Originally, I am from a small town in the central valley of California, yes I am a valley girl at heart. Living in said town, there was a very limited amount of, well, style. If you wore something a little out of the ordinary or too different, you would definitely hear about it. I have always been into fashion, so needless to say, I was looked at weird and even made fun of a tad too. Now, it is not the town’s fault, but I’m sure there are those out there that can sympathize with me who had similar situations growing up, there is just not much variety in some places. So, upon moving to various different cities over the years, it wasn’t until I moved to San Francisco that I really found my fashion niche. San Francisco is just so accepting, and no one looks at you weird because most people are weird here! I love it! I love all the different styles that I come across in this fabulous city, but if I had to pick one, my favorite would be slightly hipster slightly bohemian. Check out these awesomely fashionable girls in just that style.

First off, we have Megan (nice pose Megan!), doing the all black thing, something very prevalent in any major city. Her black tunic with black tights and boots are sort of a city staple. However, she avoids doing the totally hardcore look by throwing on a slouchy purple cardigan, which keeps the look more casual. Her black fringe scarf with it’s slight embellishment gives you something to look at as well, since the outfit is largely black. Everything she is wearing just works! Or we have Alex, with a decidedly more hipster look. Even though her outfit is made of all basic elements, when you pair them all together, it looks hip and trendy. The grey skinny jeans, black tee, and brown leather bomber jacket look sleek and stylish. Yet, it is her expertly minuscule accessorizing that give the look that extra push to awesome. The hippie braided headband and pendant, not to mention the cross shoulder bag, really make the outfit worth looking at. Sometimes it is as simple as a necklace or set of earrings to push your outfit to that next level. Lastly, there is myself and Kendall; a random bus ride and some nice outfitting. I’m a big fan of tights, and wear them largely more than I wear pants, so here I am in my black tights, pleated maroon mini dress and my leather jacket that I wear absolutely everywhere. I swear ladies, you can never go wrong with a good leather jacket, it is worth the investment! Kendall is sporting a more casual style, jeans, plaid shirt and blazer and her cross shoulder bag as well. Simple, casual, adorable!

So, being in San Francisco definitely means that you can have some fun with fashion! Whether you’re out shopping, at the park, or just riding the bus, you never have to sacrifice your style in this fine city! This week we looked at more hipster styles, next week, holiday!

By Monica Saich

http://stylecheckupsf.com

The warm, summer weather is finally coming out to play, but sometimes San Francisco doesn’t play by the rules. Just when I am looking forward to pulling out my strappy sandals and new romper, San Francisco decides to be cloudy and foggy, forcing me to rethink my summertime outfit. Do not get me wrong, the summer weather in San Francisco can be beautiful, but it can also be much cooler than expected and rather unpredictable. And don’t even get me started on the city’s microclimates.

To stay stylish all summer long in San Francisco, layering is a must. There will be overcast days and gloomy days, where jeans, a sweater, and boots are the perfect uniform. To keep this look updated for summer, I would go with a pair of flat boots in a neutral color, like white or light brown. And please make sure the boots are comfortable – the hills of SF are not fun to walk in while wearing skyscraper heels.  For the San Francisco summertime, I love flimsy cardigans and sheer knit tops. A white blazer is also a fresh update for the summer, as well as a taupe leather jacket.

When the warm weather does come out, I always grab my skirts and dresses to wear, but sometimes I wish I hadn’t when the wind starts to pick up. On windier days, cut-off jean shorts have become part of my daily uniform, which can be paired with tights if it is a bit chilly. If you pair tights with shorts, the great thing is that they can be taken off and stored inside your purse if you get too warm. I also always keep a summer scarf in my purse during the summer, which can be thrown on if you’re walking through a chillier part of town. I am currently obsessed with polka-dot scarfs, which are super trendy right now and are a perfect print for spring and summer (I found a really cute and light one at Zara). I also just recently brought a bright pink messenger bag, which has become my ultimate summer-time essential.

When dressing for summer in San Francisco, pay attention to layering and wearing things that you can take off or put on as the weather changes throughout the day and throughout the city. By updating a few of your basic wardrobe items to more summer-time friendly colors, prints, or fabrics, you will be dressing smart and chic.

By Chelsea Looby

http://stylecheckupsf.com

The great thing about living in a city like San Francisco is no matter what corner you turn, you really have no idea what kind of street style you are about to encounter; even if it is a truly awful outfit, at least you will get a good laugh about it right? However that is not usually the case here; San Francisco’s fashion motto should be, ‘the more eclectic the better!’. Whether you are at a friend’s apartment building, an outside music festival, or walking around down at the Embarcadero (yes that pretty much sums up where all these pictures are), you are bound to run into some pretty snazzy styles.

