When visiting San Francisco, there are a few things you’re going to need: 1. a pair of shoes fit for walking up and down the city’s steep hills and busy streets; 2. a truly great hat to protect your hair from the wind and fog -- we’ll take hat-head over uncontrollable frizz any day; and, 3. a crossbody bag that can carry your stuff with style and won’t weigh you down. But we recommend saving space in your luggage and scooping up all of these items once you actually arrive in S.F.
In recent years, the city has upped its accessories game, and now some of its homegrown brands are going global with their designs. Take Cuyana: the small, S.F.-born company expanded to Los Angeles after testing the market with a successful pop-up shop, and it’s now trying its bags in Washington, D.C. with a pop-up there open through July 31. Angelina Jolie was even spotted sporting one of Cuyana’s chic carryalls at the airport (and if it’s good enough for Jolie’s travels, it’s good enough for ours). Too, there's Freda Salvador: the S.F. shoe company now retails on major sites like Shopbop, and opened a Los Angeles store at the hip new Platform shopping center just a few months ago. Pair those brands with long-established ones, like Goorin Bros., an S.F. hat company that has been in business for more than a century, and Timbuk2 which some credit with revolutionizing bike messenger style. A visit to Timbuk2’s Mission District digs even offers a chance to see how bags are made from scratch. Read on for the details of how to shop each brand, so you can outfit yourself from head to toe with pure S.F. style.
