Cielo

Looking professional is fortunately/​unfortunately a necessity for me, but I hate shopping for clothes. Yes you heard me correctly; HATE!!!
There I’ve said it. It’s true. Nobody believes me…
So to clarify, finding clothes and shoes to purchase, yes. Looking for clothes and shoes, not quite. I’m worst than your pre-​pubescent boy being dragged out shopping with his mother for back to school clothing; I loathe the clothes shopping experience.
Because I hate looking through racks of stuff to find something I like and or dealing with hawkish sales people, my secret place to go is Cielo Palo Alto, where it seems every other thing they have, I really really want. It is a zen shopping experience, not unlike going to the museum, except you can touch the stuff & purchase is too. (yes, I’ve been yelled at for this, but in my defense, it was a conceptual art piece & it was my head, not my hands, which got a bit too close to the scotch tape sculpture)
When you go into a Neiman’s or Saks or even Barneys, you are overwhelmed with a clusterf*&k of stuff; mad mad racks of never ending clothes. Even if there were the perfect outfit in there, I don’t know how you’d find it. I love those places to get my skincare and cosmetics, and shopping for my male friends, but for clothing for women, the only thing separating them from Target are the prices. Confusion and chaos and shopping are not good unless it’s a fire sale and everything is 90% off… then I could see it possibly being fun.
Men are so lucky because shopping is really edited down to the essentials & they have limited options. How many different genres of button-​down shirts could there possibly be? (for example, in chiffon? I don’t think so…) Or hem lengths on pants? Not that many.
This store has great casual wear as well as more unusual pieces that can be worn somewhere fancy, or dressed down depending on how you style it. If you’re a «less is more» person, this store is probably for you. Because everything is fashion-​forward, clothes bought here also stylistically last longer. In an industry where looks change faster than the San Francisco weather, the stuff here lasts both in terms of quality and style. I still own things I wear bought from 10 years ago, that’s better designed than most things being produced today. Great selection of Demuelemeester, Rick Owens, Haider Ackerman, Dries and Marni. And I get compliments on all the shoes I’ve bought here… from women!
Alas, as I do not have an unlimited budget, and my eyes are always much bigger than my wallet, I discovered awhile ago that Cielo has lay-​away, so under the happy chance you find more than you can afford or find that absolutely fabulous piece that you’ll forever regret not having, you can always pay it off over time. I call it my financial diet… and I don’t think diets are a bad thing.

Beautiful clothing. Lovely selection of Dries, Vanessa Bruno, Zucca, etc. They tend to carry stuff that from previous seasons at full price, and pretend like it’s not old, which I think is really weird. Either way, great stuff, but staff tends to be overly pretentious and cold.