he poolside chaise longue on our front cover is beckoning, and yet we still have a lot of important business to complete before closing the curtains on what most would agree was a pretty weird year! 2022 seems like it’s been neither here nor there. No, we weren’t locked down, but we weren’t all back at work, and maybe. I accidentally visited a few Apple stores, including the gorgeously minimal one near Apple headquarters in Cupertino. I went to Palo Alto, which is eerily perfect, with cinematic streets and perfect facades. I had dinner at the top of Kelly Wearstler’s The Proper in downtown San Francisco where everything is hip and breezy and belies the serious social issues playing out on the streets below. I also walked the Golden Gate Bridge and spent a fabulous afternoon at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where an extensive Diego Rivera exhibition was the headline. I had dinner at a great restaurant in the financial district called Cotogna, and I am sure, and at least I am going to continue to think, that we sat next to design legend Jony Ive. And there were many other highlights, like the enormity of the plant section at Home Depot, the (what I thought was) out-of-the-way location of The RealReal store in Larkspur, which is clearly a very affluent area. I also had a great wander around the new Coco Republic flagship store in downtown San Francisco, which is impressive. It was great to see Australian style so beautifully showcased. I also spied a copy of Greg Natale’s new book on the table in a lovely interior design store called Sue Fisher King, so Australian style is everywhere.
