Wilkes Bashford

[StylenotFashion]

The store on Maiden Lane was "Ralph Davies". The Davies is old San Francisco BIG money! The mistake Ralph made was he opened a large store in a prime (high rent) area, that was VERY high end, VERY high fashion ala "Maxfield" (LA), without a customer following.

 

[mr monty]

nice read

 

[DandySF]

Surprising to see this thread resurrected. Something of a coincidence: today I walked by Le Central and saw Wilkes, Harry deWildt, and former mayor Willie Brown at their usual table in the window. Wilkes was the only one who removed his jacket and had hidden his tie through the buttons on his shirt placket.

 

[LabelKing]

From what I've seen of Wilkes Bashford, he doesn't strike me as a very fine dresser.

 

[contaygious]

I have been to both the store in sf and the one in marin and I can't say I like that place. The sf one has a horrible plan with a bunch of tiny floors and all the clothing crammed in. The one in marin only has more casual stuff and it only had a single pair of jeans when I was there (prps in one color) lol. They have some good zegna stuff sometimes, but I would rather just go to the zegna store honestly.

 

[binge]

There's a Zegna store in San Francisco? How have I missed it?!

 

[contaygious]

Oh sorry I meant in Vancouver. I go back and forth...I'm suprised there isn't one in SF actually. But then again you have all the department stores with zegna like Neiman's, saks, nordstroms, bloomingdales, etc. so why would you need one.

 

[binge]

Do you know if there ever was one? A few months ago I ran across a listing on citysearch or something similar that listed an address for a Zegna store on the outskirts of Union Square, over by the Borrelli store kinda; but I've never seen one there.

In any case, like you say, you can get Zegna at any one of many stores in SF so a specialty store would be overkill.

Honestly, I'm surprised Hickey-Freeman has a store in San Francisco, since you can probably get their stuff at a better price at Nordstrom just a block away since Nordstrom always seems to be having a sale. I can only imagine the HF store is a corporate "loss leader" type of store, like an advertising expense. I feel kinda sorry for the guys that work there as they seem to be genuinely decent guys with lots of retail experience (used to work at the old Bullock & Jones, etc.) but they just don't have the name recognition or location for lots of foot traffic. I drop in time to time to chat with them and it's almost always empty in there. Too bad really.

 

[contaygious]

Not sure if there was a Zegna store before. I have never been to the HF store, but I just realized there is a Pink store recently which is funny because I had bought some in NY thinking we didn't have one.

 

[wcp45]

Originally Posted by contaygious

I have been to both the store in sf and the one in marin and I can't say I like that place. The sf one has a horrible plan with a bunch of tiny floors and all the clothing crammed in. The one in marin only has more casual stuff and it only had a single pair of jeans when I was there (prps in one color) lol. They have some good zegna stuff sometimes, but I would rather just go to the zegna store honestly.
Several of the floors at Wilkes have been redesigned recently, so you might want to check it out again (though the floors are still small). In terms of quality and variety, it is hard to beat Wilkes. I could spend hours on one of those "small" floors. The salesmen are also very helpful and willing to give you a tour. By the way, Wilkes carries Zegna. The first Zegna I ever purchased, in 1989, was from Wilkes.

 

[Gus]

I enjoyed the article and I enjoy Wilkes. You have got to hand it to the guy for being able to survive all the changes in fashion, retail and the San Francisco scene.

I first visited Wilkes in 1971 when I was a senior in High School. I was amazed by the array of fine apparel, leather jackets, ties and shoes. Until that time, my satorial experience had been the traditional preppy stores stocking tweeds, blue blazers and BD shirts in NYC and SF.

I won't forget a display that had a vest made from patchwork denim. It had a beautiful brightly colored multi-striped silk back and silver buffalo head nickel buttons. You just didn't see things like this anywhere else. Then they had displays of these fine, light weight , tailored leather jackets that were so stylish compared to anything else I had ever seen.

Later, around 1976, they had a room for Ralph Lauren that was filled with pastel colored corduroy jackets in salmon, pink, dinner mint green and baby blue. It was the first time I had ever seen black nylon luggage (lined in bright yellow). They offered a Burberry trench coat with a removeable patchwork mink lining! I especially enjoyed being offered cocktails.

Now, there are things about Wilkes that I would like to change. But I still enjoy it and find fun surprises during my regular visits.

 

[P. Bateman]

I'm new to the city and discovered the store yesterday. 5 floors with a bar on each, excellent. They're having a big big sale now, most items marked 50% off sticker + an additional 25% down. I also learned Wilkes sold to Mitchell's, http://www.mitchellsonline.com/, last year. The SF store will be undergoing major renovations this year.

 

[Gus]

I was in SF yesterday and dropped by Wilkes Bashford and ran into Horace Mack formerly of Borelli and now at Wilkes. He took me upstairs to see them setting up for the Kiton Trunk show. Every item I touched reeked of pure luxury. The cashmere was a soft as angels wings. The exotic skin shoes all had the deepest texture I've ever seen. Being Italian there was no shortage of colors. With hundreds of beautiful garments, dozen of shoes, outwear, suits shirts...it was very impressive. Leave it to Kiton to have everything hanging on carbon fiber hangers.

The show goes on at the San Francisco store on Sutter Street Wednesday the 9th thru Saturday the 12th. If you need assistance contact Horace Mack at [email protected]

 

[Gus]

Here are some pics:

 

[Gus]

And a few more: