Tinker Tailor

Swedish blogger Elin Kling and stylist Linn Hagglund

With this season's fashion trend of a higher pant leg - show a little ankle, anyone? - trousers that seem boring can be brought back to life by a trip to the tailor. It is reminder that a good fit does wonders for any outfit, and that the added cost is minor compared to the visual benefits. Expensive items are easy to justify, but I am such a fanatic that I even alter fast fashion - if I love it, I don’t mind spending more on the alterations than the original item. 

 

French Vogue Editor Emmanuelle Alt

I recently finished reading the inspiring #GIRLBOSS by Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, who built a wildly successful business on the intuitive understanding that a strong and tailored silhouette helps sell clothes online.   

My trusted tailor in San Francisco is Hulan, who runs the excellent HB Alterations. Many of the highest end boutiques in nearby Union Square are customers too. I have been busy bringing my professional pants in for updates and just started on casual pants. I'm still deciding how high to go - in my view, the shorter silhouette looks best with no socks, which has implications for shoe choices. I’ll probably choose a pair or two of straight leg pants that look good with a flat shoe for this experiment.

Olivia Palermo

If former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland is right and elegance begins in the mind, wearing clothes expertly tailored to your shape seems like a simple step toward feeling great.

Diana Vreeland
All photos from Pinterest.

SF Giants are Champions - Again!

The San Francisco Giants just won their third World Series in five years. I was lucky enough to watch Madison Bumgarner pitch nine innings at Sunday's home game in San Francisco. What am amazing night! 

Go Giants! 

Watch: Mr. Dynamite

Tonight is the HBO premiere of Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown. Produced by Mick Jagger and directed by Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, I can't wait to see how they chart Brown's influence on music.

Sadly, I never saw James Brown in concert before his death in 2006. My father has told me stories of seeing him in the 1960s at the Howard Theater in Washington D.C, a theater then nearly as famous for its black performers as New York's Apollo. I hope they show clips from some of the Washington performances - they have lived in my imagination as absolutely incredible.

The Godfather of Soul, revealed.

Watch: The One I Love

Listening to writer Bret Easton Ellis's excellent podcast recently, he said in conversation with Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men, that for professionals in Hollywood, TV is for adults and films are for children. From a box office and strategy standpoint, this may be true - but I still love a good movie. 

The One I Love, starring Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss, is a new film with a unique take on a couple's struggling relationship. Writer-director Charlie McDowell's first film is creative, thoughtful and surprising. 

My husband and I watched it together, talked about it at dinner and then talked about it even more over breakfast. Thought-provoking, entertaining and engaging, it is an adult's take on relationships fueled by a big dose of imagination. 

Magic Mask

Lady Gaga loves a good mask.

Can a mask be magical? When it comes to skincare, I have always believed they can make a transformative difference.

The idea of gently massaging a mask or scrub onto my skin every day seems like a good one. Sometimes though, over-zealousness has led to very dry and even irritated skin. To combat this, when I used a strong exfoliating mask or scrub, I would often follow it up with a calming moisture mask. 

My new favorite mask and scrub are both from Luzern Laboratories. They each combine effective exfoliation with hydrating ingredients and have the added benefit of being free of chemical preservatives and other toxic chemicals.

Luzern's Hydra-Enzyme Mask 
Since I discovered the mask a few months ago, it has steadily taken over as my favorite. I use it 2-3 times each week after cleansing and leave it on for up to 30 minutes. A few hours after using it, I am always pleasantly surprised by how bright and smooth my skin looks.

Luzern's Micro-Exfoliant is gentle enough to use every day, which I have been doing each morning. The bottle size meant I didn't bring it on a recent trip and since resuming the daily scrub, my skin feels better and is noticeably brighter. 

I have Ayla, a fantastic curated skincare online store with a charming micro shop in San Francisco, to thank for the introduction to Luzern. Ayla has an incredibly knowledgeable and helpful staff, who have led me to several new products that I love. They also offer sizeable samples of all products. 

