Bell'Occhio owner Claudia Schwartz's charmed life
Objects of Affection Bell'Occhio owner Claudia Schwartz, purveyor of all things charming, leads a life filled with delight and elegance
Schwartz opened San Francisco's Bell'Occhio 23 years ago, and the store, which sells everything from jewelry and ribbon to homemade caramels and antique stamped French letters, has been a darling of the stylish coterie ever since.
Grande dame of elegant living Martha Stewart named it her "favorite tiny shop for creative things in San Francisco."
Schwartz's attention to detail and eye for charm is evident not just in the store but also in her house, where a box of fraises du bois sits on the windowsill and, when you ask for water, you get a chilled glass of Perrier.
Gouache paintings, covered in handmade slipcovers, hang on the walls, and each lovingly cared-for trinket has a history.
"In his yearbook, he said he dreamed of being involved with a Latin woman," Schwartz said of her father, who worked as an engineer.
Despite gentle nudging to follow in his footsteps, Schwartz found herself drawn to the decorative arts and enrolled in art school at UC Santa Cruz before working at a fine ribbons and buttons store in Sausalito that also sold fresh-baked bread.
After a stint at the Thousand Flowers store in Chinatown, where she met her husband, Tom, Schwartz and a partner started to run Bell'Occhio out of Schwartz's home.
Claudia Schwartz's objects "Golden Gate Bridge: A Technical Description in Ordinary Language," 1937
Family myth: My dad always claimed he was the first person to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.
To brush her hair, to clean her playhouse, to brush away eraser crumbs in art school, to tidy up around the house.
Sir David Lionel Salomons, scientist, early engineer, author of several books about vacuum tubes.