Peachy!

It's rare that I see more than one guy who's wearing something notable each day, today is no exception. However on the flipside - so much to girl-cuteness to note today - I wonder what was on TV last night, the girls were inspired to pull out the X-tra cutes this morning!

Seen on Guys:

For some reason I always look at a guys shoes first, you can tell if they mean it, if they were dressed by someone else - be it girlfriend or GQ, or if the whole thing was an accident. I could tell by the black, nicely polished, Beatle boots, that this outfit was no accident. So I took notice, he had on a retro-style, possibly vintage, navy blue, stiff double knit polyester shirt jacket with white topstitching and a hint of western detail. Dark black Levi's tapered at ankle - in a good way- so they hit well below the ankle with a teeny break over top of shoe. (and NOT dragging on the ground!) He also wore a simple dark gray cotton shirt. His dark hair was shaggy with a little bit of product and he wore nice, but not in-your-face-designer, black, Clark Kent-esque glasses. His only accessory was a small messenger bag that was cocoa brown nylon sateen, it had a really nice sheen to it, not too shiny or tacky, just a bit of texture to show he had some intention to his style.

Bravo!

Seen on Girls:

I saw some sweet pink and brown checked fabric flats with a non-functional strap and buckle detail across the toe worn with some slightly too tight ultra-dark Levi's, and a cute little brown gingham cap sleeve western shirt with piping and pearl buttons.

There was a long green drop waist t-shirt dress with some sort of motif on the chest, worn over a big black a-line skirt and some cool ivory colored crackle-textured mary janes that looked like floor tile - maybe because they were ivory. She had on this really cool double breasted style sweater with big buttons and a sailor/shawl collar in back that draped across the shoulders about 4 inches wide from neckline to edge. I know she had a super cute tote, but I got side tracked by a funny tan pleather jacket with an embroidery of a 'lil monkey on the left front breast/shoulder and also on the back. CUTE!

My favorite of the morning was a girl who had on these great slate grey cords on (see! I knew the colored corduroy would pop up!) slightly bootcut and her shoes were those sparkly Korean slipons, the mesh with various versions of glittery-ness. Hers were very simply copper sequins. Then on top she had on a white layered gauze top - flouncy is a good visual word for it. And on top she had a shrunken shirt jacket - waist length (so her gauzy shirt hung out below it), navy, pinstripe. It had cropped sleeves, small buttons, may have been double breasted, hard to tell because her awesome Burberry triangular tote bag - large plaid was obscuring the jacket a bit.

Nicely done ladies!!

General Trends:
Shrunken jackets (saw a surprisingly cute bubblegum pink pinstripe shrunken blazer this morning) blazers, and with military detail - buttons, belts, patch-pockets. Popular colors: Peach and Pink (all tones), Slate Grey. Pumas seem to be the shoe of the day.

Have fun at Happy Hour kids! One more day to go-- thanks for brightening the morning commute, and remember that your best accessory is a smile

Monotone = monotonous / Old School is truly Kool

Guys:

I'm gonna to have to ask you to step it up a bit... I mean I know that work clothing for men is never very fashionable, but please... It's true, I'm very happy that I'm not seeing tassled shoes; it seems that the square toe loafer is the shoe of choice lately, which I personally am a big fan of for the casual office look. But boxy zip front cotton poly jackets over the obligatory 'dress shirt' 99% of the time BLUE.... is ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ....

Wake me up for the Embarcadero stop please!

Girls:

Look: Monotone = monotonous -- right?
WRONG!
It was an odd pink-ish, khaki-ish 'flesh' color scarf first caught my eye and sorta horrified me as it was one of those fuzzy, muppet-y 'tube' scarfs that can stretch from the Mission to Noe and be transformed into a top, a dress, a hood... I know you've seen them, and they can be found all over the city on Clement and the small dollar stores all over the Mission. I scanned the rest of her outfit to see a similar color stretch trouser, slightly bootleg with a jacquard stripe woven in. On top was a cool-toned light khaki military detailed short jacket with a really nice dark taupe lily flower broach made of leather on her shoulder. Finished off with textured trouser socks and nice brown flats-slightly pointed with just a touch of silver hardware. Well done!

Monotone outfits can be tricky because you don't want to look like the Salmon lady from a couple of days ago. This woman mixed interesting tones in the same color family, and used accessories (broach and shoes) to her advantage.

Look: Old Skool is Truly Kool
The tiniest, cutest, girl pulled of a very nice casual look this morning. I can't decide if it was her decidedly nerdy persona, her quiet demeanor, her complete stick-thinness, or if I was just envious of her being in jeans... Jack purcells - black! nicely done already, the toes of which were poking out from oddly perfectly fitting Levi's 501's (not too many girls can pull that off). a (straight from the crayola box) cornflower blue and white colored tiny floral print cotton top with a slightly 'smocked'/gathered neckline topped with a hiplength cardigan sweater with a tie around the waist. She was carrying a crisp black leather bag. Stiff leather with a slight topstitching detail sqare and not too thick - combo of a breifcase and a purse.

General Trends:

As far as stretching the imagination to see what trends are popping up... I'm still seeing some great 'sneaks'; sand colored corduroy, wishing i wasn't seeing flip-flops at 8am....; polyester knit track jackets on hipster boys; and not much else worth noting...

so - ttfn folks.
Challenge: Take some risks with your ensemble, but don't get TOO adventuresome, work that Full-Length, and remember that your best accessory is a smile.

Swimming Upstream.....

You would think on Friday that people would be stylin out a little more - it's the end of the week, you're looking forward to happy hour, and the late-nite parties all weekend long. I was drastically disappointed this morning when I chose the car that all the dowdy folks got on apparently....

