“Entering the Modern Appealing Clothing (MAC) boutiques, you step through the looking glass, go down the rabbit hole and resurface in San Francisco’s fashion Wonderland. The merchandise is high-concept fantasy. Dries Van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck, Sofie D’Hoore, Junya Watanabe and Comme des Garcons await, as do the collections of independent brands and local designers with out-of-the-ordinary visions. The walls feature work by both art world celebs and artists from Creative Growth and Creativity Explored, two Bay Area organizations that work with people with developmental differences. You might hear Sylvie the Airedale-retriever barking from the stockroom: Salespeople Anton, Armando, Christen, Helen and Scott greet you with a hello if you’re a stranger, an embrace if you are a regular.

If the visitor is Alice, then the Mad Hatter and March Hare of the MAC tea party are Ben and Chris Ospital, the brother and sister who founded the boutique in 1980 with their mom, Jeri. Their boutiques, now located in Hayes Valley and Dogpatch, have survived economic booms and busts, changing retail trends, and made the move into ecommerce via British website Farfetch and become beloved not just in San Francisco, but worldwide.”


from Modern Appealing Clothing: An oral history of SF's first family of fashion by Tony Bravo, SF Chronicle, June 2016