Soignee by the Bay
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| Vivian and Marian Brown, San Francisco |
There is a misconception that you need a lot of cash to look good—the older you get, the more cash you need. Nothing of the sort. You need know-how and a sense of self. The women of Paris know how to tie a scarf seventeen ways. They start their style from their cheekbones. They know when to wear and when not to wear their grandmother’s brooch. They know how to wring Hollywood art out of a drugstore lipstick.
Artistry, then, is the operative word for the women of Paris—artistry that accentuates depth.
Here in the city by the Bay, along with knowhow and sense of self—those two most important rewards of maturity—another important element is added: a sense of fun. Conformity like a dank fog may be settling here like everywhere else in the country, but San Francisco is still a city of eccentrics. There’s no dressing to minimize flaws here. You can wear red with purple and nobody bats an eye, as long as you really do mean to wear red with purple.
Of course, it’s easier to be beautiful if you live in a beautiful city because you just gosh darn feel beautiful living there. Show me the Lutheran women of Minneapolis who keep their looks as well and I’ll eat my fedora.