Decades Of Fashion - San Francisco, California

Daniel Dowdell

Riley totally made my New Year helping to find the ultimate Studio 54 shirt. I'm so excited I'm shaking. The customer service here was incredible and exceeded my expectations when she helped to do some sewing on my shirt to stop the bottoms from opening. With Gratitude~ Dan

Lily Bowman

Wonderful experience! I made an appointment to look at wedding dresses and I the second dress I tried on is the dress I ended up buying. I’m very excited for my wedding day and everyone in the shop helped me look at accessories shoes etc. shout out to Mary, she was the one that helped book the appointment, corresponded with me and selected the dresses. If you want something unique and with some history this is the place to find it.

Craig Anderson

Like a lot of customers, I do not have much time to leave a review and if I do, I save that energy for either the worst of the worst or the best of the best experiences. My time at Decades of Fashion during the week leading up to my wedding was decidedly and fortunately the latter.

My experience started as a happy little mistake: I rented a tux for my wedding from a Union Square tailor, naively thinking the rental would be in the same universe of quality as a bespoke piece. I was sorely mistaken. When I opened the box from a corporate rental brand, tried on the 100% polyester shirt, the heavily perfumed suit jacket likely covering up the odor of a high school teenager that puked sour apple BuzzBall on it at prom, and put on the plastic shoes, I instantly knew I could not wear this thing to my own wedding even though it was in a week.

Knowing DoF has tuxedos, I decided to drop in and look around. I have always wanted a vintage tux worn by my fashion icon, Paul Newman. I told one of the employees that I was looking for a tuxedo for my wedding and was relieved to hear that they have a large inventory of vintage tuxedos. He introduced me to the owner, Cicely, and I explained my grave situation and showed the pictures of Paul Newman in a 60’s tux. Instantly, Cicely picked up on every single detail of the tux: modified peak lapel, long jacket length, low cut vest, etc. Fully expecting her to say, “Sorry, you waited too long”, much to my relief she said, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll have some stuff for you to try on”, despite it being the busiest week of their year (Halloween). Not only that, she also offered to tailor the suit — what a complete turnaround from teenager puke suit!

The next day, I arrived to 5 different suits laid out for me to try on. Cicely spent the night before rifling through her massive collection to pick out options and the better part of two hours styling me and putting together my EXACT vision. Once we had the pieces in place, she had her gracious tailor, Mary, fit me and tailor the pieces despite being buried in the Halloween rush.

During the entire process and especially when I picked up my perfectly styled and tailored tux, I was overcome with emotion and gratitude for Cicely and DoF. Cicely’s bright, witty, and kind personality coupled with her keen eye for vintage fashion were a welcomed relief from the stress of wedding planning.

My wedding was truly the best day of my life, and Cicely and the DoF staff played a pretty big part in that. The saying, “look good, feel food” must be true, because Cicely made me feel like a million bucks and it only put me back a couple hundred. I felt as effortlessly cool, handsome, and stylish as a young Paul Newman in his prime wearing that tuxedo.

After many years in business, Cicely’s Decades of Fashion is a living, breathing piece of Haight Street and SF history and we are all richer for its presence. Many people unfamiliar with the true SF incorrectly assume the city to be this technocratic, sanitized version of reality but it is not. The real SF is old school, gritty, and endearingly chaotic and DoF is a manifestation of that. Yes, at first glance the staff may come off as rude, but once you realize that they truly have a deep appreciation for the art form that is vintage clothing, you empathize with their protectiveness. They are more purveyors and guardians of art than they are salespeople and that is perfectly OK — this is a dying art form which needs respect and preservation.

Cicely, you are truly a titan of your trade and a very special person. You are not just a silk thread in the rich tapestry that is San Francisco, you are the whole damn suit and I am a lucky person for having the good fortune to cross paths with you. Thank you for helping to make my wedding day the best day of my life. I will have this tux for the rest of my life and I will wear it with pride, telling people that I was styled by THE Cicely Hansen of Haight Street. It will always be a reminder of your kindness, talent, and wit. Now I just need to find events to wear this to!

loki_doki21

Such an AMAZING store!!! Love my new 1960s outfit!! Such a great variety of both clothes and accessories!! Staff was incredibly helpful!! The owner was knowledgeable about the pieces in the store and helped to create my outfit!

nnena ukuku

I loved coming here. The owner pulled outfits that were flattering to my figure and appropriate to the era. She has an amazing eye. The staff were kind and helpful and had an opinion. I appreciated their opinion because I don’t want to look bad when I go out. Thank you all!!!

scot mcgoldrick

I needed to find a Great Gatsby style outfit for an upcoming NYE party and stopped in to look around. The owner, Cicely offered to help me find what I needed. Thanks to her knowledge of period fashion and the stores great selections, I will be attending the party looking as dapper as Leanardo did in the movie.

Nalani Lemmerman

It was my first time in the store and my friend has been coming here for 30 years. We were both so impressed with the collection of clothes available here. The employees were very friendly and informative! The owner was excited about our finds and we even got a pic with them. I will definitely come back anytime I’m in the city

Miss Mostess

An absolutely amazing collection of classic vintage clothing and accessories from the 70’s and earlier. The staff was so friendly and helpful, particularly Mary and Keone who saw that I was looking for something very particular and dove into their private, not-yet-out-on-the-floor collection to offer some really prime pieces that happily went home with me. Best vintage shopping experience I’ve had in a long time. Will be back, ?!