Credit: Helen Green via Kottke
National
· Mapping Abercrombie & Fitch's painstaking reinvention [Racked]
· Long skirts, designer shirts: modest fashion has hit the mainstream [Racked]
· People marrying at Starbucks nows [The Cut]
· All of David Bowie's hairstyles, illustrated [Kottke]
· Charting the rise and fall of nail art [Marie Claire]
· Celeb hairstylist Oscar Blandi loves racing motorcycles [WSJ]
· Former Prince Harry gf Cressida Bonas models for Mulberry [Fashionista]
· Jackie Kennedy's personal notes to designers to be auctioned off [AP]
· West Elm 'Made in Brooklyn' line not made in Brooklyn [Racked NY]

Loading comment form...

Photo via
Audrey Cooper is the new editor in chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Hearst Corporation announced on Tuesday. Cooper is the first woman to helm the publication. She previously served as managing editor of the paper, and acting editor after her predecessor, Ward Bushee, retired in 2013. The new editrix rocked an all-black look for her first day on the job, along with the super-popular shoulder-length bob.
· Audrey Cooper named editor in chief of The Chronicle [SFGate]
· San Francisco Chronicle Names Cooper Editor in Chief [WWD]

Loading comment form...

Photo via Kiton
Papered windows never lie, and the ones at 227 Grant Avenue are no exception. So when they say that Kiton will soon move into the space formerly occupied by Kate Spade, there's really no arguing. Soon all the Italian handmade goodness will be at our fingertips (although, perhaps not within our wallets' reach). The store is still a few weeks away from completion with a tentative open date set for March 2015. Until then, take stock of just how many $6,000 suits your budget can handle this year. If the answer is more than zero, you're doing pretty well.
· Kiton [Official Site]
· Kiton Is Bringing Its Italian Luxe Goodness to SF [Racked SF]

Loading comment form...

Photos via Betabrand
You have to give Betabrand credit for the genius that is the Think Tank platform. The often wacky campaigns that find their way to the voting page are good for a laugh, which is consistent with the brand in general. After all, a company that gains notoriety for its DiscoLab and heralds the holidays with nauseating Christmas pants can't take itself too seriously. Now, we have the latest Internet sensation to emerge from the SF-based biz: The Poo Emoji Button Up Shirt.

After successfully launching poo emoji sneakers last fall, the company's back with a whimsical, short-sleeve, poop-printed shirt, (regularly $88, pre-order for $79.20). Betabrand has already received the requisite number of pre-orders for production, and will start shipping the shirt in March. In just a couple of months, you could be sitting across from someone wearing a poop shirt in a meeting.

Loading comment form...

Photo by Erik Tomasson via SF Ballet Blog

Yuan Yuan Tan is one of the longest standing dancing members of the San Francisco Ballet. The Shanghai native joined the company in 1995 as a soloist and quickly established herself as a principal dancer. Now going on twenty years in her adopted city of San Francisco, Yuan Yuan divulges her favorite haunts to Haute Living.

Loading comment form...

Photo via ModCloth/Facebook
In separate efforts to save sales from slumping, two ecommerce brands with SF roots have announced leadership changes this week. ModCloth's co-founder Eric Koger and Nasty Gal's founder Sophia Amoruso are stepping down to make way for seasoned retail veterans to hopefully usher the two sites into new growth markets. Matthew Kaness (who spent seven years at Urban Outfitters) will take the reins at Modcloth, which currently has offices in San Francisco, LA, and Pittsburgh. Sheree Waterson (a Levi's and Lululemon alum) will be the new #GIRLBOSS at Nasty Gal. (Now based in LA, Amoruso started the business as an eBay store in SF.)

The changes come on the heels of both companies going through major layoffs. Is it too little, too late for the two brands? The retro/vintage trend has faded while more shopping sources have joined the mix, but both can —hopefully— count on the loyalty of their existing customers. Let's see if the new CEOs put their respective companies back on the growth track.
· Nasty Gal #GIRLBOSS Sophia Amoruso Steps Down as CEO [Racked]
· ModCloth Co-Founder Eric Koger Exits Role As CEO; Urban Outfitters' Matthew Kaness Joins [TechCrunch]
· ModCloth Is Encouraging Fans to Take Selfies [Racked SF]

Loading comment form...

Susan of San Francisco. Photo: Patricia Chang for Racked
Welcome to the Racked 38, our seasonal list of the essential stores in San Francisco. Consider it a rough —though non-exhaustive— guide to the local shops worth browsing. Every few months, we give this roundup a few nips and tucks to adjust for stores that have closed and make room for spots that should be on your radar. That's not to say that we don't continue to love the stores that we've removed. They'll always hold a special place in our hearts. It's just that change can be good. With that in mind, we bid adieu to seven stores on the list this season to add both newcomers, (Ampersand and Rebecca Minkoff), San Francisco classics (Susan and Wilkes Bashford), and a few sentimental favorites (Two Skirts, Timbuk2, and Curator) that deserve a chance to shine.

As always, this list isn't a ranking— stores are organized in vaguely geographic clusters. Have suggestions? Is your favorite shop missing? Or do you think one of our picks is way off? We'll update the list again, and we're always looking for reader input. State your case for (or against) stores in the comments or email the tipline.

Loading comment form...

