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Remembering Wilkes

Prevention Center
January 26, 2016
Wilkes @ the 2012 Blue Ribbon Luncheon

Wilkes @ the 2012 Blue Ribbon Luncheon

San Francisco fashion icon Wilkes Bashford supported the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center from our very beginning — from lending advice to hosting a fashion show benefit and in-store shopping events, to providing gift certificates for auctions. He was a kind, humble, and generous man.

Wilkes was ever-present at our Annual Blue Ribbon Luncheon — attending nearly every one of our events for that past 18 years and graciously serving on our Honorary Committee.

Thank you Wilkes for bringing beauty and style to all of San Francisco, and for your long-lasting friendship and support. We will miss you.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Mr. Bashford’s store, where the city’s society set shops for clothes for work, weekends and opening-night galas, was one of the few of its kind in the nation when it opened and remains so today. Originally a men’s store, Wilkes Bashford opened under the Sutter-Stockton garage and was the first in San Francisco to promote an aesthetic he called “bold conservative,” carrying Brioni, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Versace and other designer brands, a contrast to the counterculture, hippie clothing of the day. He added womenswear in 1978 and later moved nearby to 375 Sutter St.

[Former Mayor Willie] Brown, a Chronicle columnist and a famously natty dresser, told The Chronicle in October: “This town was devoid of any attention to quality of fabric or style until Wilkes came along. The first time I walked into the store, I was frankly blown away.”

But more than solely dressing people up, Mr. Bashford wrapped himself in the social fabric of the city.

Read Wilkes’ full obituary.

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