30 November 2010

A First Look at All Saints San Francisco

I have been looking forward to the opening of AllSaints for a few reasons:
1. we didn't have one in SF
2. I love asymmetrical clothes, which they have plenty of
3. I wanted to try these items on, not just blindly order the smallest one online and hope it would fit my flat chested self (yeah... I know that's sad)
4. They clearly rip off a lot of avant garde $$$ designers (Rick Owens, Vivienne Westwood, Ann Demeulemeester, etc.). Not everyone can afford to buy those pieces!

I had not realized the shop opened around Halloween so imagine my surprise as I walked down Geary and spotted a store window chock full of vintage sewing machines and then seeing it was actually AllSaints! (I LOVE vintage machines btw). The store was closed at the time, so I vowed to return.

I returned... and I was overwhelmed to say the least. This store ranks up there with Forever 21 in terms of horrible store layout and overly cluttered merchandising. There's just so much stuff everywhere in a tight space that I didn't even want to browse that much! It was really a shame because I had been looking forward to it too! I was out of there in about 5 minutes. I will give it another try when I am well rested.

I was greeted by a couple employees, so service seems ok.

As far as the clothing goes, everything is in UK sizes (as expected) and everything was neatly folded and on the appropriate racks. I tried on an asymmetric leather jacket (maybe it was called the Lana?). The leather was soft, but somehow the cutting/sewing was not very good. One arm hole was clearly tighter than the other and the zipper had multiple "waves" when it was zipped up.

Yes, I know they are cheaper than the afore mentioned brands. But it is also not cheap. For those that are buying clothes here, I suggest to check the quality of its construction and try on multiple garments of the same size to ensure you get the best one.

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