Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
earlier at the same designer's flagship store in Manhattan for $14,000. You can
also find menswear and accessories. The hours are a bit annoying; it opens at
11am and closes at 6pm Monday through Saturday and at 5pm on Sunday.
There's another location in
Berkeley (2967 College Ave.;
%
510/849-0701)
that
perhaps stocks a few more casual items.
A Haight boutique that deals in true antique clothing—stuff spanning the late
1800s to the Swinging Sixties—
Decades of Fashion
5
(1740 Haight St., at Cole;
%
415/668-8202)
is one of the most well-rounded vintage shops in town. The
shoes are often in remarkable condition for being so old, and the '60s items retain
their otherworldly vibrancy. If you want something junkier, there's a Goodwill five
doors east, but here, you'll find items that were as cool in their time as they are now.
Like so many vintage shops, it carries much more for women than for men.
Nice stuff at thrift-store prices keeps the minor chain
Crossroads Trading
Company
(2123 Market St., at Church;
%
415/552-8740; www.crossroadstrading.
com)
popular. Its habitués know that they'd rather spend $35 on a pair of resale
jeans that cost $200 a few months ago at the big stores. The wares lean toward the
glam, but casual is the dominant mode. Search out the half-price rack, where the
already cheap duds are priced even lower—some real deals can be found there.
Other locations: (1901 Fillmore St. at Bush;
%
415/775-8885)
and
(1519 Haight
St. (at Ashbury;
%
415/355-0555).
California has 20
Out of the Closet
(100 N. Church St.;
%
415/252-1101;
www.outofthecloset.org)
thrift stores, and all of them support health services for
HIV and AIDS patients. Think of it as a Goodwill for the fabulous, where you're
as likely to see feather boas and sequined gowns as you are old blue jeans and
record players. Even the mannequins in the window are sometimes cross-dressed.
Purchases are tax-free. There are three other locations—at 1295 Folsom St., 2415
Mission St., and 1498 Polk St.—but the Church Street location is right off the
streetcar line.
COSMETICS & BEAUTY
San Francisco has Sephora, of course, as nearly every city does, and it also has an
outpost of expensive Kiehl's and of the soapy Lush chain on Powell near Market.
But finding a privately owned beauty store that doesn't charge ridiculous prices is
a challenge; you're more likely to find cool beauty products for sale on the back
shelves of general boutiques.
Nancy Boy
(347 Hayes St.;
%
888/746-2629; www.nancyboy.com)
does a tidy
business online selling its line of beauty and skin-care products derived from nat-
ural plant oils, not chemicals. It works with a family-owned pharmaceutical-grade
lab in Berkeley and this—a modest room perfumed with peppermint and lemon-
grass—is the only store where the resulting products are sold. The company
claims to spend some seven times more on ingredients than its salon competitors,
but final retail prices aren't crazily high. The men's stuff is most affordable, at $4
to $10 for most items, and locals swing around to stock up on laundry powder
($30 loads for $16). The store also dabbles in modernist furniture finds.
FOOD & DRINK
The city is full of great places to buy food, from boutique groceries to gourmet
charcuteries to generations-old butchers. And in chapter 4, you'll find sources for
delicious desserts as well as a lineup of markets where farms for miles around