Most Outstanding Male "Fashion": The most noteworthy thing I saw all commute-long was big old-man rockin' the Unibomber look (it was an un-sunny, foggy summer day, mind you). In addition to his useless dark sunglasses and the black hood of his nylon windbreaker pulled tightly around his face, he had a mesh bag hooked to a zipper on the front of his jacket resting inches under his chin.

A pouch that undoubtedly was home to all of his Unibomber Tools of the Trade(tm).

Crazy is as crazy does my friends....

Most Outstanding Female "Fashion": I noticed the second I stepped on the train this morning a 'vision' in ...Salmon (?!?!?!) Once my eyes got over such a strange color, and my heart stopped palpitating over the fact that the outfit was Head to Toe Salmon... I stopped at her shoes a moment to notice they were clad in a pair of black and white checkered old skool Van's slip-ons... YIKES. Not such a 'feminine' shoe choice, I must say... My eyes traveled upward again to notice that the salmon ensemble was actually a VELOUR TRACKSUIT...!!!! wow... I mean, ...wow. J-Lo can barely pull that off on MTV, you can imagine what that looks like during the morning commute on BART. Interestingly enough, the girl was quite attractive, and clearly owns some sort of mirror because her makeup and hair were impeccably applied and coiffed. The entire effect however, was, well, mindboggling. It was rather hard to even notice any possibility of good fashion once I laid my eyes on her get-up. I think she may have even been questioning her own wardrobe choice as she looked around the car, she was visibly uncomfortable. One just had to wonder where she was going in that gear?

General Trends:

First thing I noticed though was apparently "This BART car was brought to you by the letter X, the number 43, and the color BRICK RED". There were brick red fleeces, messenger bags, Pumas (with brown laces to match their Puma-swoosh), sweaters, and parachute pants. Yes, I said parachute pants, and NO we're not even going there. (frankly my feelings were hurt by them, and their wearer who CLEARLY doesn't own a full length mirror and paired them with dirty all-white wannabe 'bowling shoes')

So, for lack of other noticeable things - today's only trend would have been the brick red thing - I mean I like the color brick red well enough, but it was really really odd how much was around this morning. Oh! and of course the obvious white earbuds that all the folks are wearing these days...

Have a great weekend and remember... When in doubt, (take a moment) hash it out. Ask a friend, a roommate, a lover, your next door neighbor for chrissakes..."How do I Look?" Should you find yourself sans full-length mirror, get a chair in front of that bathroom mirror kids!!

and as always, your best accessory is a smile!

Dress your commute in Corduroy and ...

Dateline - August 18th, 2005 (morning commute)

Best male fashion- head to toe: doubleknit track jacket in cocoa and toffee over a button down shirt with a small dark all over (1/2in sized motif) abstract embroidery pattern on a white background. Appx the size of the chest logo embroidery on a polo shirt but repeated as a pattern all over the shirt - v. cool.... paired with perfectly 'worn' and wrinkle free cargo pants in dusty army green with an underwhelming - not so memborable messenger bag, and some pumas with a touch of orange trim. Stylish and Urban but not too 'Sporty'.

Best female fashion - item: knit hoodie with a self-fabric 'ruffle' around the edge of the hood appx 1"wide. I LOVE hoodies - and it's nice to see sweeter, cuter, more feminine versions of them. She also had on a long scarf wound around the neck - a color slightly off from the hoodie (nice monotone coloration) and it was a crinkle texture which added to the look. The downside of this outfit was that she wore the hoodie under a denim jacket and she was wearing jeans - making the mistake of D.D. 'Double Denim'. But - to her credit, at least the denim wasn't the same EXACT color so I might forgive it THIS TIME....I mean there is a way to pull off the D.D. but you have to make it very clear that you mean to do it....

General Trends:

There does seem to be (altho not represented by today's bests...) copious amounts of corduroy 'on the catwalk' these days - and the favored color is 'sand' --not quite tan and not quite khaki... I'm happy to see minimal colored corduroy - but with the 80's fashion trickling in lately - polka dots are popping up a little too often these days.... I won't be surprised when the colored cords start showing up. again.

I've also noticed that Puma is becoming more than the hipster shoe of choice. Which makes sense - great 'low-profile', can be worn for fashion AND function and looks SO much better with a skirt if you MUST do that skirt and trainers/tennis shoe thing that the office ladies do down town. I really do wish that they'd not do the black hose, white sox and trainers version, quite frankly I'd really like to never see black hose while commuting. That's for NIGHT-TIME girls... Let's stick with no-hose (since so many office environments are very OK with that these days) or, go with nude (once frowned upon, I know...) but really given the alternatives... And I am sad that I feel I must mention that the 'sheer white' is really not an option. I saw it in my very own office the other day and it took all i had not to gasp aloud.)

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So that's it for now - remember the full length mirror is your friend, and your best accessory is a smile. Have a fashionable day!

Introducing................

It occurred to me in the past few days that everyone wears clothes to work. You're saying "Duh" right now... I know, I can hear it through the screen.... and you're right.... HOWEVER, the thing that is SO fascinating about this fact, is that we're a culture that has evolved *way* past the need for clothing to be only functional. Clothing is meant to be an expression of who you are, who you need to be from 8-5 and/or who you want to be seen as. No?
So why I come across so many truly unbelievable ensembles during my daily commute?!? Totally mindboggling, really...

and then again, there are some people who do have full length mirrors and do try... and SUCCEED!

This blog and each post is dedicated to the men and women who bother to get dressed and go to work everyday and the clothes they wear while doing just that.

Join me if you will on my commuter catwalk - here in SF, we call it BART~!