Sock Away Major Savings at Fashion Institute’s Store

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising operates a store in downtown Los Angeles to raise money for scholarships and as a laboratory to train students in retailing.

Local manufacturers and retailers donate new merchandise, some first-quality, some irregulars, in women’s and men’s apparel. The buying public gets some excellent bargains.

There are two stores next to each other, one for junior sizes and the other for the rest of us.

Donors range from low-end discount retailers to Rodeo Drive merchants and their suppliers. With such a wide range, deals run the gamut from a $4 shirt that retails for $16 to a black floor-length dress with a major label marked at $50 that sells at a major specialty store for $250. There’s a splendid surprise in the back of the store, where fabrics, patterns, thread and buttons are offered at giveaway prices.

Large bolts of 62-inch-wide fabrics go for $10. My companion on this research foray picked up two bolts, each almost 10 yards, for $20. They would sell for about $220 retail.

Some passable remnants are marked $1. Patterns that would sell in stores for $6 to $12 are $1 to $6, and zippers from 4 inches to 14 inches are 10 cents. Making a trip downtown even more worthwhile, there is a half-price sale in progress on selected merchandise. This bargain shopper snapped up a big-label men’s Windbreaker for $8, down from its regular price of $16. Retail, it would go for about $45.

The store is open weekdays and one Saturday a month, including this Saturday.

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Scholarship Store, 919 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (213) 624-1201.

*

edding Photographer: In last week’s column, we mistakenly identified wedding photographer Lee Brubaker as a man; she is a woman.

*

Weekend Supersale: A manufacturer of Italian leather handbags is closing, and remainders are being offered to the public at about 50% below wholesale. You will find a few exotics (crocodile and alligator), but the main inventory is Italian calf bags that retail for $120 to $200 priced to sell fast at $20 to $30.

Hundreds of leather belts and some wallets are way below wholesale. If this is not low enough, owner Jerry Blumenthal says he will not refuse any reasonable offer.

Bijoux Medici Showroom, 493 S. Robertson Blvd., Suite #1, Beverly Hills. The sale is today from noon to 4 p.m. (310) 271-8591.