3 Days in the Bay Area

For the long Presidents' Day weekend, I took a short 3-day trip back to a place I hadn't been since stretch chokers were a thing and I was only just beginning to outgrow Limited Too: the San Francisco Bay Area. 

The Way In

I flew in just as the sun was setting and there was a lovely gradated golden light retreating over layered mountains along the way. The light became colder as the sun dipped lower, and cotton candy pinks and blues emerged. Roads leading out of SF have now redefined my expectations re: what constitutes a beautiful highway.

Stanford University

It was full-on night by the time I had a chance to stroll the paths of Stanford University, but I prefer to see a new place in the dark first. There's a magical appeal to it. Seeing things in the dark, time slows down and things fade out, and all you're left with are vast expanses of darkness and your own assumptions and approximations. Come morning, you get to compare the detail of daytime against the dreamlike world you saw the night before and marvel at the difference. 

Palo Alto

Speaking of the magical, there is a wondrous place called Sushirrito in downtown Palo Alto that serves mash-ups of sushi and burritos -- essentially scaled-up versions of sushi rolls, additionally punched up with soy mayo, unexpected vegetables (mine contained corn), and other sauces. If giving this place a whirl, one would do best to arrive before the doors open at 11 am. Any later and you'll have to brave the one-hour line snaking out its door. 

And I am, predictably, nothing if not a macaron fiend. My friend and I stopped by Chantal Guillon downtown for a box of sugary almond-based darlings and faced our fears of the uncanny as we sat opposite their wall of disembodied plaster hands. (Gotta get me one of those for my apartment.) I am a sucker for anything fragrantly rose flavored, and Chantal Guillon makes a lovely, subtle and nuanced rendition of the rose macaron. 

Palo Alto is certainly specific, and by specific I mean it is stylish in a way that is very deliberate and processed and very upper-middle-class. Its main avenues are dotted with names like Restoration Hardware and West Elm, and one wonders what funds the town's expensive tastes until you realize -- oh, tech money. Of course. 

San Francisco

SF -- lively, diverse and full of history -- is the Bay Area's crowning glory, but the marks of heavy gentrification figure everywhere. The Mission San Francisco de Asís sits nestled among hipster coffee joints and a sprawling shopping district featuring everything from secondhand clothing for as low as $1 a piece to designer dresses worth hundreds.

With so many self-consciously and deliberately quirky coffee places within a stone's throw from each other, it's hard to imagine anyone having a "usual" or a particular place they connect with and keep returning to. Do these hipster coffee bars have turf wars? Do beanied baristas have loyal devotees? Which cafes are frequented by locals, if any, and why? Just a few of the questions that high cafe density makes me ask.  

Stanza Coffee Bar, 16th Street

But I can't talk. I love it all: I love the pretense, the strained manipulation of aesthetic, the lack of self-consciousness and the pride in creating another kind of Very Specific Space.

That said, can we take a minute to laugh, please? Can we do that -- just laugh a little at how contrived and useless some of these hipster offerings are, even if they are also a tiny bit cute. After a while one does grow frustrated at the notion of "patterned circle scarves," "curiosities," "edited clothes collections," "global textiles," and "eclectic, up-market home design" (all phrases sampled from actual business summaries on Valencia Street).

no., a vintage clothing store on Valencia

Samovar Tea Bar, Valencia Street

Four Barrel Coffee, Valencia Street

Flowers for sale in the Castro District.

Takoyaki at Ramen Izakaya Goku

The beautiful consumables of San Francisco do come at an ugly price: the destruction of established communities to make way for trendy stores, cute cafes, and quirky bars. Forced eviction and skyrocketing prices are massive problems here, and it is in large part thanks to Silicon Valley industries. A bit of tech can be helpful, as it can make life more convenient…but whose lives?  The politics of technology -- who gets to use it, who profits from it, who sees their livelihood destroyed because of it -- is fraught and complex and skews in favor of the secure and comfortable and phenomenally rich.

