Oska stirs chain store fight on Fillmore

Posted on March 3, 2013 by editors

Photograph at Fillmore and California by Dickie Spritzer

By Barbara Kate Repa

SPURRED BY CONCERNS that the local shopping district is losing its charm and uniqueness as corporate labels gobble up real estate on Fillmore Street, some business owners are now attempting to block a newcomer — Oska, a German-based clothing company — from moving into the neighborhood.

The charge is being led by Miyo Ota, owner of Mio, the women’s boutique at 2035 Fillmore. She has filed an appeal of a building permit issued earlier to refurbish the space at 2130 Fillmore just left vacant by Jet Mail, where Oska intends to open a boutique. The action suspends the permit until the San Francisco Board of Appeals hears testimony on the issue at City Hall on March 20.

UPDATE: At its March 20 hearing, the Board of Appeals allowed the landlord’s permit to make upgrades to the building’s foundation to go forward. A second permit allowing Oska to build out the interior, which was also challenged, will be heard by the board on May 15.

FURTHER UPDATE: At its May 15 meeting, the Board of Appeals ruled 4-1 that Oska is a chain store and must go through the city’s conditional use process before it can open on Fillmore Street.

Ota’s resolve to act against the retailer, which boasts more than 50 stores around the world, was stoked while on a recent buying trip to Paris, where she was strolling through the formerly quaint Marais district. “I was shocked at what I saw there — it feels like Soho on weekends,” she says. “Now there are the same old chains there you see everywhere.”
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Two retail pros open their own shop

Posted on March 3, 2013 by editors

Photographs of Hudson Grace at 3350 Sacramento Street by Matthew Millman

SACRAMENTO STREET’S collection of antique shops, interior designers and home accessory stores got a boost — in offerings and experience — when Hudson Grace opened at 3350 Sacramento a few weeks ago.

The new store is the brainchild of Monelle Totah and Gary McNatton, who helped build Williams-Sonoma, Banana Republic, the Gap and Restoration Hardware into international juggernauts.

“But I’ve always wanted to have my own store,” says Totah. “Gary, too.”

So instead of working on corporate stores around the globe, they decided to focus on just one: their own. And they wanted their “shared dream” to be on Sacramento Street. They named the store after their dogs, Hudson and Grace.
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Mimi’s great sorority

Posted on August 2, 2012 by editors

Photograph of Mimi Lawrence by M. Christine Torrington

By Marjorie Leet Ford

MIMI LAWRENCE ALWAYS wanted to have her own store.

“I started in retail when I was six,” she says, recalling her childhood in New Jersey. “I loaded an ice chest of soda pop into a little rowboat with a one-and-a-half horsepower motor, like an eggbeater, and rode around the harbor selling pop to people in sailboats.”

Years later, she worked for Lord & Taylor in New York, then for Joseph Magnin in San Francisco. She especially loved J. Magnin because it bravely broke the rules.

“At that time the only lingerie you could get was black, white or cream,” Lawrence says. “Suddenly a runway show had shortie nightgowns in orange, green, and purple. People were shocked!”

Twenty-six years ago, she opened her dream store — Mimi’s, on Union Street near Fillmore. To stock it, she says, she searched far and wide to find fashions that were comfortable and practical, great for travel — and “a little adventurous.”
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Now there’s a Fillmore app

Posted on July 9, 2012 by editors

FOR MORE than a decade, Fillmore merchants have provided a lively illustrated folding map of the shops, entertainment and dining opportunities in the neighborhood. The map, which is updated regularly, helps locals and visitors alike navigate the thriving local business community.

With more than 200 businesses in the neighborhood, there are constant closures, openings and remodels — and lots of special events — it was the launching pad for an interactive app that provides up-to-the-minute notification of news and shopping events generated by neighborhood merchants.

So now there’s an iPhone app for Fillmore Street — one of the first neighborhood apps. You can download the free Fillmore app at the iTunes store or at the neighborhood’s Facebook page.

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Feathering the Nest

Posted on June 2, 2012 by editors

Nest offers treasures from estate sales, antique markets and contemporary artisans.

Story and Photographs by Carina Woudenberg

FOR JUDY GILMAN and her daughter Marcella Madsen, owners of Nest, the eclectic gift shop at 2300 Fillmore, a shared love of art and eye for snagging old and new treasures has enabled them to nurture a loyal following over the past 17 years.

“I’ve been going to the antique markets since I was on my mom’s back in a carrier,” marveled Madsen, who now has a 9-year-old of her own.

While many of the individually owned stores on the street have disappeared under financial pressures, Nest’s owners say they’ve managed to weather the storm by relying on their well-rooted customer base and anticipating when fans are ready for some changes.

“We’re always evolving,” Madsen said.
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Fillmore ‘just made sense’ for designer Steven Alan

Posted on June 1, 2012 by editors

WHAT’S SHOCKING about the new Steven Alan boutique, recently opened at 1919 Fillmore, is the amount of fashion terrain it covers, for both men and women. There’s jewelry, scarves, underwear, cologne, shoes, purses, sunglasses, watches, hats, sweaters, dresses, ties — even pajamas in soft cottons with whimsical prints. And there’s also even more unexpected items such as bottles of ginger and lemon syrup.

