Main Shopping Areas in Los Angeles
Whether you are in the mood for glamorous shopping and celebrity-shoulder rubbing, feel like scrounging around second-hand stores for a trendy bargain, or need a simple white T-shirt from the Gap, Los Angeles has an area to fill your needs.
The Golden Triangle, including Rodeo Drive
Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard, and N. Rexford Drive.
The most expensive and exclusive shops in the world occupy the Golden Triangle. Its most famous street, Rodeo Drive, is home to the biggest names, Tiffany’s, Gucci, Cartier, and Chanel, and frequented by the biggest stars in Hollywood. Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys are located on Wilshire Boulevard.
Melrose Avenue
Between San Vicente Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.
Los Angeles hipster and underground culture on Melrose Avenue has put LA street fashion on the map. The long avenue of shops is breathtaking and best attacked in sections. Well-known trendy boutiques and LA’s exclusive hipster havens stock mid-range priced items. West of Fairfax Avenue has recently emerged as a high-end boutique area.
Sunset Plaza
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Plaza is pushing for a European feel with outdoor cafes and boutiques attracting the Euro crowd, celebrities, and tourists. This is the place to eat, shop, and be seen. Prices are mid-range to high.
Westwood Village
Wilshire Boulevard, Gayle Avenue, and Hilgard Avenue.
Twenty large movie screens and low-end shops and eateries as well as a few high-end stores keep the local UCLA student population and surrounding up-market neighborhoods happy.
Fashion District
Downtown between Santee and Maple Streets and Olympic Boulevard and 12th Street.
Santee Alley in LA’s Fashion District is strictly for bargain hunters and has enough knockoffs to give China a run for its money. There are 90 blocks filled with 4,500 apparel and accessory lines and more than 1,000 stores frock together.
California Market Center, aka California Mart, is a one big building that is often referred to the fashion hub of Los Angeles. It has numerous retail shops as well as hundreds of showrooms representing thousands of brands of apparel and accessories. It is also a home for many design studios, business offices, shops, eateries and services. They have a sample sale the first Friday of every month and it is the place to be for the fashion inclined.
LA Brea
Between Hollywood Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard.
Boutiques, hardware stores, shops, and restaurants line this long and busy stretch of LA Brea. Prices are mid-range.
