August, 2013:

One of our primary reasons for heading west recently was to attend the wedding of some wonderful friends in San Francisco – thanks to marriage equality there, everyone in California is able to celebrate their union and journey together. It was touching to see these two making a commitment to each other in front of friends and family (and I think the event has my McBee on his way to Harry Winston to pick out a black diamond eternity band!).

We did have an excellent time before the wedding exploring a bit of San Francisco. McBee was anxious to see the San Francisco Maritime Museum, but sadly there were not many yachts or ocean liners on display. We were both inspired, however, by the architecture of this Art Deco masterpiece.

Afterward, the incomparable Philip Bewley (our go-to advisor for all things sublime) had us lunching at Burma Superstar. It’s a low key eatery with the most delicious Asian/Burmese cuisine – let me just say we’ll be dining there again on out next trip to San Francisco.

Then en route to the wedding we made an obligatory stop at the Palace of Fine Arts. Designed by Bernard Maybeck to host the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition (celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal), the Palace of Fine Arts is a sight to behold and houses spectacular art from Renaissance to Modern. Maybeck’s fantastic creation, inspired by a Piranesi engraving, also features a Roman ruin and reflecting pool. According to Maybeck, his ruin existed not for its own sake but more as a grand scale memento mori to convey “…the mortality of grandeur and the vanity of human wishes.” Like other features of the fair, the Palace was intended to be demolished at the close of the fair, but luckily the Palace lived on, saved from from the wrecking ball by the Palace Preservation League, founded by Phoebe Apperson Hearst while the fair was still in progress. In 1964 a badly deteriorating rotunda and colonnade were demolished and rebuilt in more permanent materials via the generosity and vision of philanthropist Walter S. Johnson. Needless to say it’s a breathtakingly beautiful site indeed – do go in the late afternoon for the loveliest light.

In this image I am referencing a photo of the sensational San Francisco socialite Dolly Fritz by Slim Aarons sporting a marvelous mix of grays and pinks to celebrate the wedding of our friends. I’m wearing a Tom Ford jacket in grey linen, silk and hemp, dove grey silk pants, pink cotton checked shirt with French cuffs and white suede with saddle leather cap toe lace up shoes, Charvet mauve silk bow tie and pink silk pocket square, antique moon stone cuff links, Rolex watch and my fragrance is Creed Windsor.