These two girls are making great use out of differing sizes for their ensembles. One’s structured pencil skirt and oversize graphic tee and vest are great contrasts to each other; while her friend is rocking the more unisex look. Her shrunken navy blazer (I love that color for jackets!) and boyfriend jeans are a good mix of tight and baggy. It doesn’t hurt that she added awesome black heels to the look!

Next we have a customary music festival look. With hundreds of people sweating and bumping into you all day, this is not a very good time for a pretty dress or even your best pair of skinny jeans (depending on the season), you will be one of the sweaty masses next! That is why her denim cut offs and ethnic print crop top work perfectly. The cardigan is thrown in for good measure, because this is still SF after all, and it gets cold at night! Also note the booties, open toed shoes are generally not too great for concerts!

Lastly, comes my favorite type of style, mixing and matching. I love how forward thinking it looks, and not too many people are brave enough to give it a whirl. Not her though, the printed floral mini skirt and cute graphic sweater wouldn’t necessarily be hanging next to each other in a store, but she had the foresight to realize it would make a pretty girly and trendy outfit. The minimalistic accessories are again, a nice touch to an already cute wardrobe selection.

In S.F. one does not have to really dress for the times or even follow too many trends. Just take your favorite elements of a couple, throw them together, and you will probably have your very own eclectically awesome outfit!

By Monica Saich

http://stylecheckupsf.com

Sometimes, walking down the streets of San Francisco, can garner you so much fashion inspiration you might want to just run home and change your outfit! I know I’ve felt that way numerous times! Our girls, (and guys), are just so eclectic, and since there is no real defining style that prevails in the bay, we are all free to be ourselves, no of the moment trends or zeitgeists limit us. That really is, in my opinion, what makes our city one of the greatest in the U.S.!

On occasions, some girls are nice enough to let us all have a look at their awesome outfits; take this fashionable lady’s great street style as an example. Her pleated black dress with white collar is so 50’s, something that is very point on right now! The black knee socks and black and white oxfords only add to the look, and how about that hair? Gorgeous curls, I should have asked her what salon she goes to! This look is so incredibly cute, it makes me jealous I didn’t come up with it!

So, this next shot obviously isn’t on the street, but I liked my friend’s outfit so much I really wanted to include it! I often forget how cool argyle print can be, and not just on socks! Her blue and green argyle cardigan and blue mini skirt are such a great pairing, and the look is only intensified by the light green tights and sneakers, yes sneakers. Remember what I was saying about eclectic style, well pitch perfect example right here! Or sometimes all you need is a really cute tunic shirt that doubles as a mini dress and voila, adorable outfit! This girl’s white striped mini and leggings are super casual cute, yet the red ankle boots give the ensemble just the right kick to make the outfit memorable.

Our girls here sure do know how to dress. One day, someone should really make an actual San Francisco street style cool coffee table book; maybe it will be me?! So keep your eyes peeled for great fashion when you’re out and about, you never know when you will draw your own inspiration from.

By Monica Saich

http://stylecheckupsf.com

Hayes Valley, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated neighborhoods in San Francisco. Over the last few years, this area has truly begun to thrive with delicious restaurants like Suppenküche (mmmm… giant beers and potato pancakes), Absinthe and Bar Jules. Following suit, of course, was all the adorable boutiques we see today, creating the perfect recipe for a happening hood.

While I’ll admit that I don’t make it over nearly as much as I should, the times that I have meandered down the thick of Hayes Street, I’ve found some delightful surprises in the way of fabulous clothes and accessories. Stuff that’s really unique too; items that you probably wouldn’t easily find elsewhere. For example, a few years back I went to a temporarily resurrected sample sale and found a gorgeous gold clutch with geometric black stitching. I snatched it right up because I knew I’d never find another quite like it (the image attached resembles the pattern).

But enough about sample sales (although, those are always nice); it’s most important to be on the “in” with the stores that we can rely on and come back to time and time again. Acrimony, an expansive clothing store for men and women, carries an array of contemporary and street designers such as: Alexander Wang, ACNE, Sophomore, Abby Miller, A Peace Treaty, Neurotica and Gentry. Acrimony will push boundaries and evolve your personal style.

Other notable boutiques are Dish Clothing, M A C Modern Appealing Clothing, nida, The Seventh Heart, Cary Lane, Azalea, Revolver and Zeni Wear. The men in your life will be happy to know that most of these stores offer clothing for them as well; when you need an excuse to get them to shop with you, make sure to tell them they can get in on the action too!

