Yr City’s a Sucker: Two Shops Pop Up with Similar Names, Different Games

Freak City’s Justin Romero agrees: our city’s a creep. (Andy Sternberg for LAist)

L.A. is stepping into Fashion Week New York’s shadow this week and we’re cruising the catwalks, pop-up shops, and parties to see who’s got style. Earlier in the week we visited the newly relocated FREECITYsupershop supermat and a pop-up shop that moved into the erstwhile after-hours Freak City storefront. FREECITY had a near-circus feel with bicycles hanging from the rafters and employees wearing pastel-colored T’s emblazoned with similar Bohemian epithets.

The store, originally located in Malibu, is meant to be “fantasy in a box,” according to founder Nina Garduno, a Laurel Canyon native. But it felt more like a busy website in a box replete with shiny objects that will have tweens grabbing for Daddy’s Amex card… kinda like Urban Outfitters once felt.

Freak City seemed to pop up naturally within its element — picture a street scene in The Warriors or the subway graffiti stylings of Basquiat and Diaz in the late ’70s. The fashion feels very retro-FILA with some of co-owner Justin Romero’s in-house brand LA Wrap mixed in. With the added bonus of the Dante Fried Chicken truck stationed out front, the scene felt an entire middle-of-the-United-States away from the other, only blocks away. But neither Free City nor Freak City could be much more LA.

Freak City is open for the next two weeks from 2-10pm daily (sometimes much later), 6613 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; 213-446-5413. FREECITYsupershop supermat is open 11am to 6pm daily at 1139 N. Highland Ave; 323-461-2226.