L.A.'s District for Smart Shoppers
By Allison Engel
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, May 4, 2003
After dusk, East Ninth Street in downtown Los Angeles is deserted, many of its storefronts shuttered behind grim corrugated metal facades.
What a difference morning can make. By 10 a.m. the streets are alive with customers and shopkeepers from around the world. The metal shutters rise to reveal hundreds of fabric stores filled with African mud cloths, Italian cashmeres, Indian embroidered organza, Polynesian prints. There are stores that specialize in beaded fabrics, stores for feather boas and angel wings, and stores focused on fine woolens.
Colorful bolts of bright cottons, fake furs, fleece prints and all sorts of notions spill from bins on the sidewalk, where shoppers bargain with Persians, Koreans and the remaining Eastern European Jews who pioneered Los Angeles's fabric district.
If you haven't sewn a stitch since junior high, you still might want to visit this 18-block area that sells the world's yard goods and notions. The fabric district, part of the sprawling and ever-expanding fashion district, is a colorful international bazaar. If you can sew a hem, you might be tempted by unique yard goods that can be turned into a tablecloth or curtains. The area is also a favorite stop for crafters, or those who want to choose their own material for reupholstering furniture. You can also just grab a quick look and keep strolling to nearby commercial districts dedicated to flowers, toys and jewelry.
If you do sew, the 300 or so shops in L.A.'s fabric district are a welcome counterpoint to the look-alike offerings of chain fabric stores. Although some stores in the fabric district cater to wholesalers, the majority welcome retail customers, and clerks do not sneer if you buy only a yard at a time.
Shoppers who buy significant amounts can find their savings over regular prices paying their airfare. Several stores sell everything in their inventory for $2 to $3 a yard. Half-price compared to regular retail outlets is common. For many, though, the dazzling choices are the draw.
"There isn't anyplace in the country that can touch this," says Ann Davis, a textile representative. "Santee Alley [the open-air fashion market] is bigger and better than the Lower East Side or anything New York's got. And from a handful of retail fabric stores in the 1970s, there are hundreds today."
There are really two separate worlds in the East Ninth Street area, says Hal Kaltman, a textile rep who is president of the Textile Association of Los Angeles. "There's the wholesale textile people who have showrooms and are calling on manufacturers all day long and are very involved in the industry. Then there's the street bazaar."
The street bazaar is run mainly by jobbers who buy leftover fabric from manufacturers at the end of a season and resell it. Clothing manufacturers can't count on the street merchants being able to get more of any particular fabric, Kaltman said, "but for the home sewer, it's like a dream world."
It is not unusual for shoppers to fly to Los Angeles simply to shop East Ninth Street.
"It's definitely worth the cost of the trip," says Renee Johnson, who has made five pilgrimages here in the past three years. A dance studio owner in suburban St. Louis, Johnson heard about the district from a dance teacher touting the inexpensive rhinestones and beaded fabric.
Johnson, whose 60 students need costumes, buys glue-on rhinestones by the gross -- as much as $700 worth in one swoop. Then there are feathers, satin, illusion, fake fur, stretch fabrics and elasticized rhinestone trims.
"What I can find for $6.95 a yard in Los Angeles I would end up paying $15.95 a yard locally, if I could find it," she says. "I've bought unique fabrics, embroidered fabrics, and I always find interesting stretch fabrics."
Sometimes she ships her purchases home, but on a recent trip she and a friend bought huge duffel bags on wheels in the fashion district for $16.95 each and rolled them from store to store, giggling as they maneuvered the bulky containers.
Angela Lampe, costume designer for the Des Moines Playhouse, used to fly to New York to buy fabric for upcoming productions. Last summer, tales of great selections and prices lured her to East Ninth to shop for fabric to make turn-of-the-century costumes for the musical "Ragtime." In two days, she bought 144 yards of Italian wool, herringbone linen, lace, brocade, crepe back satin, twill and poplin. Average cost: $4.60 a yard.
In March, Lampe was back shopping for beaded velvet shawls, satins and a silvery rayon blend to turn into flashy jackets for a singing quartet in "Smokey Joe's Cafe." She also found the primary prop for the children's play "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse."
Casual shoppers with time and patience browse through hole-in-the-wall operations that offer a jumble of mill ends, overstocks and a mix of fabrics, from luxury wools to garish poly-cottons. One recent day, I found lining fabric for 50 cents a yard, a handsome camel and gray wool check for $5 a yard and a 60-inch wide, crisp navy and white all-cotton stripe for $1.50 a yard.
Those on a mission head to stores that specialize. For example, for African prints and ethereal Indian silks in dozens of colors, there's Shan Fabrics (304 E. Ninth St.). Or Ashanti Fabrics (224-A E. Ninth St.), whose wares include African fabrics and a good selection of cottons woven with metallic threads.
The bride-to-be, or her dress designer, would do well to start at Valentine Textiles (305 E. Ninth St.), Lace Palace (305 E. Ninth St.) or City Bride (945-A S. Maple Ave.), where a gorgeous white-on-white satin stripe was recently selling for $1 a yard.
Then there are stores that cater to entertainers, skaters and dancers, like E-Z Fabric Outlet (429 E. Ninth St.) and Saman-Tex (305 E. Ninth St.). Interior designers and do-it-yourself homemakers have thousands of choices for upholstery and drapes at Deco Design Fabric (512 E. Ninth), Venise Fabric (508 E. Ninth St.) and L.A. Fred's Fabric (411 E. Ninth St.).
The most complete fabric store in the district is Michael Levine (920 S. Maple Ave.). Prices aren't bargain basement, but if you need to match a particular color, whether it be in felt, denim, tulle, Ultrasuede or lining, you'll have your best luck here. Plus, Levine has an amazing array of zippers in every length and color.
Prices are posted and fixed at Michael Levine, but elsewhere, bartering is the norm. "They'll give you one price for one yard, but if you buy, say, 10 yards, you'll get a lower price," says Johnson. Prices also can be lower if you pay cash, experienced buyers discover. If you are willing to buy all that remains on a bolt, rather than saddle the store with a hard-to-sell remnant, the shopkeeper may knock off an additional 50 cents or so per yard.
If you visit during the week, a must stop for fashion and fabric mavens is International Fashion Publications, a bookstore in the lobby of the California Mart, a multistory building filled with wholesale apparel and fabric showrooms on 110 E. Ninth St. The store carries books and magazines on costumes, designers and graphic arts, as well as hard-to-find publications from around the globe.
Above all, the fabric district is consumer-friendly, says Lampe, who notes for example that she is sometimes offered cold beverages by shopkeepers. "If you are an avid sewer," she says, "you may find yourself booking a couple of cheap [airplane] tickets every year."
Allison Engel is a contributing writer for American Patchwork & Quilting and Quilt Sampler magazines.
Details: L.A. Fabric District