If you’re tired of stores in the Fillmore, Marina or Cow Hollow, make a trip up and over the Fillmore hill and into Hayes Valley. It’s often forgotten about but don’t take that as a testament to its greatness. People across the city are catching on to this up-and-coming neighborhood so get in on the shopping while the crowds are at bay.

By Julia Gleason

http://stylecheckupsf.com

Nida SF

Nida San Francisco

MAC Modern

Clutch Pattern

Acrimony-San-Francisco

I’ve always said that a girl should incorporate 3 key elements into her San Francisco wardrobe regardless of her personal style; a classic little black dress, a pair of fabulous black heels, and your perfect pair of black boots. Boots should definitely be in every girl’s closet; you can dress them up with skirts and dresses, or be casual cool with jeans and a tee shirt, quite basically, you simply cannot go wrong with a good pair of boots. Especially living in a city like San Francisco, this is pretty much a wardrobe staple that you can’t live without. I only say black mainly because, well, it goes with everything! This is the kind of item that you will more than likely have in your closet for years to come. The following three ladies are perfect examples of how to make any outfit instantaneously awesome with the addition of a good pair of black boots.

Our first example was on her way to a party all gussied up in black and an eye catching tutu style skirt (hello Carrie Bradshaw!), when I spotted her amazing Frye boots. The mostly black ensemble with the combat style boots give a very girly outfit a kick of tough street style and definitely make this girl something to see on our busy streets! Going with the same flat black style of boots, we have our token San Franciscan hipster girl. Her boots, ripped jeans, and motorcycle tee are definitely a kind of outfit that you are guaranteed to see on any given day in the Mission district, especially with that awesome fedora. She looks tough, fashionable, and of course, adorable! Our last look is somewhat more reserved, a more day to day look if you will. Her white tunic, with tights and shorts make this a super easy outfit to go around town in, it is comfortable while still being chic.

Hopefully, these three gorgeous gals will have shown that a good pair of black boots always goes a long way. More economical than heels and sometimes even flats, great boots are a hot commodity to have in SF!

By Monica Saich

http://stylecheckupsf.com

SOMA is one of the more industrial parts of our beautiful city. It houses a lot of start-ups, creative firms and agencies, not to mention some delicious restaurants (Salt House, mmmmm) but we rarely turn to it for our shopping needs. The first reason being that there’s not a huge amount of options and secondly, with Union Square at its border, it’s exceptionally hard to ignore the hypnotic pull of thousands of cash registers ringing up adorable merchandise all in close proximity.

While SOMA will never be Union Square, it does offer up some unique shopping that’s worth checking out. My favorite reason to head South of Market is to scour the racks of Jeremy’s, a department store stuffed to the brim with cheap high-end couture. They buy overstock from misc. department stores and as a result, we get amazing deals like Gucci dresses for $200 (originally over $1000). We’re not talking fakes here, people. This is the real deal.

The first time I went to Jeremy’s I was completely overwhelmed. There’s so much to look through that you don’t know where to start. For this reason I never go unless I have ample time to dedicate to a full on browse-athon. One thing to keep in mind while digging for your buried treasure; I’ve run across several items that were damaged. Make sure you evaluate your picks thoroughly before forking over the dough. Even though it’s cheap as far as big name designers are concerned, $200 is still $200.

There are smaller boutiques in the area as well but they’re spread out: Maneater Threads, Isda & Co., Igigi Design International and Nordstrom Rack are great places to stop off at but remember, SOMA isn’t a neighborhood where you can park your car and find a huge strip of shops. You’re more than likely going to need to shop hop around with some form of transportation. My humble advice is to start out at Jeremy’s and if you haven’t spent all your cash, check out the rest since you’ll already be in the hood.

By Julia Gleason

http://stylecheckupsf.com

With the sudden burst of unexplainable amazing weather in our fine city of San Francisco, I was struck by the amount of people on the street who took total advantage of it! Usually, we in the bay are always wary of immediate weather changes, one minute it is beautiful and sunny, and the next, your brand new suede moccasins are getting ruined by rain that came seemingly out of nowhere! This last week, with temperatures that reached the 80’s, yes 80’s, girls city wide embraced a bit more of spring style fashion, with maybe a scarf or two thrown in for good measure.

I love how our first city girl, looks very casual and comfortable, but still totally fashionable. Her simple Eagles tee shirt, black skirt, and tights of the same color, is so an outfit that I would wear on an everyday basis. The additions of Minnetonka moccasin slip on’s, and long red scarf, save the outfit from being maybe a little too plain, now it’s awesome. Amazing how accessories can often transform an outfit like this! Most importantly though, she looks very comfy, and that is imperative when you’re walking around through our city streets all day! Our second city girl is again rocking the graphic tee look. Her fun tee shirt depicting a monkey that said ‘hello baby’, in case you can’t see, is vintage enough to be cute and not belong on an eight year old. It is her amazing high waist pants  that I really loved though, and again, her accessory of the cool fedora bowler hat. Her messenger bag and simple brown flats keep the outfit super casual, doesn’t this look like a girl you would want to be friends with?

