By Dow-Yung Kou, LuxEco Editorial Assistant
If you are looking to explore your eco-friendly sense of style, look no further than La Bomba Vintage clothing in Long Beach, CA! La Bomba is a vintage store located on an urbanizing block that meshes a little bit of new with a lotta bit of vintage. The up and coming area is full of vintage inspired salon’s, restaurants, and clothing stores, but hands down, the jewel of this block goes to a little shop by the name of La Bomba. This place has a plethora of well-kept vintage at incredibly reasonable prices, and its funky yet relaxed feel is inviting for anybody seeking to spice up their closet! The space is decorated with vintage pastiche its hard not to like everything you see.
When I first walked in, I was instantly greeted by the most charming and stylish manager by the name of Davin Coffey. His style is unique, whimsical, and absolutely personalized. Davin has never considered or not considered himself eco-friendly he just lives his life as sustainably as possible. His home school days with his mother and sister have taught him to live close to the environment and cherish his surroundings. He has always had a love for nature, and rides his bike to work, not just for environmental reasons, but an economical reason as well. Along with spending time with his mom and sister, he also spent a lot of time with his grandparents growing up and while other kids were listening to pop music, he was listening to MGM musicals. He found that related better to their accumulated sense of style. Because of this, he fell in love with vintage clothing and hasn’t worn mass produced clothing in over two-years. He frequents vintage stores because they are more tailored to his sense of style and budget. He believes that everyone should have their own unique style and encourages people from all walks of life to come down to the store to find it.
The atmosphere of this area is welcoming and inviting, and the finds are unbelievable. Every 3rd weekend of the month La Bomba holds a pile sale in the back of their store that is notorious for its amazing deals. Most shirts, blouses, vests go for a dollar and the most expensive anything gets is five dollars. I found a leather jacket in the pile that is in very good condition, Nordstrom vintage, and tailored to perfection for a whopping five dollars. I have never been to the pile sale and felt like I didn’t get a steal out of my trip. The pile is worth going to no matter what shape, size, age, or style you are.
When asked “why do you think vintage is becoming a new trend” Davin brought up a realy good point. He said,“People who really know fashion understand that fashion is always recycled, if you really know fashion and you’re smart you just buy cheap vintage, because you know it is something that is coming back or is back, and you don’t have to go to the top stores and spend top bucks to get what’s in fashion you can go to a vintage store and get something for a few dollars that you know is original.” The recycling of style is apparent in every new trend, and buying vintage could save you so much money, while still maintaining a fashion forward yet individual style. The peace of mind that you are sparing the clothes from the landfills is also just a little added bonus to the amazing deals you can get from La Bomba.
Davin sparked my creative side, and after visiting La Bomba’s pile sale, in mid October I decided to create my Halloween costume! I took an Indian top with some tool I had laying around and transformed it into a pixie dress that I ended up wearing as a chic witch costume!
