ISSO: A Hidden Fashion Boutique Where You Go To Find Treasures
ISSO is a fashion boutique established in 2007, owned and operated by two friends, Marie Biscarra and Ivy Chan, located in the Mission Dolores Park District. This boutique focuses on women’s clothing, shoes, accessories as well as gifts, artwork and handmade teddy bears. Everything in this store is made, bought, and designed here in San Francisco.
Marie and Ivy used to be co-workers at their previous company and when their company closed, the two decided to start their own boutique. Marie has over 30 years of experience in the fashion industry while Ivy has over 19 years of design experience. Marie is the creative director of ISSO and Ivy serves as the head designer.
The name ISSO stands for “is so” and the store owners wanted to express that “our store is so San Francisco”. As for the location of ISSO, Marie says, “We inherited from our last company. Wholesale design company had this location. It’s not that we chose this location, the location chose us.” The location has not changed for over 10 years, the only change to ISSO is that it started as a one-room boutique and has expanded into three-room next door over the years.
With so many unique items in this store, visiting this store feels like one is on a quest to dig for treasures. ISSO has clothes that are innovative, fresh new design by the store owners themselves. They also have clothes where they turned vintage into new clothes by cutting and re-designing. Whether it’s designed from the roots or items that they’ve transformed from vintage clothes, the design and clothes are undeniably interesting.
Ivy especially recommended a high waist wrap-pants that are reversible. You can wear the pockets in the front or back. They are fully adjustable and ISSO made the pants only in two sizes that can fit almost everyone. One customer that purchased this pair of pants said, “I’ve never seen any design like this before, I didn’t even know how to put this on at first but once you wore it, the high-quality material and the reasonable price tag won me over. I just had to own this pair of pants.”
Another interesting item ISSO demonstrated was a vest that they’ve redesigned by flipping it upside down and turned it into a new fashionable piece of top-wear. A unique top was also displayed at the entrance of the store, the top, Ivy turned a men’s sweater into a women’s by cutting the material and transform the size. These re-design aspects about ISSO are not only very unique, but they reflect their ideas on being eco-friendly and preserving the environment, “The Fashion industry is a huge industry that contributes to damaging the environment, we do the best that we can to recycle and re-design clothes. We also attract customers that share the same eco-friendly vision as us.”
Apart from products by their own brand ISSO, the store also carries products from other local designers. Such as a unisex t-shirt collection called New Skool, designed by Grafitti artist Nate One(@nate1design). Ever since Nate became a father, he even released a baby’s t-shirt version of his collection. Many artworks by Nate One can be seen all over the store those are also for sale. A local handmade teddy bear collection called Baxter Bears made by Marshall Baxter. Every single teddy bear is made of different textile, fabric and every single bear’s arms and legs are moveable. Local accessory brand TresMercedes(@tresmercedes), with many of its strange, fun and unique types of rings, earrings, and etc. Rap group Wu-Tang Clan’s(@wutangbrand) men collection is also sold here, offering jackets with delicate embroidery and high-quality material. Those designers are friends of Marie and Ivy, and the commonality of the products in the store is the great quality with affordable price.
The goal of ISSO is to give its customers an experience rather than just coming to buy something. Marie and Ivy wish to engage with customers, give advice, and help customers find items that will make customers feel a connection with the items in the store that defines their personality. According to Marie, “We’re trying to pull community and engage with people. More community and more events. Reaching out and doing more events. People are so busy, they don’t realize they need to take some time for themselves. We’re just not a store, selling things to sell it. We want people to come in, feel something about it and then buy it.” Regarding the prices at ISSO, Marie says “Well, for example, our pants are made and designed here in San Francisco and we sell it for under $100, I mean that’s not bad.”
ISSO is currently very popular on Yelp, they are planning to build a stronger social media presence on Instagram, Facebook and more. E-commerce is also one of ISSO's plans for the future. Next, ISSO will host a holiday sales event from the 15th to the 23rd of December. If you’re free and in the area, do check it out and find yourself some treasures that define your individuality. With a vintage vibe, innovative designs, and meticulously made accessories, ISSO promises there’s no other store that delivers an experience like ISSO does.
Visit ISSO:
3608 19th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94110
https://www.issosf.com/
Instagram: @issosanfrancisco
