Fashion in San Francisco?
A non-fashion fashion city
In today’s issue of Market Appointment:
An Exclusive Look at McMullen’s New Location
Must-Visit Fashion Stores in San Francisco
How San Francisco’s Luxury Fashion Scene Came to Be
Recent Reads
If you enjoy this sort of fashion reporting, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. It would be deeply appreciated.
“People in San Francisco don’t dress up for several reasons,” Christina Laetz, the store manager of Heidi Says told me. Firstly, the hilly city requires practical comfort in the form of relaxed clothing and sneakers (“not even cute flats,” she said). Another reason she points out is a culture of conformity that seems to be mostly enforced by men. In fact, women tend to feel pressured to blend in because they will be singled out or frowned upon by their male colleagues if God forbid they wear loud prints or colors to the office. In the worst-case scenario, standing out can turn one into an unwilling target, attracting mocking stares or occasionally homeless followers while they go about town.
The day we met, Christina was wearing a tomato red sweatshirt, blue jeans and Teva sandals. I was wearing dark blue boxer pants, a fitted black crop top and matching flats under a KAPITAL denim jacket bought in Japan. She said my look, as muted as I thought it was, was a few eye-catching details away from what’s considered “normal everyday street style” in San Francisco. That day, at the store that carries fashion-forward or capital F fashion labels like Simkhai, L’Agence and Ulla Johnson, the things she sold were casual pull-on pants.
For a city that is mostly clothed in Lululemon leggings and Patagonia vests, San Francisco has an interesting luxury retail/resale scene. For one, it is home to the only Black-owned luxury store McMullen, which opened in Oakland in 2007. At a time when many decry the sameness at multi-retail boutiques, McMullen has managed to keep its assortment fresh and exciting by continuing to take chances on less established labels. While it carries the heavy hitters (The Row, Khaite, Erdem etc.), it was the first to bring several brands we now love to market, including Christopher John Rogers (after his first show in 2019), Diotima, Aisling Camps and Harwell Godfrey. Most recently, the store became the first to stock Nigerian label Lisa Folawiyo and Burc Akyol, a semifinalist for the 2023 LVMH Prize for Young Designers.
Sherri McMullen commits to the emerging brands she carries, going as far as buying collections in full, rarely discounting their merchandise, and never returning unsold inventory. This “I’ve got your back” way of doing business was prevalent during the heydays of luxury department stores, and its disappearance is exactly why many are struggling to be relevant today. McMullen has kept her focus on championing designers, especially those of color, rather than taking on investors laser-focused on cutting costs and minimizing risks.
