California Apparel News

When a Starbucks café opened on the corner of Sixth and Spring streets in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 25, none of the street’s independent fashion boutiques worried that the corporate coffee giant would push independent shops out of business.

Instead of loud choruses of “there goes the neighborhood,” Spring Street’s independent fashion boutique owners thought their new neighbor would finally prove that their section of downtown is open for business. (A representative of the new Starbucks said the Seattle-based chain wants its neighbors to grow with them despite years of criticism for allegedly pushing independent coffee shops out of business.) “It adds legitimacy to downtown,” Brooke Price, owner of Stanton James boutique at 600 S. SpringSt., said of the new Starbucks. But she said that Spring Street and other parts of downtown must still regularly defend their reputations. “Friends from Beverly Hills say downtown is too gritty,” Price said. “But it’s not the same place it was even last year.”

The new Starbucks on Spring Street is just the latest development in an evolving downtown. Back in late 2010, entrepreneur Kuo Yang felt comfortable enough to open contemporary boutique Brigade at 510 W. Seventh St. because the place was changing. “I asked a friend, ‘What do you see that is different in this neighborhood?’ He said, ‘White couples walking their dogs. You didn’t see that in 2001,’” said the retailer and former Marine.

Yang is glad to get fashion customers from all backgrounds at his store, which sells dresses, premium denim and spiked Jeffrey Campbell shoes. Students from the University of Southern California and the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising typically buy the more fashion-forward clothes. Executives from nearby Bunker Hill and the Financial District typically purchase the more elegant wares. All boutique owners interviewed said tourists from all over the world are browsing their shops.

Veteran downtown boutiques have remodeled and remerchandised their wares because downtown is changing so quickly. Outfitters has been selling urban and hip-hop–style clothes at 200 W. Eighth St. in downtown since the late 1990s, but earlier this year it remerchandised to carry street and skatewear brands such as Obey and RVCA. “There is a change in the area,” said store manager Ahmad Jouni. “We have different customers, so we must change.”

Downtown also attracts emerging designers to open ateliers.Designers Miguel Torres and Nicholas Bowes opened separate ateliers on the 200 block of West Eighth Street earlier this year. Alan Bunao forecast both more-corporate and independent shops are coming to the area. He is the owner of the Sixhundred boutique, located at 600 S. Spring St. “It is the beginning,” he said.

In the Los Angeles Fashion District, designer Henry Duarte has opened a store near the MartinMartin atelier and boutique on Los Angeles Street.