Touring Boston - The Go-getter's Guide to the Garment District

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Boston on the cheap. So if you’re new to the area and like me married to a full time student chances are that money is tight. One clothing option for the slightly more adventurous is a place called the Garment District. This place has been around for thirty or so year and they have new and used clothing, mostly used.

There are two floors worth of clothing. The top floor is where you’ll find some new stuff and used/vintage clothing that has been sorted by style (men, women, shirts, dresses, pants etc.) I was able to by a really nice wrap dress there (Banana Republic Brand) that had been slightly used, still in great condition for about $10.

However the real adventure is the clothing by the pound area. This takes place on the bottom level of the store and it’s a little bit of great deal madness. It cost $1.50 a pound. I had seen it advertised and I was curious to see what it actually was.

I walked in and they handed me a clear plastic garbage bag a motioned to the mounds of clothing covering the floor. It was a foot deep, wall to wall, carpet of clothes, there were no aisles and no order. You had to walk across and into the clothing piles to reach things and then just rifle through it looking for something of interest to you.

Tons of people just squatted down and started looking through the things around them. It took a few minutes for me to come to terms with this madness, but I decided we had walked there and I should give it a fair try. It was fun in a really weird way, I think a couple of my crazy cousins would have loved it, but my husband wasn’t ready to dive into this hipster dumpster life style so he checked out the sweaters upstairs until I was finished.

Things to note:

1) The garment district is mostly used clothing
Some of it is sorted by kind and style, those pieces tend to me more expensive (a few dollars a piece) and then there is clothing by the pound where there is absolutely no order, but the clothing you find there is really inexpensive and there are still high quality brands and fashionable pieces in the clothing by the pound… you just have to sort to find them.

2) Half of this store is a costume store (Boston Costume)
This means you can also find a bunch of random things there and during the month of October the clothing by the pound section is closed and the upstairs regular clothing section is compressed so they can fit more costumes.

3) Clothing by the pound can be a great deal
I’ve found a number of high quality sweaters, there are often coats, and if you look hard enough you can find children’s clothing, which is really light = inexpensive.

4) Odd Hours
The hours seem to be on a collage timeline, they open at 11am-midnight, every day but Saturday. Saturday they open at 9am.

Summary and Rating: ★★★☆☆

This place was very odd to me and it took some time for me to wrap my head around sorting through old clothing in piles on the floor. With that said, I found some great deals and going through it with the mindset that it was part of the adventure made it fun. To each their own.

If you’ve been to the Garment District I’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings about it. Feel free to share them with me in the comments below.

Have you been here before? If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below.