JAKE clothing, which you might know from cofounder, creative designer and director Jake Wall's stint on the most recent Project Runway season on Lifetime, is moving from its Mid-Market/Hayes Valley location to a new flagship in historic Jackson Square at 619 Sansome St.
It’s within blocks of a growing number of other boutiques, custom clothiers and tailors, including Isabel Marant, Iron & Resin, Tailors’ Keep and Victor Tung Couture. And it’s bringing back retail to a space in the Jackson Square Special Use District, which has seen an invasion of ground-floor office use in recent years.
JAKE, formerly known as Artful Gentleman, opened about three years ago at 1687 Market St. in the old McRoskey Mattress building, selling custom suiting and shirting for both men and women along with “capsule,” or limited edition, ready-to-wear pieces. Wall rebranded last summer for his appearance on Project Runway, which he left early to tend to his dying dog.
Wall told us they design clothes for people “who want to be the best-dressed people in the room. That can consist of anything from your supermarket to your board room. We make clothes for people who want to be noticed.”
Photo by Nathan Johnson/Courtesy of JAKE
That said, the larger-than-life posters on the new space feature models who are noticed because of what they’re not wearing. “We never take ourselves too seriously around here,” Wall said. “One of the things my father always said is, ‘If you’re not laughing, you’re not having a good time, you’re not doing it right.” He added, “Those images are provocative; eye-catching. Everything we do is provocative.”
Wall said he chose the new location because Jackson Square is “classic and modern with a defiant twist,” thanks to a mix of antiques, art and boutiques along with places like Bix, Barbarossa (formerly Bubble Lounge) and Bocadillos. “You’ve got so many wonderful places that round out the experience,” he said, “and that was important for us to be in a space that felt as well-rounded as our clients are.”
Photo by Nathan Johnson/Courtesy of JAKE
Those clients are “cultural progressives,” Wall said, “men and women who really value the things that they experience and accumulate in life. Life is meant to be lived, not just worked through hoping one day you’ll enjoy it.”
Wall said he's overseeing the interior design and development of the new space, although a team of emerging talent from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, where he teaches, is working on it with him, led by Jodi Tisdale of Tisdale Design.
JAKE is moving into a space previously occupied by an architecture firm that got a conditional use permit to skirt zoning rules for the special use district after moving in. Earlier this year, it moved out, and its website now lists an address in Oakland. “We’re excited it’s a space that was formerly retail some time back, but was recently occupied by offices," Wall said, "so it’s nice to be bringing that back to the neighborhood."
