Alpha Project is collecting donations right now in Balboa Park’s Recital Hall. The urgently needed donations can be dropped off from 10 am to 6 pm.
Their shelter was flooded by the recent storms and had to be evacuated. Your donations of clothing, undergarments and hygiene items will benefit the homeless people who were affected.
You can email info@alphaproject.org if you have any questions.
Thank you!
The IDEA Lab on the 4th Floor of San Diego’s Central Library will be open for maker activities before and during Comic-Con 2025!
In addition to providing cosplay repair during Comic-Con, would-be superheroes can make superhero capes in the IDEA Lab on Saturday, July 19, 2025, between 2 pm and 5 pm.
All the materials you need are provided. Yes, there will be fabric, sewing machines, and the ability to create cool designs on your cape, as in the above photograph! It’s the first time they’ve had this cape making activity since before the pandemic.
The IDEA Lab also has 3D printing available for your other cool Comic-Con creations!
I was told today that additional activities might crop up during Comic-Con, but it’s still a month away. The cosplay repair and superhero cape making are definite, however!
Less than a month to go. Is your cosplay ready?
Here are some other fun photos from inside this maker space…
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An unusual fashion show took place today in San Diego. Whimsical dresses made of upcycled materials were a highlight of a Philippines Independence Day celebration. The cultural “lawn program” was held outdoors among Balboa Park’s International Cottages.
Local fashion designer Elsie Clavin used everything from newspapers to plastic straws to playing cards to bubble wrap to create these crazy dresses!
I don’t pretend to know anything about fashion, but I did enjoy this very colorful, very fun show!
I’m sure many of you will enjoy these photographs, too. I tried to write down some information as I took the pictures, but I fumbled around with camera and pen and fell well short of decent journalism. Again. Sorry.
Photo time…
First up, a dress made with playing cards and poker chips. Perfect for a visit to the casino!
Next, a dress made of old newspapers! Good news, I hope.
Here’s a skirt made of those color match samples you use to select paint! I did say these dresses are colorful!
Here’s a creative use of upcycled plastic straws and bubble wrap…
There are all sorts of upcycled materials in this next dress. I failed to write any of them down.
More playing card casino action with this couple…
Yes, plastic spoons, forks, and coffee filters can make an exquisitely elegant dress…
Burlap works, too…
I believe I heard that batik is an important part of the next incredible outfit! I’m probably wrong. (I welcome corrections in the comments.)
And finally here’s the fashion designer, Elsie Clavin herself, wearing a fun bubble wrap design!
I bet you’ve never seen a fashion show quite like this!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Feel free to share!
There’s a museum in Liberty Station that visitors might mistakenly pass by. When I walked by today, it occurred to me I hadn’t stepped into Visions Museum of Textile Art for many years. So I had to see what I’ve been missing!
Long before I started Cool San Diego Sights, I remember how the museum was called Quilt Visions. The last time I visited, in 2019, it was called Visions Art Museum. I was told the name has evolved over time as the museum has enlarged its scope to cover many different types of textile art.
Today I was excited to see the Visions Museum of Textile Art is thriving!
I discovered several current exhibits, and chose to blog about one that features some very unique pieces. It’s titled INTIKA: Men In Textiles. As a sign explains, the INTIKA exhibition seeks to showcase the diverse works of male artists from various backgrounds, each employing different textile techniques. These artists push the boundaries…by experimenting with unconventional materials or incorporating elements from other disciplines like sculpture or installation art.
Check out the next photo. This visually complex piece, composed of sliced and woven street posters collected from the walls of New York City, Berlin and Venice, is definitely unconventional!
There’s all sorts of textile art to admire, including unique clothing, hangings and other needlework. More examples…
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Feel free to share!
In 1531 the Blessed Virgin Mary was said to have appeared miraculously in Mexico. You can read that history here.
Today, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe (a Catholic title of the Virgin Mary) can be seen throughout Mexico, and San Diego, too.
A standard image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, filled with symbolism, hangs in homes and churches. It is painted on murals, on cars and appears in tattoos. The Virgin of Guadalupe seems everywhere.
Not surprisingly, the iconic image also appears on textiles. An important part of the Virgin of Guadalupe story includes her likeness appearing miraculously on the inside of a cloak.
The Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park recently opened a sensational exhibition titled Fashioning an Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design.
The exhibition features outfits worn by women and men, traditional huipiles (handwoven tunics largely worn by indigenous peoples in Mexico), jackets, shoes and more. Many of the crafted pieces are very colorful, as you can see from my photographs.
Signs throughout the exhibit explain why the Virgin of Guadalupe became a religious and cultural phenomenon–how, in Mexico, invading Catholicism eventually melded with indigenous sensibilities, producing the divine but grounded symbolism one sees in the now beloved image.
