Free City casual apparel and accessories are now sold in select Neiman Marcus stores’ On The Go women’s activewear shops. Kate Betts went to the source to pinpoint the appeal of a brand coveted by both the bike-obsessed and the fashion-obsessed.
I remember driving up the Pacific Coast Highway, back in 2007, on a mission to see Nina Garduno’s Free City shop for myself. I’d already seen her now-famous sweatpants and t-shirts in eye-popping color combos, emblazoned with big bold letters and punctuated by a graphic dove. Although Garduno was, and remains, somewhat elusive in the West Coast apparel and retail scene, her first solo shop in the Malibu Country Mart was a de rigeur stop on any tour of Los Angeles from the minute it opened in 2005.
Free City Supermat
What was it about this place that drew people and generated so much chatter? I came to find out, and I, too, was instantly taken by the personality and spirit of the place—something about the free cup of orange juice, the mountain bikes hanging alongside colorful t-shirts, and the old LP covers decorating the plywood walls had an authenticity that no longer existed in similar emporiums. Needless to say, I left the store that day with an armful of $148 t-shirts. (I never said it was cheap.)
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