Inside McMullen’s Maiden Lane Opening: Fashion, Friends and a Candlelit Celebration

• Event: McMullen Maiden Lane Grand Opening
• Date: October 15, 2026
• Location: McMullen, Maiden Lane, San Francisco
• Photo credit: Drew Altizer and Dave Zahrobsky for Drew Altizer Photography

Sherri McMullen welcomed friends and guests to McMullen’s new Maiden Lane flagship on October 15 for an opening-night celebration that brought fashion and a shared dinner together in San Francisco. A candlelit table for 60 filled the store’s second floor, while DJ Ray Reck provided the evening’s music.

The celebration offered a first look at the 6,342-square-foot space, designed in collaboration with McMullen and interior designer Gabriella Khalil. Conceived as a series of inviting places to gather, the store weaves storytelling into its interiors alongside a designer selection that includes Dries Van Noten, Diotima, Proenza Schouler and Christopher John Rogers.

Behind the celebration is a career built on both business discipline and an eye for discovery. Before opening her Oakland boutique in 2007, McMullen worked as an accountant in Dallas, trained as a buyer through Neiman Marcus’s executive development program and became a textile buyer for Pottery Barn Kids. Those experiences gave her a grounding in the business behind the clothes, as she recounted in a Vogue interview.

Her boutique brought that experience together with a commitment to making room for different voices in luxury fashion. The Council of Fashion Designers of America highlighted McMullen’s support for female-owned brands and Black designers, with emerging labels such as Christopher John Rogers and Khiry alongside established names. In that interview, she also described offering internships, particularly to young Black students with limited access to the industry, extending her work beyond the sales floor.

Maiden Lane builds on those Oakland beginnings and the San Francisco store she opened in 2024. In her own announcement of the new flagship, McMullen emphasized hospitality and discovery: a place for books, records and fragrance downstairs, with fashion, accessories and private styling upstairs. It is a larger setting for the relationships that have shaped her business from the start.

Among those joining McMullen for the occasion were Ayesha Curry, Meena Harris and Christina Iguodala. The evening paired the new flagship’s fashion offerings with the kind of gathering its interiors were designed to welcome.

Guests also included Becca Prowda, Samantha Bechtel, Sabrina Buell, Jessica Silverman, Katie Traina, Jessica Moment, Danielle Snyder Shorenstein, Kendall Kerr and Marisa Rodriguez of the Union Square Alliance.