Maybe everyone who has ever visited San Francisco and then decided to stay forever has a memory like this. A perfect day in the city, after which you think to yourself: why would I live anywhere else?
For me, that day happened in 2005, and the epiphany took place after strolling down Haight Street doing some vintage shopping. (I know, cliche, but this is my truth.) My now-husband and I popped into Held Over vintage (opens in new tab), where he bought a white Members Only jacket and I bought a floor-length rust-colored duster that would become my signature look for the next two decades. (As typical tourists, we had underprepared for the chilly weather.) Later, in Golden Gate Park, wearing our new garb, we made a plan to try to live in San Francisco as soon as we were out of college.
Now we live here with our two children, who we’ve taken to the store over the years and allowed to pick out silly hats or feather boas.
But we won’t be able to go back anymore. Held Over is closing.
Current owner Cynthia Anderson tells The Standard that Held Over vintage’s last day will be Saturday, May 30. And from now until closing time on Saturday every item — every item — is $9.
“People are really sad about it,” Anderson said. “It’s basically an institution, because we’re the oldest vintage store in the area.”
When I visited it back then as a tourist, I didn’t know that Held Over was the crown jewel in a thrift empire called Retro City Fashion, operated by Anderson’s late husband Werner Werwie, which included such beloved thrift meccas as the now-departed Mission Thrift, La Rosa in the Haight, and Mars Mercantile in Berkeley. But Held Over was the OG, opened in 1976 and claiming to be the oldest vintage store in the city.
When Werwie died in late 2024, Anderson took over operation of Held Over, which had become the last remaining Retro City Fashion shop.
“It was a hard and frustrating two years,” she said. “My husband died without a will, so it’s been really, really challenging for me to, you know, even find the passwords and PIN numbers I need to run the business.”
Many longtime fans of the store learned about Werwie’s death and the store’s closing only recently when the shop posted about closing on Instagram (opens in new tab). “I didn’t even know he was dead,” said Damon Styer, the owner of New Bohemian Signs, who painted the iconic sign for Held Over and many of Retro City Fashion’s other vintage stores. “I will be sad to see it go.”
Anderson, 73, cites a few reasons for closing the store — from slumping sales to high rent costs to her own age. “They want me to sign another five-year lease, and I can’t do it, you know, I might not even live five more years,” Anderson said.
Anderson had not been involved in the day-to-day running of the shop before Werwie’s death, and said it was very hard to manage the store suddenly on her own. But she plans to keep the name going in some capacity.
Anything that doesn’t sell at the fire sale-party on Saturday will be sold online, after Anderson moves the stock to her two warehouses in the Mission. The shop’s four employees will be let go after Saturday.
“I have a wonderful crew right now, and they’re all bummed out because they’re losing their jobs,” Anderson said, though she floated the idea of hiring some people back to work at the warehouse if sales are good.
Along with $9 deals Saturday, the store will feature live music by local indie folk artist Anthony Arya. If you stop by, you might see me there, getting into my feelings about the ending of an era.
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