Haight-Ashbury fashion trip

I'll bet you thought San Francisco is most famous for Rice-a-Roni. Nah. There's a lot more too it. So. Today's post is going to be about my exciting trip to
SF- not science fiction, or Rice-a-Roni, San Francisco
Hey, I finally went somewhere interesting.
Before the '60's, Haight-Ashbury was just any old neighborhood. During the '60's it became a sort of Mecca or Wailing Wall for the bohemian youth of the day. Now, the '60's are considered by some to have ended after Kent State, yet, many people still want to keep the groovy vibe alive. I'd always wanted to go to Haight-Ashbury but had never gotten the chance. Even though I'd been to LA quite a few times, San Francisco was too far away; LA is at the bottom of the state, and San Francisco is in the middle, and it's a big state. When the opportunity arose to visit Haight-Ashbury for a day or two, I jumped at it. I traveled with some friends via plane, and was fortunate to stay at a mutual friend's house, not far from the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.
I was prepared for the trip fashion-wise; you don't need to wear a particular style no matter where you go, but I wanted to have some of my best bohemian duds on hand.
We started off the brisk, late fall morning to fortify ourselves with a hot cup of Joe. After that, we drove around a bit, got to know the neighborhood. Since this blog is about fashion, I'm going to skip over the drive-around-a-bit and get straight to my fashion stops on the trip. The first store we visited was 'The Love of Ganesha'. It's one of the larger bohemian oriented stores in the neighborhood. I believe the name comes from the Hindu god Ganesh or Ganesha. During the '60's, many rock stars, like The Beatles, the Stones, and others made trips to India, and Indian musician Ravi Shankar played at the Monterey Pop Festival. Afterwards, many bohemians followed in their foot steps.
So. Here's some photos from our  first fashion stop on this particular trip, 'Love of Ganesha':

As you can see from the photos, they've got a little bit of everything. Lots of tie dyed and t-shirts. Found some stuff I'd never seen before. The prices are a wee bit expensive. A big part of bohemian fashion today is what could be described, I guess, as the Deadhead look; clothes that die hard fans of the rock group 'The Grateful Dead' would wear; for guys: usually a tie dyed t-shirt and jeans, for women: maybe a tie dyed blouse or tank with a tie dyed ruffled skirt, and low - no, flat - soled sandals. Maybe one of the bags you can see in one of these photos.
Here's a shot of what I wore, while inside the store:

I'm not sure how I'd describe this outfit, a little metalhead, some motohippy,  sort of bohemian. Anyway, starting at the top I'm wearing a fake leather hat; has a nice look to it. A pair of heart shaped sunglasses; these are a little different from the usual heart shaped sunglasses: the edges are straight, all the way around. Next, a fake silk/satin pussy bow blouse with lantern/balloon sleeves. The fake leather gloves have multicolored black/blue/red stripes and dots; a little mod, but, hey, mod is '60's too. For pants: a pair of very tight vinyl pants. The interesting fashion point about these is that, besides the multicolor racing stripes - you'll get another look at those in shots coming up very soon - they have an integrated belt; it's bolted to the rear of the pants and rides in the middle, not very practical, but functional fashion wise. Another interesting feature: they have a zip lock zip; I was worried they might pop open unexpectedly, but the zip lock holds fast. Lastly, a pair of vinyl thigh high boots, with big, partially metal -maybe metal coated, or something like that - heels. Interestingly, they have cutouts framed by either metal rings or crosses; the pattern looks sort of tick-tack toeish. Here's another look at the boots:

The next stop was here:

'Love Street Vintage'. These "vintage" stores are gaining in popularity, or at least, number, back home in Detroit. There are quite a few in Haight-Ashbury, and this one seemed to be fairly bohemian in nature. Of course, 'NastyGal' founder, and, from what I hear, San Francisco native, Sophia Amoruso sort of brought the whole vintage scene into recent prominence. Vintage clothes are basically used clothes, except they're more stylish than sweats and T's and used jeans - unless those are by a famous designer. And, usually, more expensive.
After checking out the vintage stuff it was time for lunch:

