Last night, we were privileged to attend a fashion show at Wilkes Bashford in Palo Alto (at the Stanford Shopping Center) featuring fall/winter gowns for events like the San Francisco Symphony Opening Gala, scheduled for September 19th. The fashion show was organized with the SFS and most of the people invited are active in the Symphony and have shopped at Wilkes Bashford. Representatives of the Symphony were present, as was information about the gala in the fall. Beth, the other founder of this site, came as my guest and took the photographs shown along with this post. (That's Beth on the left and me on the right. Normally we wouldn't put our photos in posts, but since we are in the process of introducing this blog, we're introducing ourselves as well.)
Before the event, I was wondering how they would fit a fashion show in the Wilkes Bashford at Stanford, given the size of the store. They managed to do it well, utilizing the entire main area of the store in-between the mens' and ladies' departments (for anyone who's been in the store). Wilkes Bashford himself introduced the show and one of the gown designers, Donald Deal. Deal designed many of the gowns shown on the runway and after the show.
To rewind a bit - if you haven't heard of Wilkes Bashford, it's worth explaining. Wilkes Bashford is a man and a group of stores. The man founded the stores and the stores sell high-end designer clothing and accessories. The original store is just off Union Square in San Francisco, and he has 3 other stores in Palo Alto, Mill Valley and Carmel. The designs selected for the stores tend to lean on the conservative side fashion-wise, and aim toward the luxury lifestyle.
However, don't let that fool you into thinking this store's not for you. At Wilkes Bashford (at least in Union Square, where I've visited more often than Palo Alto), they welcome everyone and treat everyone well. The first time I went in, I had just left my doctor's office up Sutter Street and was wearing grody sweatpants, but I thought, "I've never been into Wilkes Bashford and I've heard it's such a nice store, I'll go in." So I went in, perused the multi-level store, and during my sojourn, at least three kind salespeople asked me, in a not-pushy way, if I needed anything. I asked a few questions about cuff links since they had a surprisingly large collection, and the people I spoke with were all very helpful, non-judgmental and kind.
Rather than being blatantly ignored like I would have been in many stores, I left the store determined to become a customer at a later time. So I did. I haven't bought much there, but I plan to do more shopping in the future. And when my husband was looking for a tux, we went to Wilkes Bashford in SF where they helped him determine the best fit. He opted for a less expensive designer elsewhere, but said, "we'll buy my next one here." This is why Wilkes Bashford has four stores and so many loyal customers. As a tribute to one of the Bay Area's local businesses providing classic style for the community, we selected Wilkes Bashford as one of our "Local Shopping" links on this site.*
Back to the fashion show. It opened with a bang: James Bond theme music and a couple of gorgeous male models to grab the attention of the primarily female audience. The men modeled a variety of jackets and tuxedos during the show, and the female models showed-off the gorgeous gowns and cocktail dresses. Mens' jackets included velvet and satin versions of different styles and a few subtle paisley patterns. Most of the gowns and dresses were black or some shade of cream or gold, but a few jewel toned gowns were in the collection as well.
Two gowns I loved. The first was a black lace halter gown with a beautiful shape and the second was a forest green velvet mermaid cut gown with stones forming stars at the bottom - very much a holiday gown. Unfortunately I couldn't find any programs, so I don't know the designer of the first one, but the second was by Donald Deal. Beth found a pretty green gown and a black gown the she liked as well. We could've stayed trying on gowns and sipping champagne for a few more hours, but we left before the Cinderella hour to go home and tuck our respective kids into bed.
I hope last night's event was successful for Wilkes Bashford because it was a fun show, and I hope they are able to get some additional people to attend the Symphony Gala as a result of this event. As someone who has attended many SFS galas in the past, they are full of fabulous music and style-watching. Highly recommended.
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(*Note: we are in no way affiliated with the Wilkes Bashford store and we're not receiving any payment from them or any other businesses, although at some point in the future we may consider advertisers.)
It was a fantastic show and everyone was very friendly. I defintely got my fashion fix after a day of running after my boys. The store is my dream closet.
Posted by: Beth B. | June 08, 2007 at 12:50 PM