Cable Car Clothiers Haberdashers

Our heritage

The destination for men who seek fine clothing, crafted with care.

Cable Car Clothiers is the oldest men's retailer in San Francisco. Its classic style has kept it a city institution for generations.

From the archive

  1. Ribbon cutting at a Cable Car Clothiers opening, from the store archive

    1946

    Vet's Mercantile

    Charlie Pivnick opens a war surplus store, Vet's Mercantile, on Fillmore Street. A store on Van Ness Avenue follows, and later one store on Market Street selling work and dress clothes alongside surplus.

  2. Archival photograph of The English Man's Clothing Shop entrance with Union Jack and American flags

    1954

    Cable Car Clothiers

    As military surplus sources dried up, the store focused on traditional, British-style clothing and was renamed Cable Car Clothiers, after the cable car line on Powell and O'Farrell Streets.

  3. Cox Moore and Jaeger sweaters from England, a 1970 catalog spread

    1970

    The quarterly catalog

    The mail order catalog eventually reached a circulation of two million and helped make the store a tourist destination.

  4. Coats page from a 1970 Cable Car Clothiers catalog

    1972

    Robert Kirk joins

    Pivnick purchased and incorporated Robert Kirk, a San Francisco retailer founded in 1939, giving the motto "San Francisco's British Goods Store Since 1939." The flagship store was established at 150 Post Street.

  5. Cover of the 1974 Cable Car Clothiers summer catalog

    1980s

    Sutter Street and One Grant Avenue

    Located mid-block on Sutter Street near Union Square, then moved to expand into One Grant Avenue, a Greek Revival banking temple. Two smaller Financial District shops and 200 Bush Street, at the corner of Sansome, followed.

  6. The hat and cap counter at 110 Sutter Street today

    2012

    Back to Sutter Street

    In late 2012 the shop returned to its roots on Sutter Street and opened an in-house 1930s-style barbershop beside its clothing, hats and caps, accessories, grooming and lifestyle goods.

The family

Four generations of San Franciscans

Charles Pivnick

Haberdasher Emeritus, 1919 to 2014

"CP" served in the Army in combat in the South Pacific during World War II. Home in San Francisco, he remembered looking in the windows of upscale men's stores and wishing he could afford the clothes on display. He always liked to dress well.

He established Cable Car Clothiers with traditional clothing for the mid-to-upper income bracket, and ran two, three and four stores in the late fifties and early sixties while attending college in the evenings.

He received his Bachelor's Degree in 1959 and his Master's Degree in Marketing in 1969, both from the University of San Francisco, and in 1970 served as president of the university's MBA Alumni Association.

Jonathan Levin

Head Haberdasher

Jonathan is a fourth generation San Franciscan and the oldest grandson of founder Charles Pivnick. He first appeared in the catalog at age three, modeling a life size rocking horse from England, and grew up working the stock room and sales floor during holidays and summers.

After UC Berkeley, a stint on the East Coast and work as a broker downtown, he returned to his true passion, traditional men's clothing. He orchestrated the move to Sutter Street in late 2012, giving the shop the décor of an exclusive English club and a 1930s-style barbershop.

In the press

Stories about the shop

Articles open on the original Cable Car Clothiers site.

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