See the boarded-up designer storefronts in San Francisco's Union Square

The Valentino store, boarded up during the coronavirus shutdown in San Francisco. The Valentino store, boarded up during the coronavirus shutdown in San Francisco. Photo: Andrew Chamings Photo: Andrew Chamings Image 1 of / 37 Caption Close See the boarded-up designer storefronts in San Francisco's Union Square 1 / 37 Back to Gallery

The lavish, gleaming storefronts of the designer boutiques on San Francisco's Maiden Lane and surrounding Union Square shopping district have never looked less fancy.

San Francisco has been essentially shut down for two weeks now after a shelter-in-place mandate, the first in the country, was ordered by Mayor London Breed on March 17. Hospitality and brick-and-mortar retail have been some of the hardest-hit sectors, and high-end clothes and jewelry sellers are not above the fray, as they find themselves empty, boarded-up and closed for business.

Diamonds have been removed from the window displays of jewelers Tiffany's and Bulgari, and locked in safes. Handbags and shoes are gone from the shelves of Jimmy Choo and Maison Margiela. Carpenters replaced shoppers in a near-empty Union Square this week as wood paneling was nailed up over the glass fronts of almost every designer store, from Hermes to Chanel.

Some of the luxury outlets from Italy, a country ravaged by coronavirus, have now found themselves in the business of making medical protective gear in an effort to help in their home country. The Armani group announced this week that its Italian plants are now making single-use medical overalls to protect Italian health care workers. Prada is making face masks, and Bulgari of Rome is manufacturing hand sanitizer. The high-end brand pledged to make up to a million recyclable bottles of hand-sanitizing gel, to be distributed to medical facilities in Italy.

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In a note to clients last week, investment firm Bernstein said that 2020 is "likely going to be the worst in the history of the modern luxury goods industry. This scenario is worse than in 2008, as there doesn’t seem to be any offset."

The sad reality of this pandemic and subsequent recession is that many workers in retail may never return to their previous jobs. Amid plummeting sales, Macy's and Gap announced massive employee furloughs without pay in recent days. The safety net of online purchasing helps the luxury market less than in other areas — only 12% of high-end jewelry and fashion sales come from online. People like to buy diamonds and designer handbags in person, and today, the shelves are empty.

We took a walk down Maiden Lane, the center of all things luxe in San Francisco, to see how it looks in shutdown. (See slideshow above)

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Andrew Chamings is a digital editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings