Downtown LA Needs Indie Fashion Boutiques - Fashion Retailing News | California Apparel News | LA Fashion

Downtown LA Needs Indie Fashion Boutiques - Fashion Retailing News | California Apparel News | LA Fashion
Oh, how the years have passed. Feels like it was yesterday when I would jump off the red-line to walk the 1.5 blocks to the FIDM campus passing the very sad Macy's and the little mall they had attached. When we would get a retailer evaluation project, I would desperately try to use my lunch to go up to the Macy's to at the very least write the mid-tier portion. But every time I was in that store it was one thing or another, a homeless junkie wandering around with security behind them or just an off selection of urban/ bohemian, 3 years past trend of season's collection, but no mark down. Anyhow, my point being is that, that Macy's needed to leave 10 years ago, Target will be a great replacement for the current/future FIDM students as well as all surrounding businesses and residents. I just wonder what will happen to the rest of that "mall". From the sound of this article, it will not be boutique like shops for a trendier downtown.
But hey, that is what Santee Alley for, why not promote and protect the knock-off central of the greater Los Angles area that is actually killing our local economy. Yes, that's right this alleyway of cheep bargains and wonderful deals has an ugly side to it. The knock-offs of designer labels and up and coming designers hurts the potential for longer standing gross margins for our economic growth. What I mean is, if you sell something off the back of a truck with a "almost free" price tag. How do you expect the public to ever pay for a quality bag or dress if they can buy one for practically nothing? Leaving little to no room for the sewer, the merchandiser or allocator to have a job. Yes, that's right. The love of our own fashion industry with our greed and always want more attitude is ruining the availability of jobs in the future. Not to mention, the supporting of other countries economy's more than ours, why make another country stronger when we are becoming so weak?
You might think this philosophy goes against what my bog is about, but rather it is not. I support stores with a brand name that I can afford, rather than putting myself in debt to buy things that are outside of my price-range. Call it responsibility, call it taking inspiration from those great designers and putting their own spin on it. But at the end of the day, it still supports a vertical operation to which mostly has many American employees with health care who pay taxes to our country, even if the manufacturing happens over seas.