I think we often become too easily impressed with companies like Facebook and Apple for making, say, a slimmer phone or a faster browser experience. But I think we would do well to save our amazement for a day when Silicon Valley tech giants finally take a good, hard look at their less-than-rosy impact upon anyone who isn't an exec, investor, or engineer, and care enough about that impact to implement changes…if that day ever comes. Still waiting.

Street Art, Mission District

Meet the Chanel "Flap"

If the world of luxury handbags were your typical high school, the Chanel flap would be Queen Bee: beautiful, popular, expensive, immaculately put together and possessing astronomical levels of can't-touch-this charisma. I don't own one (oh if only), but I sat down with my friend (we'll call her L. for brevity) and had a chat about what makes the Chanel flap bag a great wardrobe addition, and what could stand to be improved.  

L. owns two Chanel flap bags, one classic and one seasonal. Chanel flap bags range in size from extra mini to maxi, and the two in L.'s closet are maxi and mini, respectively. L.'s family of bags gives us a nice spread of attributes across only two of the same product. 

Note on size: though it seems like a secondary concern next to color and material, we think size is the single biggest determinant in whether a Chanel flap is right for you -- setting cost aside, of course. 

Construction

Material: can be patent leather, lambskin leather, caviar leather, etc.
Build: turn lock closure top flap bag with up to 8 or so pockets and an internal flap on the classic models

Measurements

Mini: about 8"x5"3" 
Maxi: about 13"x9"x4"

Strap drop varies as chain is continuous and can be doubled back on itself

---

Aesthetics

From my vantage point, the Chanel flap bag's aesthetics are its strongest suit. There are other bags that occupy this niche in terms of size, function and quality, but only the flap bag is able to speak volumes while maintaining visual simplicity. If you pare the bag down to its basics, it isn't much more than a rectangle on a strap, but Chanel has dressed it up with quilting (ever seen a flat, non-quilted Chanel? looks unsettling), as well as a delicate leather-and-chain strap that looks and feels like built-in jewelry.

IMO, some flap bag sizes are more proportionate and pleasing than others. For me, the closer the flap-height-to-total-body-height ratio is to 1:2, the happier I am, but I have heard others express a preference for a flap that reaches almost all the way down the front of the bag (see the black bag in above photo). Generally speaking, the larger the bag, the larger the flap-to-body ratio.

Then there's the patent vs. caviar vs. lambskin dilemma, and for most Chanel admirers, the lambskin is prized, as it looks as buttery as it feels. However, it seems most people gravitate in practice towards the caviar leather, since its pebbly texture protects against stains and scratches. Personally, I find caviar leather more beautiful up-close vs far away, since it tends to reflect blueish light when viewed from a distance. This make the bag look less of a rich black shade. Again, not a a real issue, and for nine out of ten, the functionality of caviar leather trumps its relative inelegance next to smooth lambskin.  

Daily Use

Size is of primary concern when it comes to evaluating the daily usability of a Chanel flap. All are versatile and durable and sport a variety of pockets, so on that front, the flap bag fulfills a basic level of functionality. Thus we are left with size to consider, and L.'s advice (as well as the advice of Chanel SAs) is this: before purchasing a flap bag, you should know exactly what and how many items you plan on carrying in it. This of course means it's not a great choice for shoppers like me, who like to have flexibility in how a single item can be used. But for those who have defined habits re: what they carry and rarely, if ever, switch bags, the flap is an okay choice.

What else the flap bag is not great for: irregularly shaped objects, loose objects, or objects that cannot be stacked on top of each other in the bag's main compartment. It is also not ideal for those who prefer to get in and out of a bag quickly, since the flap bag has just that -- a flap -- underneath the main quilted one. For L., the flap is a comfort because it offers privacy while hunting through one's bag, and a pleasure because it offers a glimpse of the burgundy lining underneath. But if you're like me, that flap is another level of stuff in the way. I'd favor the Boy bag's lack of a secondary flap, were I shopping for a Chanel myself.

