aturday is coming and in San Francisco it's supposed to be a sunny, 65 degree day. For an early dose of Spring Fever I suggest you celebrate outside at Yerba Buena gardens. Porque? Local photographerDaniel Castrohas teamed up with SF Camerawork to invite you to Make L-O-V-E, a community art project that benefits SF Camerawork's youth mentoring program First Exposures.
Here's a quick rundown:
It's an easy, free, fun and silly way to spend a bit of your Saturday (or Sunday). Plus you come out with a fantastic new Facebook profile photo (or a little Valentine's Day gift for your sweetheart) from one of the best talents in the City.
If that's not enough to get you off your couch and into the garden sunshine, think of how impressed your friends and family will be when your mug shows up in the February exhibit/auction at SF Camerawork's gallery. You really oughta be in pictures.
DETAILS
Who: You, your family, your friends, all ages
What: Make L-O-V-E is a community art project
Where: Yerba Buena gardens by YBCA, (Mission Street between 3rd & 4th)
Why: Benefit under-served youth, have some fun, get a great photo
When: Saturday and Sunday, January 28th and 29th from 10am - 4pm
hanks to my bridgeroom and of all places, Gizmodo (!) I've found what are quite possibly the silliest women's shoes ever designed. Oh Prada. Oh Miuccia Prada.
A woman whose ready-to-wear aesthetic I generally like, and might love if I thought it wasn't ridiculous to own such things.
I appreciate a woman at the helm of a company that once swore it was not a woman's place to work in industry. And I'm not a total fun-less girl. But let's just look at these.
Here is one, to your right.
Yes, friends. The Prada 2012 Spring Shoe Collection is modeled after "classic cars". Seriously. And this is hardly the worst offender. This particular red shoe, is rather meek, if atrociously designed, compared to its sisters.
My first question was: Do the tail lights light-up?! I might have given extra points for that.
It's a darling concept. So Italimericana! And what do Italian and American women love?SHOES! What do Italian and American men love? CARS! Will these shoes cause an uptick in heterosexual couplings? Or is this just another sad and pathetic way for a girl to appeal to a man.
I think football slippers stacked wedges should be next.
Let me be clear when I say the concept is cute. It just is incredibly poor design. How many thingamajogs can be found on one of these babies? From a company that was once known for its clean line and aesthetic? Calvin Klein, help us!
But so, so poorly executed are the shoes that they, failure of failures, look cheap. Here are a few others, below.
Perhaps Prada is returning to its 1980s proclaimed roots of reverse-snobbery, but one could hardly call these the anti-status shoes that the once exceedingly popular, verging on democratic nylon backpack once was. (No, really, people ate that up then.)
In the late 90s, Prada's continued success was attributed to its "working-class" theme which, Ginia Bellafante at the New York Times Magazine proclaimed, "was becoming chic in the high-tech, IPO-driven early 1990s."
I see that is a theme they've dumped in the trash, here. Or, maybe the shoes are for mechanic's wives.
Much like, okay exactly like Louis Vuitton, Prada began way back in Italy by Mario and brother Martino Prada. LV and Prada made luggage for the wealthy. LV and Prada (and near every other luxury brand you can think of) was owned by enormous big-business conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennesey, after being sold from the equally large Gucci Group.
Today, Prada is attempting to learn from Dr. Evil Bernard Arnault, and has begun its own conglomerate, The Prada Group. As of press time, Prada owns Miu Miu (Prada's second-line), Church's shoes, and -- HOW RICH IS THIS? -- The Original Car Shoe.1
All groups (LVMH, Gucci Group and Prada Group) make everything on an assembly line (aside from a miniscule amount of special ordered luggage). I'm sorry to tell college girls that might be reading this, but your "very special" Prada/Gucci/LV bag has many, if not most parts, made and assembled in China, not Italy.
You could also wait for the soon-to-be-here knockoffs. Or you could buy yourself an old hot-rod for a similar price to these shoes and most likely have cash left over to fix'er up. Vroom Vroom.
Yet there's hope. Spring 2012 is really "over" as a season. Do a little dumpster diving around, say, Pacific Heights in San Francisco and you're bound to come up with one of these hot rods.
1 One of my sources, a luxury-brand "insider" to a company I cannot divulge, says The Prada Group may have gone PLOP! on its own and defected to one of the two biggies, Gucci Group or LVMH but we can't confirm that at this time. They tend to act a bit like Ouroboros, no? Even if Prada is not, in fact, in the lair of Dr. Evil Bernart Arnault, we can confirm that Prada is quite far form anything we'd consider "independent" design and at some point it becomes like sniffing apples and apples made out of 24K.
he last time I spent time with fashion designer Monica Zaidman of MonTree was San Francisco Fashion Week, which now seems forever ago. As expected, much has changed since then. In 2008, the designer quit her job at San Francisco-based HQ of Levi Strauss & Co. and moved to New York to focus on MonTree full time.
After moving, and realizing the enormous risk she was taking, Monica took time to reflect and began to get an idea of her customer, and more of a vision of what she wanted to be as a brand, which included major expansion.
"In Fashion Week I was just doing one-of-a-kind [garments]," Monica said. This year Monica and her sole seamstress is the first where they won't be doing all of the sewing, but more on that in a moment.
My customer is "anywhere from her late 20s to early 60s. And she is [eco-]conscious but she also has a little bit of an edge. What I like to say is that she's West Coast meets East Coast. She's not the everyday bohemian. A lot of my clothes are for a girl who will wear [my designs] going to yoga and then will wear a similar outfit going to an art opening."
Much of Monica's inspiration is her mix of experiences in her hometown of Chicago where she studied fashion design at Columbia College, San Francisco where she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and now, New York. In the years since I've seen MonTree, the line hasn't merely grown-up but toughened up, too.
Monica has expanded her urban view to a world-view, studying in India, setting up a women's co-op in Ghana, teaching women sewing and batik while making more fashion-forward clothing to market to Monica's western customer. She's since worked in Mexico as well. "It's empowering to women and their families but it's also taking these artisan techniques that have been around forever and bringing them to a more fashion-forward place."
She uses principals of Fair Trade and is working toward certification, but her number one goal is that she is empowering the individual women, making sure they're getting their due profit and being able to feed their families.
She now works with the GO Fund in Ghana and Fonart in Mexico.
"It really makes a difference to be able to tell the stories of these women to my customers."
Creating hybrids seems to be the magic that makes MonTree work, whether it's the East or West Coasts of the U.S., the Third World and First World, or the age differences in her customers.
"I love seeing someone who's 60 wearing the same skirt as a girl who's in her 20s."
Monica's designs can be found at Glittering Conscious in New York and Loft 1015 in San Francisco. But she loves doing trunk shows and direct sales, so make sure to get on her mailing list as well as see her at Urban Air Market.
aturday is coming and in San Francisco it's supposed to be a sunny, 65 degree day. For an early dose of Spring Fever I suggest you celebrate outside at 
hanks to my bridgeroom and of all places, 
he last time I spent time with fashion designer Monica Zaidman of 
