The Gentrification of Dogpatch

The historic district of Dogpatch lies on the eastern side of San Francisco with some of the oldest houses in the city, dating from the 1840s. In the last twenty years Dogpatch has attracted a growing community of artists and designers, becoming the latest SF neighbourhood to be colonised by loft studios and chic boutiques.

San Francisco magazine commissioned this portrait of siblings Chris and Ben Ospital, owners of Modern Appealing Clothing, who are converting a stable house on 22nd Street into a new store. MAC started as a Hayes Valley store / gallery and became a popular gathering place for those who combine fashionable tastes with progressive leanings. Ben and Chris Ospital and their mother, Jeri, are on the cutting edge of San Francisco's Slow Clothing movement, which combines new ideas about beauty with old-fashioned concepts of utility.

Art direction by Ellen Zaslow.