Garance Dore.

My new favorite blog for style inspiration/holiday phone call procrastination– a French Sartorialist, but with added gorgeous close-ups. And you get to brush up on your French! http://www.garancedore.fr/

Dear Santa.

I’ve had a crap-ass last couple months, as you probably know. All I want is to curl up in one of these unbelievably cozy cloaks/security blankets for grown-ups I’ve been seeing all over the downtown mags. Incidentally, they’re designed by someone I went to high school with so maybe she’ll, you know, throw you a discount or something. http://www.lindseythornburg.com/

Au revoir, Saint Laurent.

Gap takes a cue from Target, H&M, Brooks Brothers, etc.

ThreeAsFour for Gap?! Seriously? Haven’t been inside a Gap in years in but sign me up. And then, of course, there’s Rogan for Target for Barney’s. Will Gap be able to pull off watered-down edgy? Will Barney’s shoppers be interested in a product made for a discount mass retailer? Will be interesting to see how both these experiments in summer style play out.

Favorite Things Friday.

1. Tinderbox in Bernal Heights. Dinner consisted of the following: white shrimp and cheese grits with candied maple bacon in a vanilla-scented balsamic jus; crispy tofu noodle soup; char 2 ways (smoked and slow roasted and tartare on a cornbread blini); a bottle of Assyrtico from Santorini (“full-bodied with background notes of jalapeno and smoke”– definitely unique but a lot lighter and sweeter than it sounds) and the above pictured dark chocolate cake with molten blue cheese center. Oh and popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast, parsley, chives and butter to start. I fully plan to repent these sins another time.

2. School night poker parties!

3. Long, early-spring walks to nowhere listening to Radiolab podcasts. Also- the canopy of flowering trees on outer Folsom.

5 . The only real mail I get these days are Christmas cards and wedding invitations. This whimisical-chic YSL wallet makes me smile.

6. MGMT, “Oracular Spectacular.” Something’s (finally) astir in Brooklyn again.

7. Coffee Bar on Mariposa and Bryant. A cup of Kenyan blend and an almond croissant in the AM and a glass of their amazing South African white in the PM.

8. Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City and Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. Modern classics I finally got around to reading.

9. Coincidentally opposing color exhibits at MoMA (“Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today”) and the Met (“Jasper Johns: Gray”).

10. Pandora’s Zero 7, Guster and Rodrigo y Gabriela radio stations.

Helena Horstedt.

Swedish designer who only designs in deliciously detailed black. I like.

Gucci hearts NY. Good for Gucci.

To announce the opening of their new recession-be-damned 46,000 square foot 5th Avenue flagship, Gucci unveiled a line of products using the iconic (and copyrighted) I [Heart] NY logo including, yes, paper coffee cups to be given out by street vendors. Sigh…. I first saw this campaign over the weekend (on the back of a New Yorker no less, where it just looked so… wrong).

Really Gucci, really? I heart NY too but this makes my eyes bleed. From what I can gather, proceeds from all (big dubious eyebrow raise on “all”) products go to Playground Partners of the Central Park Conservancy, which is great, but still doesn’t excuse the awfulness of this collection.