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Classic SF - Nob Hill Gazette, November 2017

Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Mousetrap’
By: 
Kendra Boutell
November 03 2017

The Italian menswear brand Isaia, now occupies Frank Lloyd Wright's only San Francisco address, 140 Maiden Lane which was an early model for The Guggenheim, -Quoted within is Epoca's owner, Eric Petsinger 

In 1948, Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned a radical design for San Francisco’s V. C. Morris Gift Shop. Located at 140 Maiden Lane, the finished building’s two-story tan brick façade featured a single fenestration. Nearby, Union Square’s storefronts showcased expansive plate glass windows.  The architect described his asymmetrical Romanesque arched entry as a “mousetrap.”  Beyond the portal, a narrow barrel-vaulted corridor revealed the shop’s circular interior. 

An antique dealer and mid-century aficionado, Eric Petsinger, owns two of the label’s made-to-measure suits. “Having an Isaia suit is like having a tattoo—you always go back for more,” he explains. “After my first suit, I was hooked. In Naples, there’s a song titled ‘anema e core,’ or ‘heart and soul.’” “How fitting,” he muses, “for Isaia’s timeless fashions to find a home in a Frank Lloyd Wright building built with heart and soul.”