On a cool October evening during San Francisco Tech Week, a line of people gathered outside the wrought-iron gates of a Pacific Heights mansion. Two burning braziers flanked a red carpet leading up the steps up to the house—a former art school building whose revivalist architecture felt worlds apart from the offices and corporate venues of other Tech Week events. The crowd, too, looked out of place by San Francisco standards: structured jackets, silk neck scarves, and tailored skirts set the tone, with barely a hoodie in sight. This was Fashion X Tech, an event devoted to a topic many people no longer associate with San Francisco: style.
Max Hui, the founder and CEO of Lookbook, is amongst the attendees. “I heard someone say this was the best-dressed room in SF. They’re not wrong,” he jokes.
His startup, a consumer app focused on curating personalized outfit inspo for Gen Z, isn’t an obvious fit for a city better known for SaaS and enterprise software. In fact, the city is described as one of the worst-dressed in the country, thanks to its inescapable tech scene, where hybrid and remote work is prevalent and and in-office dress codes, where they exist, tend to be more relaxed. Despite this, a number of fashion founders have decided on San Francisco as their home base. For Hui, the logic is straightforward: the city may not be Lookbook’s market, but it is still one of the best places to build the company.
