Tag Archives: grey suit

Mission Dolores

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My last stop on this trip to San Francisco was Mission Dolores.  It was on our way back to the airport, and so Patrick and I met up to visit the location together.

In Vertigo, Madeleine leaves the flower shop for the mission, and Scottie follows.  She enters through a side door, goes through the chapel and into the cemetery where she stands over a grave, one which we later discover is marked as Carlotta Valdes.

Today, Mission Dolores is maintained as museum (actually, the door which Madeleine enters through is the very one visitors now enter through), and you can stroll through the chapel and the cemetery.  Although over the decades, the cemetery has changed greatly.  In Vertigo, it is much more lush, with walkways edged in neatly trimmed hedges, and other vegetation making it appear almost oasis like.  Throughout the Mission’s history, the cemetery had to be reconfigured and some graves moved.  Footsteps in the Fog notes that the Carlotta Valdes headstone, created for the film, remained as a popular tourist attraction, but has since been removed, deemed not authentic enough to remain in such a sacred place.

I love Missions and cemeteries in themselves, so I enjoyed the stroll through the area, in my grey suit of course…

View my entry on other Vertigo locations here.

Well, that wraps it up for my San Francisco trip!

“But You Said Grey, Sir.”

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If you’ve been following me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, then you will have fallen victim to my endless ramblings about my daunting search for The Grey Suit from Vertigo for my upcoming trip to San Francisco.  Yes, I am that much of a film geek that I feel that I simply cannot go to San Francisco without the grey suit!

I searched Portland high and low and visited many shops I don’t often go into (for reasons mentioned in my stagecoach skirt post).  Sure, I found a grey suit here or a grey jacket there, but they were not it.  I had friends posting links to Etsy and Ebay listings, and all I could respond with was “No. That’s not it.”  I felt like Scottie in the film when he is attempting to buy the suit for Judy in the salon…a model glides across the salon floor,  Scottie says, “No. That’s not it.  Nothing like it.” The shop girl says “But you said grey, sir.” and Scottie responds with my same exact feelings, “Now look, I just want an ordinary grey suit!”  I had been finding daintily accented suits with cord detailing, or adorable bows, but nothing simple and plain enough.  Just like Scottie said before the shop girl remembered the suit, “No, no.  None of them are right.”  Finally, with a mere two days left I stumbled upon the closest I’d found at Bombshell Vintage.  And while I feel like I settled a bit (don’t get me wrong, it’s a fabulous suit in itself!), I knew I may not find another suit as close as this one, or if I did it would be some horrendously high price.

Then came the blouse troubles…when Scottie follows Madeleine she is wearing the grey suit with a wrap blouse under.  I have yet to find one of these, however I did have a Dickie pattern that would work just perfectly.  So, I was off to my second home; Fabric Depot.  Cotton and ribbon in hand, I returned home to knock out the Dickie.  I’m happy with the result, and it will make good use with many 20-some odd collection of 40s and 50s blazers.

Since I feel this outfit is so iconic, I am hesitant to post images of the full suit or look prior to my trip.  For now, here’s just a peek…

And, yes, I will be doing my hair as well.  I have already mapped out all the locations I intend on visiting, thanks to the book Footsteps in the Fog, and am eager to see all that I can see while in San Fran.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend, I will be blogging with loads of photos upon my return next week!