The Milk Look 

Taking sartorial cues from '70s Castro

Inspired by sean penn's performance in gus van sant's film milk, I made my maiden voyage to San Francisco. The city has long been synonymous with saucy drag queen attire and hard-core Folsom Street leather gear, but the film's costume designer, Danny Glicker, hit a home run by faithfully capturing the more pedestrian side of 1970s Frisco fashion, with well-supported flared jeans, tight graphic tees, a liberal dose of leisure suits, printed rayon shirts and wide ties, and oversize eyewear that would be at home on any Olsen twin's brow. The Milk look, readily available at many of the thrift and vintage stores (around the city but especially in the Mission district), feels fresh and a welcome respite from the endless '80s replays of skinny jeans and ironic haircuts. For era-appropriate eyewear check out

Allyn Scura Eyewear (AllynScura.com), which carries more than 50,000 vintage models. This month the company sets up shop at the San Francisco Vintage Fashion Expo at the Masonic Center in Nob Hill (and in Pasadena, Calif., at the Rose Bowl Flea Market). Idol Vintage (3162 16th St.) carries a good selection of poly suits and old used denim. What better souvenir to take home from San Francisco than a pair of vintage denim cutoffs that just may have sashayed through the Castro when Harvey Milk was planning to change the world?

Web ThreadsSocial networking websites most often rely on lists of hobbies and interests and standard mug-shot photos (or photos of other physical features) to link members with each other. ILikeMyStyle.net, a new site launched by journalist Adriano Sack and art director Judith Banham, makes personal style the primary point of connection. Users post pictures of themselves in various ensembles along with fashion credits, and visitors comment and rate each other's looks. The interaction offers the fashion-savvy a revealing and novel way to check each other out and to even, perhaps, flirt. It's refreshing to find a site where you're expected to compliment others only on their clothing.

Insider Style: Felix BurrichterFelix Burrichter rarely meets a blouson he doesn't like. A trained architect and the creative director and editor of the New York-based architectural entertainment magazine Pin-Up (PinUpMagazine.org), Burrichter confesses to owning variations on the Baracuta (a light jacket with an elastic waistband made popular in the '80s by Members Only) in leather, cashmere, cotton, nylon, and polyester. His favorite is a piece by the Paris-based American designer Rick Owens. Burrichter pairs the jackets with jeans or pleated casual pants (he prefers Dockers) and either a navy blue or gray V-neck sweater--of which he owns nearly 30. When it comes to footwear he's equally specific: either white sneakers or black leather loafers. "Uniforms are super easy," he says, with a connoisseur's appreciation of nuance. "It's camp conservatism -- a very librarian look."