Couture Spring 2012: Alexis Mabille
By Sara Becker
January 23, 2012

Alexis Mabille finds inspiration in crossing lines of power and sex. He designs for the uninhibited woman. Women who let their moods dictate their fashion and who aren’t afraid to borrow from menswear and redraft what feminine should look like. He champions bright colors, strong lines, whimsy and creativity.

His Couture Spring 2012 line is no exception. As I type this piece I’m imagining myself draped in the bright blue floor length dress from the collection. I watch as the tissue light sleeves rearrange themselves around my wrists to catch up to flying fingers. Any movement in the gown instigates a flurry of motion; the dress resettles itself like falling feathers.

Looking through the spring couture lines for Dior and Versace was pleasant but Mabille’s designs felt the most innovative, giant flowered headpieces and painted faces aside.

I’ll just call the giant head flowers and faces “tops” for the moment. At first glance, my eye ran straight to the top of his designs. The tops seemed to prepare me for a wild and fantastical bottom. On this point, I was happily surprised. I could imagine wearing every one of the gowns from this collection from the sexy strapless turquoise and gold mini dress to the gold gilded gown.

If the massive amounts of rain that have been pummeling the city have left you feeling a bit lackluster on this fine Monday, these dresses should help put some pep back into your step.

By Sara Becker
January 9, 2012

The lady comb over has gained far more momentum and societal acceptance than the male comb over ever has or likely ever will. I’m talking about the side sweep, the side pony and the side braid. The two seconds of photo prep we’re given at outings- what do we do with those two seconds? Most of us with longer hair grab at the back of our heads and sweep our straight, curly or wavy hair around our head to one side, cock our heads and smile. Why do we do this? I don’t know. Maybe it’s to mimic last year’s Hollywood hair. Many celebrity photos can be found of women with pre-styled side swept hair. They’ve already had their hair bobby pinned to the sides of their heads to save them those two seconds of camera prep time. When you’ve got all of Hollywood’s eyes on you there’s no time to fix your own hair.

Regardless of who started the trend, I’m more curious as to why it started. It may be a flash back to the Veronica Lake peek-a-boo. I’ve included supporting evidence here. It’s hard to argue with a hairstyle as glamorous as V. Lake’s.

Another possible explanation may be the economy. In 2009, high heels hit a literal high. As the economy turned its face to the ground, we put on our big girl heels and worked it. Consumer product experts claim that by wearing higher high heels we were attempting to escape reality and move into fantasy. According to them, we were trying to literally climb out of our economic realities. Can you blame us? Before you dismiss this observation as a bunch of hooey, the high heel coping mechanism is not a new one. The same thing happened during the Great Depression.

Recently, there have been some new statistics pointing to an economic recovery (fingers crossed) based on our shrinking heels. Beginning in 2011 our median heel height shrunk back down to 2 inches. So maybe, since we’re doing less peacocking with our shoes our focus has moved back up to our heads. Even though having all of our hair on one side of our heads sounds weird, it generally looks pretty flattering.

So next time you find yourself under a red carpet photo attack you know what to do. And when people ask you questions about your side swept hair like: Why did you do that? Do you not have enough hair to go all the way around your head? Do you have a weird nervous tic? You can blame it on the economy, Hollywood glamour (old and new) or just tell them something weird, like, your left shoulder gets colder than your right shoulder and you like to use your hair like a shawl.

By Sara Becker
January 2, 2012 (Happy New Year!)

Ballerinas dedicate themselves to two things: ballet and avoiding cheeseburgers. To say that dancers have specific diets is as much of an understatement as my first point was insulting (sorry ballerinas). Despite my assumptions about dancers I was recently surprised by a question posed to me by one: do I soak my nuts?

There I was, riding Muni to mani/pedi heaven when I was struck across the face with this question. Rather than actually responding, I think my jaw fell open for an awkward period of time. I collected myself, put my jaw back in place and sputtered out a “whaaaaaaat?” What, I thought, could that question possibly mean. Assuming the question was serious, which, if my friend’s face was any sort of a cue to its nature, it looked like it was. I laughed, she laughed. Then, luckily for all of us, she explained. After listening to her explanation, I realized that I might have hit the SF health food craze wall.

So, I ask you, if you know a reason for this question that has nothing to do with human anatomy, do you soak your nuts? Well, do you?

