Wilkes Bashford is a clothing retailer headquartered in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. In November 2009, Wilkes Bashford was acquired by Mitchells Stores. The flagship store was opened in 1966 by its namesake Wilkes Bashford. It is favored by some prominent individuals such as former

San Francisco Mayor The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by ...

Willie Brown. The original store is in the Union Square Shopping District in

. Later the company expanded to

Stanford Shopping Center Stanford Shopping Center is an upscale open air shopping mall located on California State Route 82, Route 82 (El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real) at Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, California. It is on the campus of Stanford University alt ...

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. The store was one of the first in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to carry

Ermenegildo Zegna Ermenegildo Zegna (; born 30 September 1955), often simply known and referred to as Gildo Zegna, is an Italian entrepreneur and manager. He is Chairman and CEO of Ermenegildo Zegna Group. Early life and education Gildo is a grandson of Ermeneg ...

. It is sold alongside other brands such as: Brioni,

Brunello Cucinelli Brunello Cucinelli (; born 3 September 1953 in Castel Rigone) is an Italian luxury creative director and the chief executive of his eponymous made in Italy brand, Brunello Cucinelli. He donates 20% of his profits through the Brunello Cucine ...

Loro Piana Loro Piana is an Italian company specialized in clothing and textile products. It is considered the largest cashmere manufacturer and the world's leading artisan company processing luxury fibers.Miles Socha and Luisa Zargani (28 October 2021)Loro ...

Kiton Kiton is an Italian luxury clothing company founded by Ciro Paone in 1968. As of 2019, Kiton operates 54 monobrand stores worldwide. Its slogan is “''Il meglio del meglio più uno''“: the best of the best plus one. History Kiton was foun ...

Missoni Missoni is an Italian luxury fashion house based in Varese, and known for its colorful knitwear designs. The company was founded by Ottavio ("Tai") and Rosita Missoni in 1953. History Early beginnings The business was founded in 1953, when O ...

, Pucci, Oxxford Clothes,

Oscar de la Renta Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo (22 July 1932 – 20 October 2014), known professionally as Oscar de la Renta, was a Dominican fashion designer. Born in Santo Domingo, he was trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. De la Renta ...

, Valentino, and more. The store has a shoe department featuring

Manolo Blahnik Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez (; born 27 November 1942) is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the eponymous high-end shoe brand. Biography Blahnik was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma, in the Canary Islands (Spain), to a Czech father ...

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Bontoni Bontoni is a third-generation luxury Italian shoemaker that crafts handmade men's dress shoes. The brand produces a very exclusive line of ready-made men's dress shoes that range from dressy to casual. Bontoni's nine-person workshop is located on ...

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and Gravati. The store's namesake Wilkes Bashford died of prostate cancer on January 16, 2016, at the age of 82.

Controversies

In 1985, founder Wilkes Bashford and partner Jack Guillaume were charged with cheating the City of San Francisco out of $1 million in rent.

In popular culture

Wilkes Bashford merchandise is an "addiction" for a wealthy closeted gay character, Beauchamp Day, in

Armistead Maupin Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. ( ) (born May 13, 1944) is an American writer notable for '' Tales of the City'', a series of novels set in San Francisco. Early life Maupin was born in Washington, D.C., to Diana Jane (Barton) and Armistead Jones Ma ...

's eponymous first book from the ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of nine novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2014, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBT. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally serial ...

'' series, which is mostly set in San Francisco.

References

Clothing retailers of the United States Union Square, San Francisco Companies based in San Francisco Bashford, Wilkes Bashford, Wilkes Bashford, Wilkes Bashford, Wilkes 20th-century American businesspeople 1966 establishments in California 1966 in San Francisco {{US-retail-company-stub