LA Garment District

Being a long time southern California resident I had always heard of the trendy Garment district in downtown Los Angeles but had never found my way there. So I called my best friend, Amanda to take a field trip with me. Before leaving we were given some advice by a regular shopper of the area. We were told what we wanted was a place called “Santee St.” which was literally an Alley, we were not to wear any jewelry or get dressed up, deal only in cash and not to eat from any of the vending carts (rumor has it they aren’t very sanitary). We were scared we might not come back alive.

Santee Alley in the heart of the Garment district is literally a designer knock off paradise. Picture Diagon Alley from the “Harry Potter” books mixed with an out door mall. For a fashion lover such as myself I couldn’t help but stand in front of the entrance and ask where have you been all my life? There is everything from jewelry to toys to DNKY clothing. That’s right I said DNKY as opposed to DKNY. Most of the goods in the shops had to have a closer look taken. “Coach” was Code, “Baby Phat” was Baby Baby with what looked like a drunken version of the Cat logo and Dior was Dier with an ‘e’ that almost looked like an ‘o’. Really the creativity of these replica makers has to be commended. So many times I would look at a bag or a t-shirt and think “Wow they really have a (fill in the blank here)” and then realize “oh wait that’s not them.”

Every shop had an employee stand out front and yell to the passers by the most wonderful deals. One shop lured us in with their own version of lets make a deal. They had what looked like every type of replica Rolex available but I was not in the market for a replica Rolex. I wanted a purse and a Prada at that. You see it is my firm belief that every woman at one point in her life should own a replica purse of some sort, whether it is Gucci, Chanel or Coach. For me I like Prada, mainly because I just like the way it sounds. Another shop we passed had a man yelling out “Louie! We got Louie 2 for $10.” He sounded like a robot. So we went in. The walls were covered with fake Louie Vuittons or should I say Love and Virtues.

Interestingly enough if you spoke Spanish you got a better deal. For example one shop yelled out “Purse three for twenty! Bulsa’s quarto por vente!” Which means purses four for twenty. After that we noticed that two white girls from the O.C. didn’t get the same treatment as the majority of the people that shopped there. In the stores we sat back and watched as sales clerks would work sales for the Hispanic and Asian customers but when we went in a browsed we were just allowed to browse with out a sales pitch. Very few shop keepers actually talked to us. When Amanda purchased a shirt at one particular shop she was told $11. When she went to the register the clerk went to charge her $10 until the sale girl on the floor told her the “correct” price. We determined that the game of the day was to mess with the OC girls. Who were we to judge? Everyone needs to find a laugh somehow.

The Alley itself is at least a quarter of a mile long. It is crowded with shops and people rushing from place to place with black plastic bags saying things like “If they didn’t have the raid yesterday I would have gotten the sunglasses I wanted” or “You know I think I would rather have that other Gucci purse”. The restaurants we were told it was ok to eat at were still very scary looking. None of them looked any better than the food carts, which looked like they lived up to their reputation.

It wasn’t until we made it to the very last shop in the alley that I found my Prada purse. I was beginning to give up hope at that point. We had walked all that way, looked in every shop, our feet were tired our bellies were grumbling and I still had not gotten my desired purse (and I turned down two Love and Virtues by the way). I walked into the shop hoping to find the purse of my dreams. I went straight to a pink purse that caught my eye. I picked it up and turned around to the shop manager who was standing right behind me. Before I could even ask how much it was he said in a really soft voice “What name you want?”
“Excuse me?” I asked not knowing what he was talking about.
“For the purse, what name you want on it?”

I looked and saw a black purse just like mine that had Prada stamped on it. “I want that” I said pointing to the black one on the shelf. He looked at the purse and then looked back at me with a half smile and said, “Well then buy the black one.”

Using the tone of voice I reserve only when I want something from my husband I said “But I want the pink one.” He said, “Ok but it will be a triangle logo.” He then took the purse from my hands and pulled a little plastic baggie filled with Prada logos out from under his counter and hooked one of them on to my purse. I had finally gotten my Prada.

The Garment district is quite the experience for anyone to spend an afternoon browsing the shops. If you are in the market for a replica you will find it here. Just be sure not to go on a day there is a raid.