. It is the kind of store where you, like I did recently, can find that basic whote blouse you've been looking for for a year. You know: the one you think that everyone is carrying, but no one is. Very expensive merchandise ($300 scarf anyone?) is mixed in with reasonable stuff.

My very favorite San Francisco store.

Some of my purchases over the years from Dialog, a tiny little Laurel Heights boutique located at 3376 Sacramento Street, include a Michael Stars t-shirt, a pair of ballerina flats that you don't have to have a super narrow foot to fit into, one of those long sweater/hooded shaw thingies that basically adds sleeves to the conventional wrap shaw for added comfort, a versatile beaded necklace and a gorgeous off-white rain coat dressed up ever so slightly by a fur collar on the hood, oh and a few of those marvelous Laurie B. sweaters I mentioned in an earlier post. (And by the way, I know the pictures I included didn't do justice -- you'll just have to trust me).

Some of the things I could have bought but didn't? About ten different oversized satchel bags in silver, gold or suede, a second or third pair of ballerina flats or dressy flip flops, one of any number of chunky handkint hats or scarves, a dainty necklace with a silver eyedrop charm, a million pairs of lucky jeans, the art work hanging on the walls.

If you of the kind of person who likes understated fashion, who thinks Lucky and Michael Starrs when you hear jeans and t-shirt, if you like to look nice even when going casual, and if you believe the right accessories can dress up any outfit, you have to check this place out.

Laurie B. sweaters

I find it shocking that Laurie B., my hands down favorite sweater designer, does not have a Web site. I've found her sweaters in a few San Francisco boutiques that seem to like her styles enough to regularly stock them: a selection of new sweaters every season that are both classic and current, hip, and incredibly well made.

I have a friend who has decided it makes a lot of sense to buy a lot of her clothing from H&M, where she claims, everything is approximately $30. Her logic is that even when you pay a lot for something really well made that you really really like, you tend to bore of it before you've gotten your money's worth. H&M, on the other hand, is one step removed from disposable clothing.

I don't disagree with this line of thinking, but all I can say is that I still own and regularly wear my two very old Laurie B. sweaters and I intend to wear my newest purchase for some time to come. One is a pale pink cotton cardigan perfect fer work but dressed up with little ties on the end of its three-quarter length sleeves. Another is a gray hooded sweater made in sweatshirt syle, with inside out stitching. Both are washable and really haven't worn out at all in years. The latest purchase, an Oh so pale gray scoop neck that might look a lot like a lot of other sweaters, were it not for its subtle details, like the stitching against the three-button opening at the top.

I've learned from this Web site that the Mexican-born Laurie B. still designs out of her Oakland California home, which could explain the high quality, that is often lost during mass production.