Among L.'s other grievances were the weight of the maxi and its open body style (as opposed to compartmentalized). Though the bag’s oblong shape means you can efficiently use all of its volume, the bad news is you will certainly have to stack your belongings, and digging out the right object can be a pain.

Since so many drawbacks of the flap bag depend on its size (amount carried, weight, ease of access), it's recommended that a potential buyer take the time to assess their assortment of Things to Lug Around. The best approach: take those things into a Chanel retailer and fit them, Tetris style, into every size of flap bag they offer until you find the one that works.

Maintenance

How the flap bag needs to be maintained depends on its material. L.'s caviar leather is as tough as her SA mentioned: it shows nary a scratch, hasn't faded, and still looks brand new, despite never having been treated. She brushes it off occasionally but doesn't find the need to do much else. The patent leather, on the other hand, is at the risk of drying out. It seems to do best, surprisingly, in ever-so-slightly slightly moist conditions. Shortly after purchasing it in a cold and dry store, L. found white corners appearing on the bottom of the bag that at first looked like wear or scuffing, but turned out to be spots where the leather had dried. Upon the return of a more humid fall season, the spots took care of themselves. 

Quality & Value

When it comes to value, Chanel bags make things a little complicated.

If your idea of value is  "will the price tag of this bag guarantee perfection forever," the answer is no, and the bag would not be a good value-for-purchase item. The number of digits on a Chanel price tag do not have very much to do with quality and value, so if you're expecting unchanged flawlessness, the flap bag will disappoint you. Yes, it gives with wear. Yes, some of the stitches will stretch over time. Yes, the strap will stop squeaking when no longer brand new.

Realistically, no matter what an SA tells you in order to justify dropping up to nearly $7k on a plain leather bag, you’re still getting a plain leather bag. You should only own this if its history, branding, and social significance mean something to you — and they do to many people, myself included, to some degree.

That said, Chanel flap bags do well on the resale market, with many shoppers specifically seeking out a vintage model from a preferred year. They also tend to age better than other bags in similar classes, with plenty of people handing classic flap bags down to their children or grandchildren. Finally, if you subscribe to the belief (as L. and I do), that value when it comes to Chanel is more closely tied to "can I afford it and does it make me happier than any other piece does," then I can think of no reason to knock a few points off the flap bag's value rating. 

Long story short: it's personal. If you're willing to accept that the flap bag's price tag is not perfectly correlated with any functional quality, and you still think the flap is right for you, then it is. The end.

Pros & Cons

(-) expensive, hard to find in stores in exact configuration desired, no compartments, some leathers are fragile, flap can be a pain to get in and out of, larger sizes are dense/heavy, smaller sizes don't fit all the essentials, inside may scratch 

 

(+) goes day to night and casual to dressy, never looks dated, can survive a generation or two, high resale value, quality hardware, caviar leather is durable, recognized name, secure turn-lock, variety of size and color choices, not maintenance-heavy

Meet the Michael Kors "Selma"

After French label Céline debuted the winged luggage tote in 2010, other designers high- and low-end began to imitate its distinctive flared gussets, releasing products with similar silhouettes in the years that followed. In the contemporary range, the most successful of these winged luggage-influenced beauties is the MICHAEL by Michael Kors "Selma," easily the most understated piece to come out of Kors' diffusion range.

MICHAEL by Michael Kors is not known for exercising restraint or subtlety. A quick glance at the site's offerings reveals a host of bags in blocky shapes and loud colors with logo hardware, monograms, and chain link accents. The Selma, though, is different -- so different, in fact, that it hardly feels like a Kors piece. It's not out of place in my muted, professional-looking bag collection. 

My thoughts below.

Diffuser by Jo Malone, notebooks by Dear Maison via Poketo.

