My Secret

A few weeks ago in a blog post, Ashley mentioned going on a shopping trip to a store recommended by a fellow student (me) but couldn’t reveal the name or location as she had been sworn to secrecy.

Well, I’ve decided to stop being so greedy and selfish and to share with you all my shopping secret, solution, and savior. The store’s name is Shareen Downtown, and was founded by Shareen Mitchell. I grew up in LA and have been to pretty much every vintage clothing store (and shopping destination) in the greater Los Angeles area, and this is by far the best. You can find anything: from party dresses, to evening gowns, rompers, tweed suits, summer shifts, shoes, hats, and cheap!! Shareen is a crazy person, a fast-talking and philosophizing former model, turned actress, turned nanny, turned vintage clothier. But despite her eccentricities (just sign up for her newsletter and you’ll see exactly what I mean), she has an incredible eye for clothes, and she will tell you if something looks bad or isn’t right for you.

I started buying from Shareen when I was 15 and she had a small booth at the Melrose/Fairfax flea market. And although she has moved on to bigger and better things; she now has two stores, styles celebrities, and has her own line (one of her dresses is called the “jewell” dress, which only signifies the extent of my obsession), she has stayed dedicated to keeping her prices affordable. And in times like these, that really is refreshing.

Wearing vintage clothes has long been my solution to my quantity over quality problem (as I’ve said, most of my clothes cost a dollar, but I don’t know if I’m ready to reveal my dollar sale secrets ) and to the ridiculous prices of new clothes. Plus I find the cuts more interesting and the construction tends to be of a higher quality.

So please go to Shareen’s and enjoy! She just opened a new store in Venice, and I haven’t been there yet. A few words of warning: the “downtown” location is actually in Lincoln Heights in a pretty sketchy warehouse district (but don’t mind the questionable surroundings, the treasure inside is worth it!). Also, no boys allowed. There are no dressing rooms, so be wary if you are particularly modest (I’ve creepily seen quite a few celebrities in the buff), but the atmosphere is really comfortable and everyone oohs and ahhhs over each other's choices. I’ve obviously never gotten over my childhood “dress-up” phase, where simply by putting on a princess dress (actually, for me more like a Scarlett O’Hara crinoline or a Ginger Rogers evening gown) you became a princess. Shareen’s perfectly fills that void for me.

I linked the title of this blog to her website (if you want a taste of what Shareen is like read her blog, which is linked on the site, it's really juicy), and here's an LA Times article on the store: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/17/image/ig-shareen17