MCMULLEN CELEBRATES 15 YEARS OF STYLE

CFDA - It all begins 15 years ago in the historic and inspiring community of Oakland, CA. Shop McMullen Founder and CEO Sherri McMullen is a pioneer in her city where she has spent her time building a global network to help champion Black and POC designers in the fashion industry.

As one of the fastest growing Black and female-owned luxury omni retailers in the country, McMullen threw a three-day birthday celebration, kicking off the festivities with an exclusive welcome dinner co-hosted by Google.

To help mark the anniversary, a runway show was held for a capsule titled the “15 For 15 Collection” that nods to the past, present and future of McMullen’s community and features CFDA member brands Christopher John Rogers, Proenza Schouler, Mara Hoffman, Jonathan Cohen, Harwell Godfrey, as well as designers Sergio Hudson, Khiry, Brandon Blackwood, among others.

Opening the runway show was a special spoken word performance by Makiah Hiley, a student from the local Oakland School of the Arts. Once the finale of models closed the show, each of the 150 guests was able to pre-shop the collection of runway looks in the pop-up shop before the Google-empowered launch at midnight PST.

The anniversary was also an opportunity for McMullen to uplift her community, capping off the celebration with a final breakfast and special conversation on activism, advocacy, Black life and culture with President and Co-founder of the Huey P. Newton Foundation and former Black Panther Party member Fredrika Newton and founder of afro-futurist luxury brand Khiry Jameel Mohammed.

The events culminated at her West Oakland distribution center to deliver bigger news for the shop’s future. Beyond bringing more jobs back to spotlight this under-represented area, the majority of the distribution center will also play host to emerging brands that will be hand-selected for McMullen’s new Incubator Program. Each designer will get hands-on fashion industry experience and mentorship from the McMullen team to help establish their brand and collection. In addition to that, they will also have access to tangible resources including logistics, shipping and distribution support, e-commerce photo studio, studio space, as well as experience growing their customer base through McMullen’s global online network.