The Mingei International Museum has presented many outstanding exhibitions, and this one is right up there. I was surprised to see so many different objects, and such variety. I was excited to see so much life.
Each work seems a miracle of human faith and creativity.
Fashioning an Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design is on view through September 7, 2025.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Feel free to share!
Members of the House of Pakistan in San Diego’s Balboa Park were showcasing their Pakistani heritage, culture and history today. Displays of traditional clothing, baskets, jewelry and crafts could be viewed in the Hall of Nations.
I was amazed by the high level of workmanship required to make these beautiful objects.
I spoke to one of the gracious members. She showed me the very colorful, handcrafted works of art that you see in these photographs. She told me a bit about them, but I failed to write anything down. I did learn the House of Pakistan is hoping to have their own cottage in Balboa Park one day.
If you ever happen to walk through Balboa Park’s International Cottages on a weekend, make sure to peek inside the Hall of Nations. Nation members that don’t have their own cottage yet showcase their culture in this building on a rotating basis.
If you’re interested, the Pakistan American Association Of San Diego website can be visited by clicking here.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Feel free to share this!
The Women’s Museum of California has made its home inside the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. Visitors who walk into the history center can now view a museum exhibit concerning the struggle by women to obtain the right to vote in the United States.
Votes For Women: A Portrait of Persistence follows the efforts of suffragists to amend the U.S. Constitution and change state election laws by lobbying in their community and in the halls of Congress. As one display explains, the suffragists wrote articles, circulated petitions, gave speeches, organized marches, and were sometimes imprisoned for their protests. Over time these tactics won support for woman suffrage that led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
Visitors will learn how the fight for women’s right to vote lasted more than 80 years. Even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was required to eliminate the suppression of voting by women.
In addition to many interesting posters, there are garments on display that suffragists might have worn, including a bloomer costume, named for writer and women’s rights advocate Amelia Bloomer.
Kids can also enjoy fun activities. There’s a San Diego History Center image scavenger hunt and the opportunity to take selfies with a suffragist sash and protest signs!
After you check out the Votes For Woman exhibit, take a stroll around the rest of the San Diego History Center. There’s a lot of history to see!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Are you attending Comic-Con 2024 in San Diego? Is your cosplay costume sadly torn, falling apart, or in need of repair? Head a few blocks over from the convention center to the San Diego Central Library–you know the building with the big metal lattice dome!
On the fourth floor of the Central Library you’ll find the Cosplay Repair Station. They have everything you could conceivably need. Sewing machines, tools, tape, different glues and adhesives, you name it!
I swung by the library today to take a peek inside…
You can even make your own cosplay repair kit and take it with you!
You can make buttons, too!
Got some swag you don’t like? Swap it for something better!
The Cosplay Repair Station is open during San Diego Comic-Con on Friday and Saturday 10 am to 4 pm, and Sunday from 1 to 4 pm.
And what’s more–down in the Central Library lobby, at the used book store, there are comics to buy for only a buck each!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Do you remember Don Diego?
For four decades, Don Diego was a fixture at the Del Mar Fair. With a friendly “¡Bienvenidos Amigos!” the dashing goodwill ambassador greeted visitors to the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Sombrero in hand, typically in dress representing a gentleman Mexican ranchero, Don Diego also introduced Grandstand shows and escorted the Fairest of the Fair beauty queen and her court.
An exhibition at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park opened several days ago which includes a unique tribute to the fair’s iconic Don Diego, who in reality was actor Domingo Tomás Hernández Bethencourt.
The exhibition is titled Fashion Redux 2024. In its 13th year, the annual event is a collaboration between the San Diego History Center and Mesa College’s Fashion Program.
What immediately caught my eye today were the two ensembles once worn by Don Diego, which belong to the San Diego History Center’s very extensive Historic Textile Collection.
Visitors to the exhibition can also watch old video footage that shows Don Diego at the Del Mar Fair.
A few personal memories were rekindled. As a child my family would visit the fair, and I remember seeing Don Diego on promotional material and on television. He was quite famous. I don’t recall whether I saw him in person. I think I might have. That was a long time ago.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Employees and volunteers at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park have posed for old-fashioned tintype photographs, while dressed in period attire!
I spotted this display recently in front of the Robinson-Rose House Visitors Center. The “nineteenth century reproduction clothing” in these photographs reflects Old Town’s interpretive period, which is between 1821 and 1872.
If you want to see more photos of California State Park folks in period attire, click here. Or head over to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park and simply walk around. You’ll likely meet staff and volunteers who appear to have emerged from our city’s early history!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 