In San Francisco alone, guests in sparkly dresses mingle with others in fresh office attire or street looks at any time of day without anyone finding it strange.
This week, two events highlighted the city’s diverse spirit and fashion talent: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s annual Art Bash fundraiser and the Human Rights Foundation’s Artisan Fashion event at the de Young museum, with support from the Fashion Incubator. SanFrancisco.
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Wednesday’s SFMOMA event featured an eclectic mix of socialites, artists, moguls and corporate executives armed with cocktails, a healthy appreciation for art and looks ranging from high-end designers to streetwear, hoodies and sneakers.
In addition to the hubbub on the first floor, a sold-out VIP dinner was held on the second floor. At one table, Jeffrey Gibson’s Dior Lady Art project “I Can Do Whatever I Want” made a cameo, while others followed looks from Sanchez-Kane in Mexico to Alexander McQueen.
The meal was hosted by Gap Inc., which chairs the museum’s board of trustees. It started with a few words from its president, Bob Fisher. Dressed in Etro, Fisher had the difficult task of calming a particularly enthusiastic crowd.
“I do a lot of things at this museum, but apparently the thing I do best is make sure a crowd of 500 wonderful people who are so excited to be at Art Bash sit down and be quiet,” he joked. “The fact that it was so difficult to seat everyone is an indication of how happy people are to see each other…”
Those words resonate in a city still grappling with a hangover from COVID-19 and other pressures, including store closures and ongoing waves of tech layoffs in places like nearby Silicon Valley.
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the atmosphere was particularly lively.
“San Francisco has been very slow to emerge from the pandemic,” sociologist, author, and Art Bash regular Sarah Thornton told WWD. “Lately people have been feeling like things are kind of getting back to normal — obviously some things will maybe never go back to normal — but it felt like there were more people at dinner than ever before. “I felt bigger.”
To attend the event and celebrate her friend’s installation-featured work, Thornton wrote “Breasts Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us About Breasts.” He took a break from preparing for the release of his book. artist and filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien.
He adapted his 2010 work “Ten Thousand Waves” and his 2022 work “Sculptures Never Die” into installations created specifically for Art Bash. Other performers included Chelsea Ryoko Wong, who produced the pop-up activation “Many Moons I’ve Dreamed of You,” with music provided by Lower Grand Radio’s DJ Alex Shen, and famed photographer Richard Misrach, whose “Solo to Symphony” featured music from Lower Grand Radio’s DJ Alex Shen. The activation featured performances by acclaimed Alonzo King Lines Ballet dancers.
Art Bash is not a singular event, but a series of experiences, including art-focused rooms and party vibes courtesy of rapper Tierra Whack, DJ Sazon Libre, and others. VIP guests moved from eating short ribs and bidding in a simultaneous auction to a private after-dinner lounge.
Valentino once again sponsored the event along with Christie’s, AT&T, Bloomberg and Bank of America. According to Fisher, the museum has raised $3 million from ticket sales, sponsorships and donations, not including the auction.
The next night, across town at Golden Gate Park, one of the city’s fine arts museums, de Young hosted a very different event. This event was more of an intimate meeting organized by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) with the support of Fashion Incubator San Francisco (FiSF).
Thursday’s theme, Artisan Fashion, invited guests to examine 100 years of designer looks and design in the city through the museum’s “Fashioning San Francisco” exhibit.
The program looked not just back, but forward, too, thanks to Snapchat-powered reality powering physical mirrors that allowed visitors to virtually try on looks from celebrities ranging from Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino to Kaisik Wong. This experience, valid until August 11, marks the first time Snap Inc.’s AR technology has been featured in a museum.
Moving a little further, guests found themselves at a cocktail party with appetizers, wine and beer on one side, and tables featuring designer-led brands incubated by FiSF, like DiarraBlu, on the other.
Addressing the crowd, FiSF board president Jeanine Barnett Silberblatt explained that the organization not only helped organize this party, but also partnered with the Human Rights Foundation and its “Wear Your Values” program. Ethical issues in fashion production.
The group has always adopted supporting local design talent as its main mission. But “while our designers live here in the Bay Area, they increasingly have a global presence thanks to advances in technology,” he said.
FiSF has noticed that its groups are increasingly committed to supporting their hometown communities; This inspired the group to open up and unite its community with IHÖ.
“Why would a human rights organization be interested in fashion, let alone devoting its entire program to fashion?” said Michelle Gulino, HRF’s director of legal and programs. “Because behind this world of beauty, glamour, and creativity, there is another world where millions of people work tirelessly, essentially, in the hands of slave masters.”
He added that the HRF is concerned about the links between fashion and global human rights violations. This led the foundation to create Wear Your Values in 2017 to focus on issues from environmentally responsible sourcing and production to eliminating forced labor such as that imposed on the persecuted Uyghur people in China.
Claudia Bennett, director of Wear Your Values, said these were the “hidden social costs” of the fashion industry.
The group is working on a new database to give shoppers an easy way to find and support ethical brands. It hopes to make it available next year.
“Fashion is a form of storytelling, a form of expression, and the reason we are all here today is because it can be a form of activism,” Bennett said on stage. said.
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