It turns out we have the ballerinas of the San Francisco Ballet to thank for this most mysterious of all questions. Apparently, the lot of them have been soaking their almonds (and other assorted nuts) in water for a period of hours before eating them.

To make this article at least a little bit helpful, I did some much-needed research. According to www.veggiewave.com, soaking and rinsing nuts before eating them washes off their enzyme inhibitors. A nut without its enzyme inhibitors makes it a hell of a lot easier for the enzymes in our bodies to break down the nuts, digest them and reap the full nutrients of the little morsels. Interesting, right?

So is nut soaking on my horizon? Considering almonds are said to need eight to twelve hours of soak time (much more time than I personally have ever spent in the water), I might not have the patience to wait for my nuts to finish their special bath when in the throes of an almond craving.

Let’s look at it another way. If eating these spa nuts will turn me into a svelte über fabulous ballerina type, then maybe I will throw a handful of them in a bowl of water and leave them in the fridge overnight. You never know what might happen.

In case you’re curious about how long your nuts need to sit in their nut bath, here’s a snapshot of a handy chart I found:

Happy soaking.

By Sara Becker
December 20, 2011

A good friend of mine has always been in perfect health. She does yoga and Pilates like any good San Franciscan should and makes sure to always have her glass of red wine a day. For her heart. Recently something terrible happened to her. A coup of pinched nerves in her neck forced her to put her hard earned Chloe cross body on the bench. What was to replace the beloved bag is difficult to even type. The thing waiting, creeping in the shadows, ready to pounce at any moment with its greedy yawning zippers and its heavy-duty hand-holds was a backpack.

She realized that this was a defining moment in her career as a stylist. Should she be toppled by the diabolical combination of moderate physical pain and an item formerly banished to school buses? She was only to be defeated temporarily while giving her neck some time to man up and beginning the hunt for a solution to her heavy purse-carrying problem.

I’ve realized recently that for good or bad, San Francisco has begun to embrace the re-emergence of the backpack. Grown men in suits have been seen tromping through the financial district in thousand dollar suits with a pharmaceutical company’s regretful backpack strapped to their hind end. Despite some severely ugly bag sitings, there have also been a smattering of beautiful brown leather packs seen around town.

So, is there a medium, is there some sort of bag etiquette we can all agree on? Truth be told that lugging a laptop, no matter how thin, around a city all day has a tendency to leave us a bit lopsided. And since it doesn’t seem fair for us all to have to walk like Mr. Bean, I’ve found a few bags that won’t send anyone screaming in terror.

Below we have:
Free People Leather Delancey Backpack
Alexander Wang Marti Backpack
Haute Macabre Backpack
Burberry Backpack

By Sara Becker
December 12, 2011

The omnipresence of this week’s subject has forced an article out of me. In a city full of moral eaters, fur is making its presence well known. (Yes, I realize that the phrase “moral eaters” is a weird one and comes with a nice double entendre. Maybe with this article I’m becoming a literal moral eater). Fur is everywhere: on Gucci-leashed puppies, inside earmuffs (itchy, no?), lining boots and coats, and resting atop dozens of collars.

I find myself standing in the middle of the fur spectrum. I’m neither a giant advocate for it or intensely against it. But I have to ask, why buy new fur? If San Francisco is such a fierce proponent of recycling, shouldn’t all of our fur abide by the same principle? By strutting in vintage fur, not only are you likely to evoke the forgotten era of the fabulous, but you are also giving a second or third life to a classic piece.

With that said, when I take my lovely vintage blue wool coat with the fox fur collar (that cost only $65) out for a stroll, I still get nervous. I get a sensation that’s reminiscent of a spy movie, where you feel like a million eyes are following you and plotting your demise. I feel that at any second, I’m about to get doused with gallons upon gallons of paint, like a green slime flash back from the Nickelodeon show, Double Dare.

I’m not trying to unleash a firestorm of debate or spark a PETA protest, but isn’t there some way to compromise on the fur thing? Maybe if people wearing vintage, recycled or faux fur could wear a pin or hold up a big flag that reads, “I’m a fur recycler.”

I hope by writing this I’m not inciting anyone to get out their old cans of paint. If you are a paint thrower, maybe think about what you’re ruining before flinging paint on a former animal?

And if this is making you want to throw paint, might I suggest either a little paintball action or bringing your paint to Cole Hardware (they will happily recycle if for you).