The Joy Of Local Boutiques, And A San Francisco Designer

I found my standalone top. Or, shall we say, a standalone top. Now that I've found one I realize I may need a few more. So useful for a life lived in jeans, when no jacket is required but one has too much midlife stomach to set free upon an unsuspecting world.

What's more, it's sourced, as Faux Fuchsia might say, from a local boutique. Not my midlife stomach, mind you, I found that on the highway of life. Or it found me. We don't know. The top I sourced here.

M A C stands in this case for Modern Appealing Clothing. The boutique, in the neighborhood known as Hayes Valley, has been around for a couple of decades. They don't have a website that I can find, but here they are on Yelp. They also recently won Best Men's Clothing from SFGate, so if you've got a stylish guy in your life, bring him here and make him happy.

It's run by a brother and sister. They are helpful in a quirky, diffident until you're interested, committed once you care, kind of way. Rather like shopping in your hip friends' living room.

Your hip friends who collect terrariums, grow orchids, and just happen to hang Mr. van Noten around their living room in support of abstract expressionism.

I had been brought to M AC by Googling Dries van Noten+San Francisco. A big sale was underway. However, admirable though the Drieses Pieces were, none looked good on me.

The blouse I did buy is made by a local designer, of a toothsome cotton/silk blend. The sailor silhouette was just visible enough for whimsy, but not so pronounced as to suggest Pierrot. I am not looking to remind anyone of a sad clown.

You can see the weave and pattern close-up. It's subtler than you might expect, given all those rather large circles. You can't see the round, brown, semi-translucent plastic buttons, but they are there, and convey the requisite mid-century edge.

Here's the cheerful label. DEMA has a boutique too, and a blog.

Dries, even on serious sale, put me in the $400 range. This cost ~$150. What's more, when the medium proved too big, and the length of the blouse too short, M A C made alterations for free. I wore my new sailor friend for the first time with my old Chanel jacket,

because sometimes standalone tops don't have to. It was a fun surprise, putting these two together. The best purchases sometimes show their stuff for real once you get them home.