Impossible to miss, The Garment District’s pink-painted exterior grabs one’s attention immediately. Once inside, it’s hard to leave. Located in Cambridge, the business brands itself an “alternative department store” with endless clothing options from Halloween costumes to vintage items.
“As big as it is, it’s organized,” said Eric Propp, the rental manager for The Garment District partner “Boston Costume” located on the first floor. Upon entering, Propp’s section takes up a majority of the space, along with the checkout counter.
Some clothes find their way not on hangers but strewn about on the first floor, as part of The District’s “By the Pound” section, where shoppers can gather as many pieces as they please. Every Saturday, a shipment arrives with copious amounts of clothes that sit in this section of The District. Customers take to the floor and search through the disheveled piles, hoping to find a new piece to add to their closets. Once they’ve had enough, they’ll weigh their findings in a bag; whatever its weight is determines how much they pay at $2 per pound.
The store frequently receives recycled clothing from companies around the country that save and redistribute old clothing. It organizes all clothing into numerous categories varying in size, decade and color. Traveling up the steel stairs to the second floor is where most of the items find a home. Here, racks of jackets, t-shirts, pants and other products are sorted by size and color. The women’s and men’s sections are split accordingly, with accessories hanging on the perimeter on the walls.
The variety of clothing is not the only eye-catching part of The District; the pink walls are littered with old bikes, signs and other large trinkets that add a unique charm to the shopping experience. For instance, an old plane protrudes from a wall; after the pilot got into a minor crash, the plane was offered up as junk to the store, a symbol of how the recycling motto is attributed to everything in the store. The store is budget conscious, emphasizing the rejection of the idea that clothing out of the trend cycle is disposable. New items are released onto the sales floor everyday, and when there simply isn’t enough room, most clothes are recycled for other uses.
What used to be an old Boston soap factory — with some equipment still visible and now serving as quirky decor — is now a prime destination for many looking for alternatives to fast fashion and the trends of overconsumption in the retail industry.