While Alan has deep roots in retail and design, he blasted onto the fashion scene in 1996 by opening the Steven Alan Showroom in New York, intended as a forum for a select group of indie designers he favored most. A couple of years later, Alan launched his own line focusing on menswear with detailing he wasn’t able to find by anyone else. An experiment with reverse seaming that was accidentally applied to every seam created a happy accident: his signature tailored shirt that creates a definitive line on the body. He followed that with a classic collegiate button-down in unique fabric weaves, then duplicated the look for women.

Shoppers will find plenty of Steven Alan’s designs in his new Fillmore boutique, as well as the other 10 locations — six in New York, four in other parts of California. The last store opened in Hayes Valley less than a year ago. But he’s retained a generous offering of other designers, too.
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Getting to 11

Posted on June 1, 2012 by editors

RETAIL SPACE on Fillmore Street has become among the most desirable in San Francisco, second only to Union Square.

Much of the demand comes from national brands finding creative ways around the city’s attempts to curb the proliferation of chain stores. The city defines “formula retail” as companies with 11 or more stores. So major retailers are launching new concepts under different names on Fillmore before they “get to 11.”

• Gap Inc. opened its first Athleta store at 2226 Fillmore before rolling out the line of athletic wear nationwide.

• Soon Starbucks will launch a new juice bar at the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento — across from its outpost at 2222 Fillmore — as part of a worldwide rollout.

They join Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Jonathan Adler and Brooks Brothers’ Black Fleece line, some of which opened before the chain store limits passed in 2008.

Demand is so strong among fashion labels that real estate brokers have begun offering “key money” — sometimes $100,000 or more — to entice longtime merchants to give up prime storefronts to bigger companies with better credit willing to pay higher rent.

Recent months have seen an influx of nationally expanding fashion retailers eager to open on Fillmore before they have 11 stores:

• Fillmore’s newest boutique, Steven Alan, got in just under the wire by opening its 11th store at 1919 Fillmore in May.

• In April, Alice + Olivia opened its eighth store at the corner of Fillmore and Clay. A few days later, designer Roberta Freymann opened her ninth store at 2053 Fillmore.

• James Perse, Cotelac, Curve, Peruvian Connection and Drybar also opened on Fillmore in recent months before they crossed the 11-store threshold.

Chase Bank is also rapidly opening new branches throughout San Francisco, including one on California near Fillmore. Financial institutions are not subject to the city’s chain store ordinance, although a move is now afoot to include them.

SF Business Times: “Fillmore Street hits new fashion heights“

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End of an era: Mrs. Dewson’s Hats closes

Posted on May 3, 2012 by editors

By THOMAS REYNOLDS

For the first time in almost four decades, Mrs. Dewson’s Hats at 2050 Fillmore Street wasn’t open in the days leading up to Easter, which is typically prime time for hat buyers.

A few days later a sign went up in the window telling the news: After 37 years, Mrs. Dewson’s Hats was closing. And on Sunday afternoon, April 29, the last hats were sold, the final goodbyes said and the doors closed on a prime piece of Fillmore history.

“It’s a sad day,” said Glenn Mitchell, nephew of owner Ruth Garland Dewson. “We’ve been fighting it off for a while.” Mitchell has been overseeing the shop since his aunt checked herself into an assisted living facility two years ago.

“I’ve been crying ever since I heard,” Ruth Dewson said the next day, sitting in a wheelchair in the top-floor lounge at AgeSong, her new home in Hayes Valley. “I’ve had a good time on Fillmore Street and I don’t want to give it up. Why should I die when all these other assholes are still alive?”
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From ‘the best noses in the world’

Posted on January 9, 2012 by editors

Le Labo has completely remade the storefront at 2238 Fillmore.

“FRESH PERFUME IS THE BEST,” proclaims Meg Christensen, manager of Le Labo, the scent emporium that opened during the holidays at 2238 Fillmore Street. The spare shop has no perfume in stock, but will mix one of its 12 fragrances on the spot while the customer waits.

Costs range from $58 for a 15-ml. portion — best for newcomers who want to try a scent on for size — to $700 for a 500-ml. grand size.

The most popular offering so far is Santal 33. The 33 signifies the number of ingredients that go into the mix, with the end result said to be conjure up the “sensual universality” of the Marlboro man — or rather the Marlboro person, given that all Le Labo scents are deemed to be unisex.

“Great fragrances don’t have a gender,” says Christensen, noting that some of the scents are also produced in lotions and long-lasting silicone-based balms.

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Still modern after all these years

Posted on January 7, 2012 by editors

Photograph of Vasilios Kiniris at Zinc Details by Drew Altizer

Q & A | VASILIOS KINIRIS

Zinc Details has turned 20. How did it all begin?

I was fresh out of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley and simply had an idea and some very strong feelings. At the university, Wendy Nishimura and I had developed an understanding and shared a passion for the modern classics of furniture design. In travels to Europe and Japan, we came face to face with new styles hatched from traditional forms. And naturally, we began to form strong relationships with young artisans and designers in the San Francisco Bay Area who were creating excitement with simply styled, highly functional and innovative pieces.

What led you to put your architectural education to use in a retail design store?

It takes a long time for architecture to actually be realized and influence a person’s life. Retail design is a lot more immediate. You can touch people on an everyday level. Personally, we love to collect, admire and interact with beautifully designed products and the store is a reflection of our vision and taste. Having the knowledge of history of architecture and art is also a great reference when dealing with modern design products. All products designed today have references to the past. We can appreciate all the thought process put in to develop the products. And even when creating a display, we can visualize space relations to the products better.
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