Strolls in My Neighborhood in SF: Qoio in Noe Valley

This blog is not about technology. This is about one of my favorite stores in San Francisco. Period. I am not getting paid for doing this, I am not a marketer. Just writing a more meaningful note of my experience in my neighborhood.

I get so many complements about my necklace finds and about the presents given to friends, I had to let everyone know where they came from. Among all my gem design finds in US, probably 40% of them come from here, right in my neighborhood. Made by Gilbertina with her keen eye and creativity that spans materials including surgical wire. My other favorite place is in Turkey, specifically Antik Tugra at Ankara, which I will write about another time.

Austin discovered Gilbertina's designs several years ago (at least 7) when she had a small store in a basement, working from her store directly using a multitude of gemstones. He showed up with a necklace. I was hooked. I ended up with several of her unique pieces, purchased them for others as presents, introduced them to friends.

Although I learned how to make jewelry later on, my appreciation in her creativity as a result grew. The more you know, the more you appreciate how one approaches to the creative process. Furthermore, I got to know her, her attention to detail and her customers. Hence, the blog.

The Designs I owned over the years:

The Amber:

This piece got so many comments such that I had to include it here. People stopped me on the street to ask me where I got it from! It was a birthday present. For some reason, Austin got this after seeing the Flintstones on TV, but I already had an eye on this design. Viola, it showed up as a b-day present. Later on, Gilbertina showed me that it appeared in a magazine.

As a klutz I am, I broke couple of the pieces by putting a heavy object on it. Gilbertina not only replaced them for me, but also rewired it.

The Coral:

What I love about this piece is the silver rosettes and the way it complements clothing. It looks fabulous with very casual as well as very dressy clothes. Shown here with a T-shirt.

The Amethyst:

I had this necklace and everytime I wear it again, the questions arise. Where did you get it? Now, you know. This piece is a combination of many gems, one being the African jade.

When I was looking for earrings to complement it one day, Gilbertina made them for me during a lunch hour break I had. Simply like that. So, if you need a complementary piece to finish the look, just ask. You may even get it while you are shopping for other things in the neighborhood.

The flowers:

This design is created by using surgical wire. I love this design so much that I gave it as a present to others or my friends who went shopping with me got them. Here, a friend is wearing the necklace.

Check out the Yelp review online for more designs and reviews. As you can see here though, you do not need to be a model to carry the look of the jewelry, they just turn simple clothes like T-shirts into something special. If you missed the T-shirt discussion, see the previous blog on this very topic.

As far as the prices are concerned, it varies with the amount of gems, the complexity of the design as well as the exposure of the designs. See more below.

Where is it Qoio?

The search on Google will bring you to their Columbus street location as seen below. But this blog is about the Noe Valley location.

Qoio www.qoio.com 509 Columbus Ave San Francisco, CA 94133-2801 (415) 982-4438 Get directions 1 review - Write a review More information »

I recommend checking out the Noe Valley store where Gilbertina is most of the time. It is so delightful to talk to her and get her to explain you the designs, make suggestions, seeing her match her designs with your style, it is well worth the trip. Several of my friends went to the store with me after seeing what I wear and they like their new designs. Further, it gets you to walk and discover famous 24th street, a great neighborhood with many discovery opportunities.

In Noe Valley, Qoio is located on 24th Street as shown below:

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The store front has many designs but it is like an iceberg. The interior of the store is divided into logical categories based on color coordination. It is simply beautiful. Thus, you can find your corals, your onyx, etc in separate groups with complementing stones. Anyone who steps inside gets amazed. They carry a large number of African masks and artifacts from Indonesia. Make sure to check out the lucky Garuda which is unique. However, don't bother to ask its price. It, certainly, is not for sale. I tried...

If you are looking for a true bargain, sometimes Qoio's original small store which turned into an annex is open and sells designs for more than 50% off. You will find many bargains on that day when you catch it. The annex is also in Noe Valley, on 24th street right below Artsake.

Enjoy your walk in Noe Valley.

Style, Shopping Locally, Internet and the Economic Crisis

I am a technologist. However, this is not a blog about technology. Well, not so directly.

I also, hum, like fashion. You may wonder. Why hesitate to say?

