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Read the article. American Apparel has gone down in production for their own stores because their wholesale accounts are up and, after having to fire around 1500 employees who couldn’t provide legal documentation for being authorized to work in the United States, American Apparel really hurt their production and turn around time.

To me the need  for  Made in America is still highly sought after for retailers and other wholesalers.  Do you think the American Market is spoiled over low pricing that American Apparel felt the need to hire illegally to keep their costs down?

Research in many work related fields needs to be seriously pursued for their hiring process. But, how are customers going to deal if prices go up because companies are actually having to pay living wages? Can American Apparel not afford to pay people higher wages or is it that no one wants to do the work? In a time of recession wouldn’t people want to jump at the chance to have a job opportunity, or does it not pay the bills?

What is your solution for the current lack of production in America? What should we start to do? How will that affect people’s buying habits?

Don’t miss Thread this weekend at the Concourse Exhibiting Center from 11-6pm. Find furniture, jewelry, clothing, and get complimentary makeup in the style lounge. Not from SF? No worries, check out their line up for the Summer and Fall up and down the west coast.

It’s only $10 at the door to get in and $8 to RSVP online. No worries if you can’t spend that much, everything is in the price point between $15-$200 dollars. If you are an artist/designer and want to get involved check out their specs here!

Happy Shopping!

I almost hate to spread the word about this site but was in awe of how it works. Even though it isn’t local designers and earth friendly per-say I am amazed at how shopping online is changing with new technology.

A friend of mine sent me a link to sign up for Shop It To Me  because I am interested, as most woman are, in clothes, shoes, and accessories. The site  shocked me, in a good way, and also scared me at what I am up against. Shop it to Me is an online site for showing you deals at designer websites in your size.

The site itself allows you to sign up for a weekly, bi-weekly, daily reminder on the day of the week you want it. It also let’s you pick from a list of popular designers from a 3 column list, what you want as far as if you are a man/woman or teen (have to be older than 13) as well as what size you are in tops, bottoms, shoes and intimates. From this list they are able to send you a list of what is on sale from those sites in your size. Brands included are North Face, bebe, BCBG, Steve Madden, 7 for all Mankind, etc.

After signing up you have the option of reffering friends from your email – google included. I personally skipped the referencing 10 friends but if you do, they send you a $10 discount to a few other stores like Starbucks, Jamba Juice or to donate to Avon Walk for Cancer.

I got my first email and looked up the “How it Works” section just to be sure.  It sounds almost too good to be true but when you place a sale it goes to the direct site of the item you are wanting. For example, you want a pair of Ugg boots, it sends you to the Ugg site to make the purchase of the item on sale.

I am praising the person who designed the technology for this to work. What will online shopping look like in the future?

Have a look for yourself.

http://shopittome.com/

CELEBRATING THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY of The Ball that started it all! Join us for an unparalleled night of elegance, dancing, music, theatre, storytelling, circus arts, burlesque, and late-night revelry.

Featuring Gorey tales brought to life on stage by co-hosts Rosin Coven and Vau de Vire Society, plus “Belle of the Ball” Jill Tracy, Miz Margo, Vima Vice Squad, Fou Fou HA!, Delachaux, Kitten On The Keys, ballroom dancing, turn of the century martial arts demonstrations, the infamous Edwardian portrait studio and surprise guests. Plus a special 10th Anniversary homage to Edward Gorey and Edwardian celebrations gone by!

The 10th Annual Edwardian Ball at The Regency Ballroom – 1300 Van Ness Avenue (at Sutter), SF CA 94109. Doors and show at 8:00pm, all ages welcome. (photo: Nightshade from the 2008 Edwardian Ball)

For More Information go to http://www.edwardianball.com/2010.html

For Ticket Information go to http://www.edwardianball.com/tickets.html

There will be local designers and vendors at the show so please come support and check it out! I went to this last year and had an amazing time. Dance across the floor, see beautiful costumes, and get your picture taken.

* Hat by Jasmin Zorlu

Well, we have had a full  fun run of the store in North Beach and these are our last and final days until we pack up shop until our next location pop’s up somewhere else in this wonderful city of San Francisco. So if you haven’t been able to stop by you won’t want to miss our Closing Party. Here are the details…

Where: Local Patron 1418 Grant St (between Grant & Union).

When: 6pm – to 9 (or when we decide to close)

What:

• DJ’s Dominique and Bryan Riate will be sure to have you feeling good.
• Desserts by pastry Chef of Eos Jennifer Riate goodies you don’t want to miss
• Sale 10%-25% off everything in the store.
• Drinks and appetizers on the house.

Check out our Press Page. We were written up on..

• The Chronicle

• 7×7

• NBC Bay Area

• SF Station

• SF Indie Fashion

and Featured on ABC “What’s Hot This Weekend”.

