What to Wear in San Francisco: A Look at Style in the Different Districts
What’s so unique about San Francisco are the different ‘districts’ (as we locals call the different neighborhoods in SF), ranging from SOMA (South of Market), Marina, Pacific Heights, Haight, Mission, Financial District, Noe Valley and more. Within these districts, each has its own distinctive fashion.
It’s really hard to describe San Francisco fashion as a whole, which led me to take a snapshot of some of the fashion styles in a few different districts. Each of the districts is actually defined by different styles. What I love about SF and its fashion is that people combine fashion with creativity and their own unique style, which makes the fashion scene here very diverse.
SOMA, also known as South of Market, it is a diverse district of warehouses, brick buildings and lofts, nightclubs, art spaces, furniture and art showrooms, and technology companies. It’s a young professional demographic, and you can find tech/start-up chic hipsters sipping their coffee on their iPad every morning at ‘South Park’, a small park in SOMA with a lot of urban character.
The Financial District, also known as “FiDi”, it serves as the main central business district of San Francisco. If you’re traveling to SF for business, you’ll most likely have meetings in this area or at least stay here, as it’s very central to several company headquarters. A cluster of high-rise buildings marks the area near North Beach, Union Square (read: shopping!), and the Embarcadero. While SF tends to be more casual in nature (compared to New York City areas, for example), this is the only district in SF where most of the men will be in suits and it will attract women in the business.
the marina it is a very picturesque district adjacent to the municipal marina and bordering Fort Mason, the Palace of Fine Arts and Marina Green. La Marina is “famous” for its demographic of young urban professionals in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties and is an affluent neighborhood. Fashion in this district is more trendy: you will see many Louis Vuitton on the streets.
As a resident of this great city for over five years, here are my top tips:
* Always have a scarf – it’s true that we wear scarves here 320 days a year.
* Wear flat shoes – you will be doing a lot of walking in SF.
* Layers, layers, layers.
* Shoulder bag. Very handy for SF in a city full of iPhones, travel junkies and more.
* A black jacket. What I love about SF is that it’s a very ‘casual chic’ city, which means your black blazer is the perfect balance for work and SF happy hour.
what to pack
Here’s a look at the fashion trends bringing style culture to each unique district:
SOMA – Casual chic meets hipster
Financial District: Smart and Stylish Work
Navy – chic fashion
local climate
San Francisco’s climate can only be described as mild and stable each season. Summer, for example, maintains an average high of 70 degrees F from June to October and an average low of 53 degrees F. However, when fall arrives, temperatures drop from October to April from a high of 60 degrees to a low 40 minimum. However, you can be sure that regardless of the season, you’ll need to do some clever and clever layering. Although annual weather patterns are consistent, each day there can be a fluctuation in temperature that will have you grabbing your scarf in the morning and seeking shade in the afternoon.
Rain is rare during the summer, which makes San Fran a great place to visit. The rest of the year sees 3 to 4 inches per month for a total of only 63 days of rain per year.
online resources
* San Francisco Independent Fashion
* The SF-style
Shopping and Designers
* Jeremy’s Department Store
* Ambient