In every tech presentation on user roles, there comes a presentation where there is an icon for the HR, the techie "guy" (yeah, do not start me on that one, it is a guy, but lets pass this for the time being), the senior exec, and the user.

Yep, you know where I am going. The techie guy is depicted with Birkenstocks and a T-Shirt. The HR wears high heels and a skirt. The exec is a suit. The user is equally divided in a virtual presentation.

I love my Birkies and my Ts, too, but somehow the label restricts the spirit. Not only the gender, my existence also defies the stereotype. There are other women like me out there.

Defying the convention and the conventional defines my style. In our grand illusion of sorts, one would want to believe that they are unique. They are not. They also seek out those who are like themselves or whose styles they like.

I am not a prolific shopper. I have a very acute sense of style, what works or not. I also get amazing amount of positive comments. Given that people tend to criticize more than giving praise, I concluded something must work. Lots of my friends always ask me where I got this and dat.

So, where do I shop? How do I shop? What is my philosophy?

Sometimes people are amazed to see that they came from very humble stores, but mostly near my neighborhood or the neighborhoods I visit. I live in San Francisco, and I occasionally travel as my roots are in a different country. People may be passing by the same road like me many times, but have not got into one of these places or let their mind wonder or get to know the shop owner, inquire about items, etc.

Putting pieces together is still fun. Just like constructing jewelery, writing some code, architecting a new solution. A lot of times it is not only the stones that make the piece, but who put it together and why and how they did it.

A lot of people shop from online catalog these days. Comparison price shopping apps are everywhere. Do I shop online? Sure I do. Yep, you can select a good outfit from Victoria's Secret anytime. Everything has its place. Apart from that, truth behold, my perspective to apparel shopping is not to look for item X online and compare prices, etc. You can do that for books, watches, airline tickets, sometimes shoes (yes, if you are looking for a Birkie in a certain style).

For apparel, and its variety of choices, it simply does not work all the time. Further, I am weary that my email is full of sales coupons, sales items, notifications, this and that. Too much. I almost need a soft spam filter for real businesses that I shopped before at this point.

I go back to my local neighborhood. Not everything is online. Not all experiences are online. Unique combinations are not online. Not everything that can be acquired online can provide you the sense of the style. Not all designers, brands are online. They may be in a different country. The pieces of a combination may be coming from different locations, different suppliers. If this was not true, women's magazines would also be in trouble, women will not go shopping with their friends anymore, they would not be talking about it anymore. Everything has its place.

Some people are thinking about cost and variety by now. I know.

• Not everything is about the price. If you are spending two hours on the internet for getting $10.99 difference in the price of an item instead of buying it in your local store the moment you saw it, you may have wasted, a lot of money. Cost is not only what you pay. Your time on the internet, the amount of connectivity you wasted, the sleep you sacrified at night (you are not doing comparison shopping while you are working, are u?) all have a cost. People are not good about quantifying them. One of the cost is the elapsed time in getting something. A lot of people utilize fast shipping options whereby increasing the actual cost of an item, as well. Shopper, be aware ☺

• Unfortunately, we, women, have very different bodies. It is unlike that we could order a 34 inch waist trouser and get into it. It aint work that way, even with catalogs online. Most of the time, when you get something online, you wait, you try, you discard, you sent back, or stick in the closet. Did you notice how Zappos made a lot of business, because you can send an item back free of charge. Of course, it is not completely free but they tried to take one aspect out of the equation: inconvenience. Still you lost time if something does not fit.

Instead you could have got some exercise, walk in the neighborhood and make your neighborhood a better place and discover something that may truly be different, try it out and buy it in place.

The economic crisis affected a lot of brick and mortar small stores, it has made the neighborhoods decline. Some stores in my affluent SF neighborhood closed. I fear that more are on the way. They are on the way in a lot of neighborhoods. Does this mean they do not bring any value and you can buy the same thing online? Hardly.

Local shops, especially those that are targeting unique, different items that cater to a particular esthetic can not be replaced by online experience. However, they can be helped and augmented by technology.

Technology can be used to help encouraging shopping locally for helping retaining the local economy. To execute what I preach, I decided to write a couple of articles about people, places and things I discovered over the years. Hope you will find my treasures acceptable. Hope you can see them yourself by going to these unique places. More to come.

Enjoy.