Thank you to everyone who made the store possible. Special thanks to Gregory Bartning, Becky Uline, and Gabe Colaluca for volunteering their time and efforts. Special thanks to Cody Morrison of Danger Deluxxe and Joey, the band Potion, Becky and Friends, Bryan and Dominique for their musical talents. Thanks to Aids Life Cycle and Nest. Thanks to Jennifer Riate and The Key for their passion for food and beer. Thanks to all the wonderful (over 60) artists who participated.

Finally, Thanks to all of you for helping spread the word.

We here at SF Gallery 143 want to thank all of our supporters and enthusiasts for helping us grow in 2009 and following us over to North Beach for our collaboration with Local Patron.

www.sfgallery143.com

Don’t miss our last week of being open at our location and last chance sale. We are having a store wide sale for our full last week and  Closing Party January 10th.

*Closing Party Featuring DJ from Hiest, Dominique, and Brian Riate. Pastry Chef, Jennifer Riate, from acclaimed restaurant EOS will be featuring some of her favorite desserts for you to sample. 6pm-9pm

Where: 1418 Grant Street

When: January 2nd – January 10th

Hours: Monday – Wednesday 2pm-8pm Thursday -Sunday 12pm -8pm

What: Store wide Sale 10%-2o% from January 2nd – January 10th

May the new year bring you joy and happiness!

Over the past several years, we have operated seasonal shops in various locations around town selling locally created art, craft and design products. This year, we are coming together to open our best shop ever! SFGallery143 is merging with Local Patron to bring you the best Holiday Store yet.

Where: 1418 Grant Street @ Green

When: November18th 2009 – January 10th 2010

Hours: Monday – Saturday 11am-10pm; Sunday 11am-6pm

Events : …so far

November 20th:Opening Party Featuring DJ’ Danger Deluxxe, treats and drinks. 6pm-9pm 10% Sale

December 10th: Neighborhood Merchant Crawl 5pm-10pm we will be featuring treats from a local chocolatier.

December 18th: Nest Fundraiser, 10% of sales go to help this Non-Profit Organization. Nest helps woman get out of poverty by providing micro-loans to create their own small businesses and to become self-sufficient.

January 10th: Closing Party Featuring DJ from Hiest Dominique and Bryan Riate. Pastry Chef, Jennifer Riate, from acclaimed restaurant EOS will be featuring some of her favorite desserts for you to sample. 6pm-9pm 10% sale.

Check out one of San Francisco’s hottest designers has in store for you at SFGallery143.com. She has won battles through SF Fashion Feud, rocked numerous runways. We still remember LOVE SICK with all that scantly laced lingerie. Daryl Hannah has even had some one-on-one private lessons on sewing with Alexandria. Did we mention she has her own camp couture for girls?

Alexandria von Bromssen is featuring some of her more classic pieces for us online check it out! She will also be featuring more designs not seen online for our Holiday store in North Beach. Alexandria sews everything herself and is now doing a small production run of each item (maybe 5 are available of each) so be sure to come to the Holiday Store before her unique items are gone forever.

When does she have time to sleep??? psst…I hear it’s 4am these days. : )
Model: Kara Krauss featured in Alexandria’s Gold Cocktail Dress

Women of all Sizes Gorgeous

I am so happy a Fashion Magazine is finally stepping up and showing healthy, normal sized, beautiful women. In this video link Glamour Magazine shows us a spread of “plus” sized women in their spread. I am so happy this is becoming increasingly popular. I know this is stepping away from the fashion industry traditions on clothing sizes, but lets be honest: this is more realistic.

Numerous studies have shown that healthy women are MORE attractive to males than skinny women by an overwhelming majority. They also find that the skinnier women’s figure looks sickly. Read following link on bbc news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8327750.stm

It is a suprise  to me even today that women over the size of 6 (the vast majority of the population) is considered a PLUS size. I am a size 8 and have been told I look sexier than I did when I was size 6 and practically starving myself. I do not feel that I am a plus size. I do not have roles of fat, I have toned arms and abs but because of my wider hip structure fight to fit into anything smaller.

Trust me, I am still fighting with all that brain washing of my dance teachers and peers (mostly woman) to feel good about my size.  Yes, I do think some styles look better on skinnier women but there are styles for all body types, and if designers are wanting to sell their clothes to a normal population that want it, I think it is smart to market to bigger sizes or have more size options.

I watched a few runway videos on Karl Lagerfeld site. If you look closely, the clothes are actually a little big on the models. Take a look at Fall ‘09. The women’s skeletal figures are pretty obvious with the black pants.

Is this attractive to you?? I would love to hear your comments.

Attendance of 5,000! I don’t think so, but never-the-less it was fun. We were expecting to only get a half of a table and ended up with a full one. Yay! We were also told it was non vending….people did it anyway. Had I known we would have brought A LOT more stuff. You live you learn and in the process we still managed to get people interested. So here is to our first “exhibit” and some pictures of the other “exhibitors.”

Enjoy!