Opening a boutique on Maiden Lane has been a dream for Sherri McMullen since moving to the Bay Area at the turn of the millennium as a young fashion buyer.
“I remember the first time I walked down this street, looking at the architecture, the beautiful storefronts imagining what it would be like to be here,” McMullen told the Chronicle from the sweeping staircase of her new location on one of the city’s toniest retail destinations. “When I found this space, it stopped me in my tracks. I knew it was my store.
“Maiden Lane has always had a sense of discovery and intimacy,” she continued, as her 10-year-old son Frederick looked down at her from the stairs above. “I wanted to create a place people would come to for more than shopping.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, left, stands with McMullen owner Sherri McMullen and her son Frederick, center, at the grand opening of McMullen on Maiden Lane. (Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle)
That vision comes to life throughout her two-floor, 6,342-square-foot space, the largest in her nearly 20-year history.
Vintage copies of Jet Magazine and special issues of Vogue celebrating Black beauty sat next to Proenza Schouler shoes and Dries Van Noten handbags. The walls feature art by Oakland mixed-media artist Jasmine Ross and also a special textile hanging by knitwear designer Aisling Camps reinterpreting the Oklahoma flag, where McMullen was born.
Serving Red Bay Coffee at the central counter bar, the light-filled space designed by Gabriella Khalil feels as much like a club house as a high end fashion boutique.
The accessory department at McMullen Maiden Lane. (Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle)
The merchandise is arranged to encourage that same sense of discovery. The first floor of the boutique includes home items, beauty and accessories, with the second floor devoted to clothes with several spacious, well-lit dressing rooms.
Designers carried at the new boutique include Christopher John Rogers, Diotima, Conner Ives, Kallmeyer, Heirlome, Zankov, Burc Akyol, Aisling Camps, Fuentes Miers, Esha Soni, Yara Sophia, Jennifer Alfano, Dorian Webb, Brandon Blackwood, Jude, Phoebe Philo and San Francisco label Kamperett.
The store edit is classic McMullen: sophisticated but not fussy, and filled with rich color and texture stories that make you want to linger with merchandise.
The boutique officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, Sept. 24, drawing friends, longtime clients and city officials, including Mayor Daniel Lurie. But the space is designed to function as a destination beyond the opening-day festivities.
The new store is McMullen’s second in the city, joining her Laurel Heights location at 3687 Sacramento St. Earlier this year, the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development awarded McMullen a $50,000 Storefront Opportunity Grant to help open the Maiden Lane boutique. It occupies one of the most intimate retail corridors in Union Square, a two-block alley lined with upscale shops.
Current Maiden Lane residents include Maison Margiela, Suitsupply, Isaia and eyewear store Spectacles of Union Square. Luxury boutiques including Gucci and department store Neiman Marcus are also neighbors on Stockton Street, with Chanel and Bottega Veneta on Geary Street.
Attendees celebrating at the grand opening of McMullen on Maiden Lane. (Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle)
A native of Oklahoma City, McMullen began her store in Oakland using her own money and a $50,000 investment from friends and family. She opened her original location on Piedmont Avenue in 2007, then moved to Grand Avenue three years later.
In 2018, she relocated to downtown Oakland, before moving to Sacramento Street in 2024 and moving her business entirely to San Francisco. It also previously had a location in Palo Alto.
McMullen was named one of the best boutiques in the country by Vogue and one of the “most innovative retailers in the world” by Vogue Business.
Over the years, McMullen has built an international reputation not only as one of the Bay Area’s most influential fashion boutique owners, but also as a business owner who has used her stores and social media presence to promote values of diversity and inclusion. In previous locations, she has mannequins painted in various shades of darker skin tones, noting that as a young Black woman in Oklahoma City, she did not see mannequins who resembled her and often still didn’t.
She’s also been lauded for carrying and promoting emerging designers of color, including now-established names such as luxury resort brand Diotima, San Francisco jeweler Harwell Godfrey and Christopher John Rogers, winner of the 2021 Council of Fashion Designers of American Womenswear Designer of the Year.
Attendees visit the grand opening of McMullen Boutique in San Francisco on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle)
That emphasis on community is part of what her longtime clients say distinguishes the McMullen experience.
Monetta White, executive director of the Museum of the African Diaspora, said McMullen’s move downtown, just a few blocks from the museum, was another sign of the city’s creative renaissance.
“There’s a very strong relationship between Sherri and MoAD,” said White, noting that many guests at the museum’s Afropolitan Ball, this year on Saturday, Oct. 3, often buy their looks for the evening at McMullen. The store will also host a trunk show for the museum during NEXUS Black Art Week with designer Dorian Webb.
Kairee Tann has been shopping at McMullen for a dozen years, and the two have collaborated during that period at Tann’s fashion blog, 10 Key Pieces, which is focused on timeless style and women reinventing themselves for their second acts. She said that one of the major factors that keeps her coming back is that McMullen “really listens to her clients” and even asks them what new designers they are wearing beyond those carried at her store.
“I’ve mentioned brands and come in and seen that she’s now carrying them,” said Tann. “I also love that the designers come to the store for events and you get a chance to meet the people who make your clothes, to know their values. I love having that relationship with them because of Sherri.”
For Lurie, her Maiden Lane boutique reflects something larger than a new storefront.
“San Francisco is a place for creatives,” Lurie told McMullen and the crowd at Thursday’s opening. “It takes entrepreneurs like you who believe in our city. This is a moment of inspiration for me personally – your story, your skills and your belief in San Francisco.”
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This article originally published at She started with $50,000. Now her boutique is one of San Francisco’s most influential.