Horseface for Modern Appealing Clothing. photo: Kenneth Fish
Life is good sometimes. Every once in a while you find yourself with free tickets to the symphony, decent parking in Hayes Valley and enough time to not only go to the symphony but also to stop in to M.A.C. (Modern Appealing Clothing), at 387 Grove Street, for a visit with one of the proprietors, Ben Ospital. If you're anything like me, this confluence of free symphony tickets, free time and an illuminating chat about fashion concepts and designer's visions and theories, makes for a perfect night out.
While being guided through the new collections from Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten and Dirk Van Saene at M.A.C., Ben gets an excited twinkle in his eye and tells me that he has a gift for me. This gift is a cotton canvas shoulder bag with fun, irreverent and somewhat racy graphics (*caution - artistic representation of male and female nudity) on it by San Francisco artist Mica Phelan AKA Horseface. The bag itself is a basic canvas re-usable shopper but the custom, for-M.A.C.-only graphics make it interesting and special.
As mentioned in a previous article about M.A.C.
[...] the folks at M.A.C. know how to do customer service. Once properly greeted by the massive French sheep herding dog you'll be welcomed by the staff and owners as if being welcomed into a friend's home. If you need help you get help. If you want to be left alone, they'll accommodate that, too. Questions will be answered thoughtfully and thoroughly and at no time will you feel pressured.
M.A.C. is as much a gallery as it is a store. You'll see things that beg your inspection and welcome your inquisitive nature."
When you feel like doing yourself a favor or if you are looking for a special, "signature" garment, M.A.C. is the place to find it.
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