Valencia Street’s DEMA is closing (updated)
January 4, 2016
UPDATE 5:45 p.m.: In an email, Grim talked about her future plans and said that DEMA would be open until the end of the month. As for her decision to close the shop, she wrote that she wasn’t getting enough business anymore for reasons that are unclear:
Maybe all my customers have moved to the East Bay? Maybe they all shop on line? Maybe the new residents of SF are so boring they don’t know how to wear my colorful dresses? It’s a mystery but it sucks so off I go. I’m moving into a studio in Dogpatch where I’ll do custom clothing and wholesale. If anyone wants to follow me they can go to http://www.godemago.com and sign up on the mailing list!!
ORIGINAL POST: Constantly changing Valencia Street is losing one of its longtime business. A Facebook post this morning announced the closing sale for women’s clothing boutique DEMA, at 1038 Valencia St. between 21st and 22nd. The store, which sells brightly colored vintage-inspired clothes, marked its 18th year in business last month.
It is unclear why DEMA is closing. On the event page for the sale, owner Dema Grim wrote simply that she is “on to new adventures.”
[Photo via DEMA’s Facebook page]
Perhaps San Francisco has lost interest in the personal and quirky aesthetic that small businesses like Dema represent. Now they only seem to get media attention when they are closing.
Best of Luck to Dema with her new adventures!!
I wanted to like what DEMA did, and bought a few items there, but went in far more times coming out empty handed than I’d have liked. The feeling I had was that the selection was overpriced and too narrow. The owner was friendly enough, but something about the space (perhaps the raised platform on which the owner sat?) made it feel uncomfortable to be in, as if you were under scrutiny the entire time while in the store.