Probably my favorite outfit I saw out and about on this particular day, belonged to this cutie here. Again, we have a neutral staple as the basis of the outfit, a plain white dress. Our fashionista in the making though, has belted it, and paired it with silver lycra leggings, so cute! Her smart addition of a printed tank under the dress makes the outfit way adorable, you can see it peeking out of the top of the dress, but it is not the focal point of the outfit, just a fun plus. I also loved her headband, trust me this girl caught my eye on the street, I love seeing fashion risks on the street! Not everyone would be confident enough to pull of these leggings on the street walking around alone. That’s what makes San Francisco so great, most of us really are that brave!

By Monica Saich

http://stylecheckupsf.com

Over the last few years I’ve developed an obsession for shopping in vintage and antique stores in San Francisco. It’s like I’m digging for buried treasure and when I finally find that special something its all the more sweet! I’ve uncovered some amazing things (a Marc Jacobs jacket, Gucci tote and a Dior blazer) and had hugely successful digs and I’ve also had some completely uneventful searches where I come out empty handed. You take the good with the bad when it comes to buying used.

With that being said, you can imagine the extreme jealousy I felt when my good friend, Meredith, told me she found a second hand Yes Saint Laurent Muse tote in pristine condition for less than $400. You literally could have scooped my jaw off the table when I heard the news; I was in total shopping envy shock. She found it at a vintage boutique called Goodbyes in Laurel Village, San Francisco. Prior to this event I had never done much shopping in the area let alone ever heard of the store itself. You better believe I high tailed my bum over to Sacramento Street to check it out.

I was disappointed to discover that there were no more amazing Muse totes to go around (bummer!) but there was still quite a bit of fun stuff to sift through. I was most interested at the possibility of consigning some merchandise there. They accept every day and go 50/50 on anything you sell. After I finished browsing I took a stroll around the rest of the neighborhood and found a lot of other untapped resources.

Divine Girls on Presidio Ave was a posh option, selling designers such as Narcisco Rodriguez, Nicole Farhi, J Brand Jeans, Velvet, etc.; just remember, nice designers mean big prices. Luna Boutique is another fabulous store in the area with a beautiful selection. Whoever the owner is has a good eye for fashion; I have a good feeling that they’ll be around for a while. If you’re looking for something a little more casual, Dialogue, has a big selection of jeans and t-shirts. They also have a dressier section as well for those that prefer to keep it dolled up.

Laurel Heights is often over looked because it’s not as popular as say, the Marina, Cow Hollow or the Mission but it has a lot to offer a shopper such as myself. My excursion here has made me realize that I haven’t spent nearly enough time and resources in the area. I’ll definitely be back to shop in the future!

By Julia Gleason

http://stylecheckupsf.com

We all have those days, where you throw on a sweater and a pair of your favorite jeans, because, well, you just want to be comfortable today; dresses or skirts are the last thing on your mind. On one of these days, try and ditch the jeans and throw on a fun pair of tights. Now, I’m not talking about our standard black tights, try something patterned, something bright! This is definitely the new trend that I have been seeing on the streets of San Francisco as of late, and it looks adorable.

I love our first girl’s outfit. Not only is she rocking bold black fishnet tights, but she is doing the mixing and matching patterns thing perfectly. Her simple grey tunic dress, shrunken printed blazer along with awesome yellow heels and a purple bag, I’m not even sure calling her style eclectic would justify this look. Surely, she turned some heads walking down the financial district where I saw her.

Our next fashionable San Franciscan is wearing some subtly great tights. Her almost nude colored lightly patterned tights is a more blink and you miss it style of tights. However, when you do see that her leg wear is patterned and colored it makes her look that much more interesting. She chose a great combination of all black, dress jacket and platform boots along with a chunky scarf to complete her look. You don’t have to dress completely eclectic for this patterned tight look to work. Her statement is more subtle and produces the same effect.

Lastly, we have some bright tights! I love seeing bright tights out on the street, it’s like a little ray of sunshine walking around! Her super simple outfit, denim skirt, white cardigan and Toms shoes are very cute in their own right, but the addition of the mustard toned tights just totally gives the outfit a kick. Now, you definitely cannot help but look at her! Hopefully, you are now inspired to give this fun look a try! It can be as easy as pulling on a pair of tights instead of jeans, and we generally have the same comfort level as well!

By Monica Saich

http://stylecheckupsf.com