Measurements

Dimensions: roughly 13" x 10" x 5"
Drop: handles 4", adjustable strap 18"

Construction

Saffiano leather with cloth lining
4 pockets, incl. 1 that zips

Aesthetics

Clearly the Selma photographs well. It's angular, structured, and sports minimal hardware, all atypical of its siblings and punching well above its $358 price point. (Figure cited is for the large size, which is no longer available. The medium, its replacement, retails at $298.) It comes in a variety of colors and materials, including some colorblock leather-and-fabric ones, and while all are popular, I find the bag does best in a solid neutral shade that lets its silhouette shine.

A nitpicky opinion: I'm not fond of the squarish hardware that attaches the bag's handles to its body. I wish Kors' diffusion line team had decided to fix the handles directly to the bag à la Saint Laurent's Sac de Jour, but doing so likely would have changed the bag’s price point.

Interior pocket view.

Daily Use

I picked up the large Selma in summer 2014, and honestly, I regretted the gargantuan size of it until I started seeing the medium pop up everywhere this past summer and fall. The large is more proportionate, with a more pleasing gusset-to-body ratio. It also holds more stuff without being unwieldy, which, as a pack rat, I appreciate. It has the volume of a tote with the rigidity of a briefcase, easily holding a continental wallet, phone and charger, cereal bars, tablet, makeup, and even a DSLR camera...all at once.   

The Selma comes with a detachable strap, which I frequently used in the beginning, as I was unused to hand-carrying a bag. Over time, I grew more comfortable with the look of the large, rectangular bag in the crook of my arm (how very Los Angeles) and now carry it there, with the strap tucked in.

The Selma’s zipper placement is fantastic: tucked down slightly and framed by stiff leather strips on either side. This is not a bag that will spill your belongings, even if it is unzipped and tips over on its side, since even the open zipper has enough support on either side that everything is contained. This gives me flexibility in how I carry it: I can either use it like a shopping tote and throw things in the open top, or treat it like a satchel and secure everything beneath the zip.

Does the Selma go casual to dressy? Eh, it's debatable. While I've seen people style it casually, the structured look of the Selma is probably more of a professional silhouette -- especially if the bag is black. In black, it's almost indistinguishable at a distance from the executive Prada range. When carrying the Selma I often feel like I need to try a little harder (no t-shirts and certainly no sneakers). 

Maintenance

When it comes to care, the Selma is out-of-this-world accomodating. It is virtually indestructible, does not fade, is unaffected by humidity or rain, and its saffiano body is just about impossible to scratch. Once in a while I go over it with Collonil cream to clean off smudges, but it does not need moisture treatment the way higher end leather would.

Quality & Value

IMO the Selma is the ultimate contemporary range bag. It doesn't run in the let's-not-push-it-for-this-level $500s to $600 range like many Kate Spade or Tory Burch pieces -- especially now that the $358 large size is discontinued, leaving the $298 medium size the priciest Selma option. 

That said, it also doesn't feel like a budget bag. The saffiano leather, though it does cave slightly with wear, shows virtually no signs of aging, even without being stored outside of its dust bag and in a hot, humid climate. Mine looks brand new, even though it's two years old and I treat it mercilessly. The bag even has metal feet to protect the bottom from the surface you're setting it on. That's a nice touch, considering that not even Givenchy (ahem, leather feet on the Antigona) is great about executing this protective feature.

I also appreciate that where corners are cut on the Selma, it's in invisible places. The stitching on the strap is not as secure as I'd like to be, but let's be real, no one looks there. The lining is an unappealing faux-silk monogrammed fabric, but I can live with that, as it won't be the end of the world to stain it.

Pros & Cons

(-) It's Michael Kors, not occasion-versatile, bottomless pit, cheap interior lining, saffiano does not feel luxurious, heavy when full, awkward hardware

(+) under $300 in medium size, easy to care for, both hand- and shoulder-carried, structured, great work bag (fits a tablet or laptop), roomy, logo is subtle, many pockets, photogenic

And finally, I can't say how glad I am that the MICHAEL by Michael Kors team managed to resist putting chunky logos all over this piece in particular. So glad. Gotta diversify the offerings, man.