Planet Blue off Montana Avenue in Santa Monica is having a huge 50% off sale. That means their Diane Von Furstenberg, Citizens of Humanity, James Perse and other chi-chi fashions will be half off. That $600 sweatshirt you had your eye on is now only $300. BUT before you get all excited let me impart a disturbing bit of gossip a friend in the know told me.
She works near the Planet Blue location on Main Street and befriended one of the salespeople there. After noticing on many occasions the PB employees wearing this high-end fashion out and about Main Street during their lunches and smoke breaks with the tags still attached, she asked her Planet Blue salesperson friend what was going on.
Allegedly it’s store policy for the employees to wear these garments, with tags still attached, and then to put them back on the clothes rack. If they happen to get the clothes dirty, they simply send them to the dry cleaners, replace the price tag and return them to the sales floor for purchase by an unsuspecting customer.
In one instance, my friend was about to try on a white top but noticed a red stain on it. She showed it to her PB friend who quietly took it from her and brought it to one of the other salespeople. “You wore this yesterday and got strawberry juice on it!” To which the guilty salesgirl replied, “I did?” And she simply threw the top in a bag and labeled it “dry cleaner.”
And it’s not just this store on Main Street that’s doing it, apparently it’s all the stores: Montana, Malibu and Main — “company policy,” ya see. Seems as if the company believes that salespeople wearing the clothes is a form of advertisement. I can understand that but don’t most clothes stores give their employees a killer discount instead?
“But,” says this PB employee who is leaving the company because they’re sick of this weirdness, “there are actually customers out there who buy the clothes knowing that this is going on.” Ewww! It’s like a subculture of fetishists who get off on paying full price for used and partly soiled couture.
Anyhoo, maybe it’s just me but if I’m going to throw down a couple hundred-plus on an investment piece that many years from now will be considered “vintage” and not “second-hand,” I’d like to be the first one to wear it.
800 14th Street
Santa Monica, California 90265
(310) 394-0135
Cross Street: Montana Avenue