Wear: Black & White

WSJ. Magazine. October 2014

Traveling in September caused a major back-up in my fall magazine reading - the biggest fashion issues of the year are piled up waiting for a rainy afternoon. 

I don't really need to add another one...but the Wall Street Journal has made a splash with WSJ. Magazine, edited by the talented magazine veteran Kristina O'Neill. Each style-focused issue is better than the last, with great articles and fun editorial looks that are inspiring and seductive.

The current issue features Latin and South America. Color Block, the main fashion feature, shows American model Emily DiDonato vamping in Mexico City. Her dramatic eye makeup is striking against the elegant simplicity of the clothes. The photography by Angelo Pennetta and lighting are very cool, as is the styling by George Cortina. I am inspired to grab my black eyeliner and keep my wardrobe monochromatic, at least for a while.

Mascaraland

Marisa Berenson. Vogue, September 1968

Mascara is an essential part of my beauty regime. Through trying practically every brand on the market over the years, I have sought out the brands and wands that are best for my eyes. Last year I spent weeks trying natural brands, but this is a place where non-toxic beauty is just not as effective. I try not to use makeup remover, so washing away mascara with a standard facial cleanser is important to me. I have always used two different mascaras - one for the upper lashes and a different, usually more subtle version for my lower lashes. 

My favorite upper lash mascaras are made by Kevin Aucoin Beauty. Aucoin was one of the first celebrity makeup artists and died tragically in 2002 at the age of 40. My first makeup bibles were the books he published in the late 1990s: The Art of Makeup, Making Faces and Face Forward are classics. His company, Kevin Aucoin Beauty, makes three mascaras. I switch between two types: Volume and Curling. I always like to experiment with dark brown or navy blue mascara, but these are only available in black. 
 

Kevin Aucoin with Christy Turlington

The Curling mascara goes on easily and has a brush shape that will be familiar to most women. The makeup itself washes off as tubes, so the clean-up is very easy. It gives a full but natural look and can be amped up by applying several coats. 

The Volume mascara is a little bit trickier and takes some practice to perfect. It has a very thin brush, so using a lash curler first makes the application easier. It can seem a little spidery at first but has become my favorite as I've learned how to use it. Removal is easy as it also comes off in tubes. 

Elizabeth Taylor

Lisa Eldridge's video on mascara introduced me to some new brands, and while I like all of her recommendations - especially the Chanel Le Volume De Chanel Mascara in Prune, a very cool purple shade that helps my blue eyes look green - my favorite bottom lash mascara is DHC - Mascara Perfect Pro Double Protection. This is also a tube mascara and comes off easily with cleanser. 

A few years ago, I went to a salon for eyelash extensions. While they looked dramatic and cool - a bit like the Marisa Berenson photo above - I didn't like it. They felt very strange and once they fell off, it felt like they stole my real eyelashes away too. It took almost a year for my eyelashes to go back to normal.  

I haven't tried Latisse, the prescription-only lash regrowth serum, but I bought a tube of neuLash, which helped to add both length and volume to my upper lashes. I liked the results and am thinking about buying another. 



Photos from Pinterest.

Somewhere Else, Somewhere Good

Speedboat, 2014. Isca Greenfield-Sanders

With the SF MOMA closed for renovations until 2016, the best way to see contemporary art in San Francisco is through private galleries and public art spaces. Tonight's opening of New York-based painter Isca Greenfield-Sanders solo exhibition at the John Berggruen Gallery will be my art outing this week.

My first introduction to her work was from a profile in Elle Decor in 2008. Her newest paintings are inspired by a Lou Reed song.




From the John Berggruen Gallery: 
Nostalgia, memory, and longing for a collective ideal––themes explored in the work of Greenfield-Sanders––are perfectly embodied by this exhibition’s title as well as by its source of inspiration, the 1972 song “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed. Somewhere Else, Somewhere Good is a riff on the line “someone else, someone good” from this popular song by Reed, who was a close family friend of the artist. 

On view from October 2-November 1, 2014. 
228 Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94108