FASHION : Burbank’s Melrose Blooms on Magnolia

At first, all you see along Burbank’s Magnolia Boulevard is a string of auto garages and pet grooming shops on a broad street bereft of what experts might call important architectural statements.

In fact, anyone accustomed to the neon and glitz facades of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills boutiques might not even notice the unpretentious storefronts for vintage clothing, antique furniture, and used books that give Magnolia the nostalgic look of a movie set: ‘40s Main Street, U.S.A.

Call it the poor man’s Melrose, with lower prices and none of the parking hassles. (It’s difficult to find anything wearable priced over $100, and easy to find things priced under $25.) On Valentine’s Day, it might also be the place to find the missing fashion link that will round out the romantic portion of a wardrobe, whether personal tastes run to ‘50s hot-pink poodle skirts, Victorian drop earrings or beaded hand bags.

The best shopping along Magnolia is in the several blocks between Victory Boulevard on the east and Hollywood Boulevard on the west.

“It’s a street in transition,” says Pat Jennings who owns Hubba Hubba at 3220 W. Magnolia, a store that specializes in reasonably priced, well-preserved vintage clothes from the ‘40s through the ‘80s. This week’s most eye-catching display is of sweetheart-red prom dresses.

“People told me I was nuts when I opened my shop seven years ago, but today you see more and more creative people here,” says Jennings, arranging a display of clear plastic purses, and Jackie-O handbags (small, with definite geometric shapes, dating from the ‘60s). “Burbank isn’t as staid and boring as it used to be.”

Jennings and other merchants on the street collect much of their stock from longtime neighborhood residents. She says she gets about four calls a day from people who want to sell mementos they have amassed over decades--without attention to passing fashion fads.

Hollywood costumers from nearby movie studios (Disney, Warner Bros. and NBC among them) regularly raid Hubba Hubba for Art Deco brooches, vintage, black cocktail dresses and beaded cashmere sweaters. They shop with a tape measure in hand and the measurements of a particular actress or actor in mind. And they scoop up hundreds of dollars worth of goods in minutes.

Jennings says that recently, customers have shopped in her store for wardrobe items for “Harlem Nights,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Drugstore Cowboy.” She has also worked with wardrobers for the TV series, “The Wonder Years” and “China Beach.”

While Hubba Hubba focuses on vintage wear, Wendy’s Place--whose motto is “From Your Closet to Our Shop”--is primarily a consignment store. There is a wide selection of newer, working girl-type sweaters, dresses and blouses. A designer rack against the back wall of the store offers some bargains: a linen dress by Albert Nipon for $30; an eggshell linen dress by Nicole Miller for $28; a pale lilac, sleeveless silk top by Carole Little for St. Tropez West for $10.

“After Valentine’s Day, we’ll have a lot of good perfumes and maybe some negligees,” says a sales clerk at Wendy’s Place, at 2306A W. Magnolia. People bring in their surplus gifts to sell, she explains.

Several of Magnolia’s antique furniture shops also offer small caches of vintage and costume jewelry. At Mary La Shaum’s Antiques (2110 W. Magnolia Blvd.), there are amethyst beads, ivory bracelets, and majestic hair combs that would look right in a portrait by Velazquez, the 17th-Century Spanish painter.

La Shaum has the cozy, cluttered look of a great aunt’s overheated parlor. It is stuffed with enough estate and costume jewelry to compete with the treasure chests that decorate the landscape of the Disneyland ride, “Pirates of the Caribbean.” La Shaum also has an antique Oriental jewelry box in stock, made of burnished wood inlaid with mother of pearl and gold filigree.

For oddball accessories, Mary’s Potpourri at 2406 W. Magnolia offers a charming collection of antique buttons, hairpins, jewelry, cigarette lighters, mink stoles and Valentine’s Day memorabilia. Most breathtaking is the oversized, three-dimensional Victorian valentine card whose finely detailed cupids, hearts and flowers are so intricately textured they resemble embroidery or lacy frosting.

Like all the best shopping streets, Magnolia also supplies places where shoppers can pause and reflect on their purchases. One such stop is Monte Carlo, a rustic Italian neighborhood market and deli that seems transported intact from the Old Country. Savory Old World aromas, central-casting-style employees and reasonable prices add to the appeal.

Godiva chocolates aren’t sold here, but the famed Perugina chocolates are, as are Italian amaretto cookies, in gaily-colored orange, red and white tins.

Shoppers whose gustatory tastes stray toward more hearty fare, might prefer Alpina Sausage, a deli and cafe, where co-owner Agop Artinian plies customers with sausages from Hungary and Romania, smoked salmon from Norway, dried apricot paste from Damascus and 200 other items from more than 50 countries.

To compliment a new outfit from the street’s vintage shops, the progressive hair salon Antenna specializes in retro and radical cuts and colors.

Owner Mitchell Field moved his business to the area several years ago, to take advantage of Magnolia’s low rents and friendly ambience.

“We used to come here a lot and shop at Hubba Hubba,” says Field of himself and his staff, “and that’s how we found this place.”

“There’s a real community feeling here,” says Dana Jennings, 26, whose mother owns Hubba Hubba. “The antique store owners send people to us and we send people to them. We all help each other.”