Image via.
National
· What the fashion industry should learn from 'Je Suis Charlie' [Racked]
· Learning to love being five feet tall [Racked]
· Style.com declares that John Galliano is back [Style.com]
· Who is really using fitness trackers? [Forbes]
· instagram is the fastest-growing social network [Re/Code]
· Kate Moss supported Galliano at his Margiela show debut [DailyMaily]
· What Men's Fashion Month is all about [Bloomberg]
· Lululemon's selling $108 meditation beads [Jezebel]
· Where Google Glass could actually prove useful [Fast Company]

Loading comment form...

Welcome to Curbed Cuts, where Curbed SF editor Lamar Anderson shares the best real estate and neighborhood news.

Photo via Patricia Chang
HAYES VALLEY—Here's how one SF renter turned her walk-in closet into the world's smallest one-bedroom. Hint: It involves a custom mattress.

SAN FRANCISCO—Here now, six renting laws your landlord probably doesn't want you to know about.

SoMa—We couldn't wait for the Salesforce Tower to be constructed to check out the view from the top, so we flew a drone up there to scope it out.

Loading comment form...

Photo via Bonobos/Facebook
Bonobos is returning to its home turf with a Guideshop in Silicon Valley. The brick-and-mortar location will open next Thursday, January 22nd, at Santana Row, a few miles south of the brand's original headquarters in Palo Alto. Once open, shoppers will be able to try on current collections from Bonobos before purchasing, and seek help from skilled Bonobos Guides to avoid any wardrobe snafus.

Loading comment form...

Photo: Beneduci Shoemakers
San Francisco has its well-known shopping corridors —Union Square, Fillmore, Valencia, Chestnut, and Sacramento— but those aren't the only places you can find a great pair of shoes. Over in the La Lengua Autonomous Zone, (that parcel of land between the Mission and Bernal), there's a new custom boot shop. Beneduci Shoemakers, which you may have spotted at one of the city's Urban Air Markets, now has a boot workshop and store at the corner of San Jose and 30th, Bernalwood reports.

Prices (online, at least) range between $275 and $925. The shop is open by appointment Tuesday and Wednesday, (email frank@frankbeneduci.com or call 415-742-0005 to schedule a time). Regular store hours are Thursday through Saturday 11-7pm. The store is closed Sunday and Monday. Stop by, say hello, and get a pair of boots that will last a lifetime.
· Fancy Boot Workshop and Store Opens in La Lengua [Bernalwood]
· Where to Buy Boots in San Francisco [Racked]

Loading comment form...

Photo via Lumoid/Instagram
The last couple of years have brought an explosion of wearable tech items to the market. But with more options come more chances of selecting the wrong item for your lifestyle and needs. Thankfully, there's a new service from Lumoid that will save you from choosing unwisely by giving you access to a library of wearables to try before you buy. At today's launch, there's already an extensive selection in three categories of sleep tracking devices, fitness devices, and stay connected devices.

Loading comment form...

Courtesy photo
The Nob Hill Spa inside the Scarlet Huntington is a perennial pick on every best-spas-in-San-Francisco list. Sleek facilities. Jaw-dropping views. What's not to love? When you want a day of luxe pampering, this will always be a contender. Luxury, however, doesn't come cheap. So if your credit card limit is the only thing coming between you and one of the Nob Hill Spa's signature treatments, you'l be delighted to hear that the spa is turning back the hands of (pricing) time for one day only.

Loading comment form...

Photo via Patagonia
The fashion industry downplays the local tech scene's contribution to fashion trends, but the Bay Are's laid-back style is decidedly influential in the rise of normcore. "The captains of industry [in San Francisco] aren't wearing suits," menswear designer Patrik Ervell tells Lauren Sherman and the WSJ. "They're wearing fleeces half the time." The designer then used this inspiration to make his own version of the classic Patagonia fleece from "high-pile Schulte mohair, a material often used to make teddy bears," the publication reports.

Patrik Ervell isn't the only designer riffing off the Patagonia trend. Altuzarra, Louis Vuitton, and Baja East are just a few more brands with their own iterations—the latter's is made of French terry and lambskin and retails for $2,795. Lauren goes on to detail how she and others style their own NYC looks with their Patagonia outerwear. It may be a stretch to say that SF started the Patagonia trend when most of us remember wearing fleeces—whether Patagonia, Columbia, or North Face—in high school on both coasts, but the humble jacket's ascent to fashion staple surely owes some credit to the startup guy's no-fuss closet. So let's just mark this one down as a win for local fashion.
· Why Fashion Insiders Are Buzzing About Patagonia [The Wall Street Journal]
· Betabrand Makes Silicon Valley Style a Thing [Racked SF]

Loading comment form...

Image: Yves Saint Laurent
Jessica Chastain is having a moment. A lot of moments, actually. (And we're not just talking about that bronze Versace she wore to the Golden Globes last night.) After winning international attention in 2011's The Tree of Life, it seems that the actress can't make it through an award season without being nominated for something everything. So here we are again, watching her wear beautiful outfits; waiting to hear her name called from the podium. But before the Versace gowns, before the Yves Saint Laurent campaigns, Jessica —who got her start in plays in San Francisco— was a corpse on TV. "I was literally just lying there on the street in San Francisco in the cold and the rain. Six months later they brought me back to lie in the street again, but even then I never thought, I need to do a different job. I was still so excited about it,'" she tells The Telegraph.

Suddenly, the work conditions at your startup don't seem so bad, right?
· Jessica Chastain interview: 'If I get a role it's because I fought for it' [The Telegraph]
· Golden Globes 2015: Red Carpet Feats and Flops [Racked]

Loading comment form...