California Apparel News

When Mike De La Vega opened his boutique The Academy in the East Village Arts district of Long Beach, Calif., he confessed to having more than the typical debut jitters.

“There was nothing on this block,” said De La Vega. “It was deserted. There was no one walking around. It was eerie.”

But De La Vega didn’t let the ghost town feel of East First Street bother him much. Since 2002, when he and business partner John Mendez opened their 530-square-foot boutique, the luck of the neighborhood seemed to change.

More than five fashion boutiques have opened on East First Street in the past four years. Scores of people from Long Beach and all around Southern California browse the neighborhood’s art galleries and dine at village restaurants during the district’s art festivals, which take place every two weeks.

But De La Vega and other boutique owners believe that their neighborhood still has a long way to go before it can become an address where they can make big profits, and rival Long Beach’s best retail thoroughfares such as Second Avenue, where national chain stores such as Chico’s run boutiques.

One hurdle to overcome is promised redevelopment. Projects scheduled in downtown Long Beach include a possible boutique hotel, more than 3,000 living units and 30,000 square feet of retail along Long Beach Boulevard, according to Kraig Kojian, president of Downtown Long Beach Associates, a non-profit organization that helps manage development in the neighborhood.

While an 18-story luxury condominium building called Aqua was completed in 2005, and downtown sales tax increased 4.53 percent from 2003 to 2004, according to the DLBA, some neighborhood entrepreneurs said the development is not coming fast enough.

“You can’t sell things to people who will be here in five years,” said Seacute; Reid, co-owner of Open, an East Village book store.

However, some boutiques overcame this hurdle by attracting customers from outside the area. East First Street boutique Seams thrives by attracting 40 percent of its customers from outside of the city, according to Vince Villanueva, the store’s buyer and manager.

The 1,000-square-foot shop enjoys a great pull because it sells streetwear brands that hook customers with offers of limited-edition sneakers and clothing, which are often considered collectors’ items.

Customers find out about the limited-edition brands of Nike SB and Adidas through Seams’ MySpace page, the brands’ Web sites and streetwear Web sites such as www.evilmonito.com.

Some of Seams’ best-selling items include hoodies by New York–based label CLH, $64.90, and a $28.95 T-shirt by Los Angeles skatewear brand The Hundreds.

Other boutique owners on the block say that they can’t wait for the neighborhood to change. Jessica Obando Portillo said she and business partner Cori Cauble Preston plan to move their eco-fashion boutique Goldie to Santa Monica, Calif. She said that city’s environmentally minded consumer is willing to pay a little more for clothes made with organic cotton. Goldie’s price points are $80–$350 for eco-designer brands such as Loomstate, Rogan and Edun.

“It will take East Village a little while to catch up to that trend,” she said.

Other boutique owners plan to weather the lean times and be among the boutiques open when downtown Long Beach meets its potential, said Sonia Moncayo, owner of L’Exotique Appeal on East Broadway, a couple blocks away from East First Street. She also works as a real estate saleswoman.

“It’s going to be very good,” she said optimistically of the neighborhood’s future. Best-selling brands at L’Exotique Appeal include a plaid, Westernstyle skirt by Los Angeles–based Miss Me, $59, a viscose/ Lycra top by Rubber Ducky Productions, also $59, and a $98 100 percent silk dress by Sugarlips.

Rates for commercial real estate are $1.25 per square foot in East Village, Moncayo said. On neighboring Pine Avenue, rates range from $2.75 to $3. Moncayo opened a second L’Exotique Appeal boutique in March in Long Beach’s Bixby Knolls neighborhood, where a square foot of commercial real estate costs $2.60.

While downtown continues to grow, fashion boutiques have opened in other revitalizing parts of Long Beach. More than three boutiques have opened near the intersection of Fourth Street and Redondo Avenue in Long Beach. Linne’s, Rebel Boutique and I Candi sell contemporary clothes.

Linne Hoy said her namesake store will benefit from being located near the busy intersection of Fourth and Redondo. “People pass by and say I got to stop by that shop,” she said.