Pasadena Magazine is the bi-monthly magazine of Pasadena and its surrounding areas – the diverse, historically rich and culturally vibrant region that includes Glendale, the Eastside of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley all the way to Claremont.
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Affordable Chic It's time to discover how timeless style or on-trend street chic can be attainable by mere mortals at these local luxury resale boutiques. STORY BY // NADINE ONO Clothes Heaven 111 E. Union St., Pasadena, CA 91103, 626.440.0929 or clothesheaven.com Walking into Clothes Heaven for the fi rst time can be overwhelming. Racks upon racks are overfl owing with Chanel, Escada, Jil Sander and almost every other luxury designer you can imagine. But don't be intimidated by the names on the labels or the volume of cloth- ing in the store, there is a method to fi nding exactly what you need. As owner Larayne Brannon describes it, "We play dress up every day and see shopping as a recreational sport." In fact, trying on clothing is a community effort, as customers often model the clothing and interact with other customers to choose the best items. Brannon opened Clothes Heaven in 1983, just across the street from its current location in Old Pasadena. She caters to the busy career woman who often doesn't have time to coor- dinate a look saying, "We love to put things together for women to look polished." The sales staff is very hands-on. If you try on an item, they will bring you several more of that style and size to make sure you have choices. Don't pass up the back room. There, you'll fi nd the $29 rack full of mid-range labels (J. Crew, Banana Republic, etc.) as well the sale racks at 50 percent off. The clothes from Clothes Heaven come from across Southern California and be- yond, which allows Brannon to offer a wide variety of sartorial styles for the chic street girls to C-suite executives to the ladies who lunch crowd. Pro Tip: If you see an item you like and fi ts well, take a look at the client (consignor) number on the tag. The sales staff will pull other items from that client and can let you know when new items come in from her. Gift of Garb 1615 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041, 323.909.2291 or giftofgarb.com Located in the emerging hipster neighbor- hood of Eagle Rock, Gift of Garb is a curated space that is modeled after Barneys New York and the store is organized as such. When you walk into the store, to the left, you'll fi nd brands that would normally appear in the Co-Op section and to the right, the higher end luxury brands with beautiful shoes in the middle and must-have bags hanging on the wall. "These are extremely curated brands that we want each piece to be impressive when you walk in the door," says owner Abby McLucas, who has always been interested in resale, scouring vintage stores and re-selling on Ebay since she was a teen. She wrote a business plan for her eventual business, but took a detour into the corporate world after college. In 2012, she opened a luxury re-sale store on Ebay (seller ID: GiftofGarb) and its success led her to open a brick and mortar storefront in 2014. McLucas runs both her physical and virtual stores out of the Eagle Rock location, so don't be fooled by the sparse nature of the space, there are a thousand more pieces of clothing in the back that are posted for sale on Ebay and cycled through main store. "We're basically two stores in one, so we're constantly shipping while we're here," she adds. Gift of Garb caters to the new family [CONCIERGE] 22 FEBRUARY 2016 T A L K A B O U T T O W N PULSE the pulse_Feb16.indd 22 1/20/16 4:52 PM