Now, I'd done the vegan burger thing back in Michigan, but I was very surprised to see the 'McDonald's'ish scope of 'Veganburg'. It's a pretty big place, and, I think it's a growing chain. It's menu is similar to fast food restaurants in that the sides are sold separately; I didn't see the combos like you'd get at other fast food places. One big diff: prices. Usually for these kind of prices, at a non fast food joint, you'd get the burger, and, the side. The burgers were pretty good, didn't taste like meat to me, but had their own unique flavor.
After lunch, we hit this place:

This bohemian oriented clothing store, 'P-Kok Planet' seems to be oriented towards the rave and night out aspect of bohemian attire. Besides that, it looks like, along with the "Deadhead" look, there are lots of other ways to dress hippyish. There's a little bit of something for every bohemian at this store. Little bit is also literal; it's a small store, and although it's jammed to the gills, they couldn't fit everything in there. I saw some stuff I'd seen before, and some new stuff as well. Price wise, it's expensive compared to shopping around online.
After that, we went to another bohemian clothing store:

There's a high concentration of stores of this ilk in the neighborhood. Maybe you'd think there'd be even more of them, but it looks like that's the way it is. This store, 'Love on Haight', specializes in tie-dyed. I found the prices to be expensive, how much? You ask? Well, some of the items I'd seen online for quite a bit less - talking not just half, like about one quarter the price. I wrote a review about the store on Google and got a response from the store's management that seemed a little terse. It was explained to me, which I had already found out all by myself, that many of the items they carry are manufactured by local artisans, so, that's why they're expensive. Still, uniqueness aside, they're a wee bit pricey. Also, I'm still unsure about the organization they donate money too. They say it's to provide housing to people but it looks like it has a lot of strings attached that makes me wonder.
Before moving on to our last stop on this time trip to the bohemian past, you might have noticed something different about my own clothes in the photo above. So. I've got on a fake velvet jacket with embroidery and vinyl collars and sleeves. Yep, that's real embroidery not painted on. The tapered/cone sleeves come in handy with those balloon sleeves on my blouse. Also, my purse. It has an Asian inspired design on it that I don't think looks at all out of place with the rest of the look; actually, rather complimentary. Also, now you can see both sides of the pants and the different colors of the racing stripes. The whole outfit wasn't especially pricey: about 10 bucks for the hat, two for the earrings, five for the sunglasses. The blouse was $10, the jacket, $20, the pants $25, and the boots the same price. The bag was just $12.
Ok, last stop on this fashion train:

It's another smallish clothing shop. 'Gypsy streetwear' is pretty much like 'P-Kok Planet'; it covers a lot of different bases. Still, it appeared to be carrying some items not found at the other stores. Prices can be tad on the expensive side. One good thing, it's nice to have a good look at the item up close and personal; my experience from buying stuff from AliExpress, Taobao, T-Mall, DhGate, and various online stores, is that the photos don't always tell the whole story, and, sometimes, what you see, is, not, what you get. Not saying all the time, just that you've got to be on your guard.
So. That was a fun trip. It was interesting to see how things have changed, not that I have an earlier upfront experience, just what I've seen in the media. Overall, it looks like the neighborhood is cashing in a little bit on its rep, though, it looks like, fashion wise, things are starting to expand.
I hope you enjoyed today's fashion adventure. There could be a little more like this coming up. Seems, right after visiting the Haight, I took a trip further North to Humboldt county. We visited a couple towns and stayed at a friend's small farm - not Maggie's farm. They grow these peculiar mushrooms there that have long stems and flared tops, and when you squeeze them, this white juice comes out. They've got a nice taste too, and are very filling. Anyway, can't say when that'll be here, but you can always count on this blog for more looks into the world of fashion.
Catchya later.
Ciao.