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Shopping in SoCal: Fred Segal Santa Monica

April 25, 2008 at 12:15 PM | 0 Comments

If you're a regular reader of the weekly trashy tabloids (not that we are or anything), then the name Fred Segal should be very familiar to you. It's the trendy store where celebrities are always spotted buying new clothes, catching a bite to eat and staging some convenient photo ops.

Now, there are actually two Fred Segal stores--one on Melrose Avenue where most of the paparazzi camp out--and the more low-key one in Santa Monica on Broadway, just off the Third Street Promenade.

This is the Fred Segal that we prefer. Why? Well it's close to the beach, it's bigger (which means more merchandise) and the parking is way more manageable.

Here's some background company info for ya: The Fred Segal Santa Monica is actually still owned and operated by the Segal family while the Melrose location is owned and operated by Ron Herman under the Fred Segal name. Ron Herman also has his own bunch of Fred-ish boutique stores dotted throughout the LA area.

But the one on Melrose is teeny tiny and parking is always a nightmare. We're not quite sure why celebrities go there but we figure it must correlate to their Q ratings or something. Oh, and getting to Santa Monica from Hollywood can be a bitch.

In Santa Monica, Fred Segal is split between two single-story buildings on Broadway. Each building houses different categories of retail. But forget that archaic department store lingo like Women's, Women's Contemporary and Men's Department.

Here different departments have whimsical names like Couture, Flair, Emphatic, Trend Man and Fun. There's also two cafes (one in each building), Fred Segal Beauty Salon and Spa, kids stuff, a sneaker department (think phat kicks) and even Fred Segal Home.

Parking is free in the small lots provided on-site and you can always snag a metered spot on the streets.

And in case you were worried about celeb wattage, we hit up Fred Segal Fun for a Heal the Bay event where Svedka Vodka unveiled their new eco-friendly capsule t-shirt collection and we totally gawked at Minka Kelly, the Kardashian sisters, Rami from Project Runway, Ari Gold's wife Perrey Reeves, and the wonderful Agyness Deyn. We even got proof!

Related Stories:
· Fred Segal [Official Site]
· Shopping in SoCal coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Midpath]

Where: 500 Broadway [map], Santa Monica, CA, United States, 90401

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Author Photo: juliana by juliana

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