Gift List #5: Where to shop for the holidaysTo help with the holiday hullaballoo, the SFBG staff is revealing -- at last! -- its secret shopping secrets, to perhaps give you some gift inspiration. In this installment: Culture Editor Molly Freedenberg’s gift-giving delights. Previously, Amanda Witherell, Kimberly Chun, Dulcinea Gonzalez and Marke B. shared their faves.
Check out more suggestions in our ginormous 2008 Holiday Guide -- and enter our contest to win $500 in gift certificates if you spend $100 locally. Wowza.
RAG: Curator Blakely Bass outside the Hayes Valley store
Residents Apparel Gallery (RAG)
When I was a kid, my uncle lived in Eugene, Oregon, a place known to be significantly more artsy, creative, and hip than my suburban hometown. Therefore we always got – and expected – appropriately cool, unique, can’t-get-‘em-at-the-mall gifts from him. Now that I live in SF, I feel it’s my duty to represent what my city has to offer the same way my uncle used to do for Eugene. RAG is one of my favorite places for this kind of shopping. The showcases unique and imaginative clothing and accessories made only by local designers. So from screen-printed T-shirts (for men and women) to whimsical caps, and from hand-crocheted gloves to hand-stitched skirts, I can always find something delightful, one-of-a-kind, and sooo San Francisco.
541 Octavia. (415) 621-7718, www.ragsf.com
Trunk
In the same vein as RAG but with an even funkier style, Trunk also sells work by some of San Francisco’s most imaginative fashion artists, including the fabulously talented Miranda Caroligne, author of Reconstructing Clothes for Dummies.
544 Haight. (415) 861-5310, www.trunksf.com
Five & Diamond
The clothing, jewelry, bags, and accessories here aren’t cheap, but they’re worth every pretty (deconstructed/steampunk/vaudeville) penny. I’ve found Industrial Revolution-inspired rings for Grandpa, soft arm covers for Mom, and leather hip bags for my rocker sis. Plus, they’re having a big ol’ sale at their 16th Street loft this weekend (Info here.)
510 Valencia. (415) 255-9747, www.fiveanddiamond.com
Flax Art and Design
My mom has been looking for plain black wrapping paper for four years. Where did I finally find it? Flax. It’s also a great place for wacky stocking stuffers, photo albums and journals, and all the supplies and doo-dads you need to make crafty gifts.
1699 Market. (415) 552-2355, www.flaxart.com
Therapy
If there are any holes in your gift list, you can surely fill ‘em here. Cards, hats, gloves, jewelry, tchotchkes, home decor, joke gifts … you name it, Therapy carries it – and the Mission District favorite is open Christmas Eve.
541 Valencia. (415) 621-5902, www.shopattherapy.com
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