Francesca Bay

San Francisco women are typically early adopters of online trends, the latest of which is collaborative consumption—they loan it, you borrow it, and return it no strings attached. The idea of a no-waste fashion philosophy speaks volumes to a city that is one of the greenest in the world. So when "Luxury on Loan" Pop-Up  Armarium  founders Alexandra Lind Rose and Trisha Gregory showed up last week with a stunning array of gowns, San Francisco took notice. The new de Gournay showroom on Sacramento Street was a fairy tale location for the high glamour event. This magical pop-up was the brainchild of Allison Speer who is San Francisco's fairy godmother of all things artistic and luxurious. If you judge a city by its offerings in the arts alone, you can thank Allison for helping to build and cultivate our world class museums, oh! and our world class shopping. During the pop-up many women had the opportunity to discover first hand how Alexandra and Trisha a...

The idea for a blog about women in San Francisco came from my days as a ghostwriter for Silicon Valley women executives. I wasn't entirely sure what the marketing guy was talking about when he said he needed a "ghostwriter for a woman." As a former newspaper editor and journalist, I had interviewed many women. There was the "Money Goddess" who rolled around naked on her bed in newly minted dollar bills hoping to attract the "Money God," and there was the young socialite living in a posh beach house who was determined to undermine herself at every turn by saying things such as, "And then my husband sold his company and we were no longer Mr. and Mrs. Schmoe!" Ghostwriting I soon learned was different. I got this general assignment: "We need sexy stories. Can you do it? The pay is $175 an hour." Me: "Yes I can." A very popular word at the time in marketing and public relations was "sexy." It did not have anyt...