Paul Ulukpo

Customers get into the pile at 2 Dollar Clothing.

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.
*At This West Hollywood Fashion Library, the Prada Dress You Rent Could Save Your Life

Nothing at the 2 Dollar Clothing store in West Hollywood costs more than $2. Not the new Marc Jacobs or DKNY tops, not the BCBG skirt or the Michael Kors boots, not the Gucci, Miu Miu, Armani or Jimmy Choo — not even the pair of pants a man once found that inexplicably had $800 in the pocket. He tried to return the money, but the owners wouldn't have it. 

"If you buy that for $2, it's yours. Whatever comes in it is yours, too," says Joe, who opened the storefront in October with his siblings Destiny and Alex. He describes himself as the brain behind the store.

Destiny, his younger sister, is the heart, and the one who keeps the store chugging along. "I don't care if you're the homeless guy, you can get the Gucci item," she says.

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Whitney Friedlander

Vamp Shoes

Whether you're indulging your inner Carrie Bradshaw's need for Manolo Blahnik or looking for your sneaker holy grail, Los Angeles has a shoe store for you. Here's a rundown of where to find the pumps, loafers, trainers, wedges, slingbacks, flats and everything in between to satisfy anyone's retifism.

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.
*10 Best L.A. Art Galleries For Partying
*Top 10 Weirdest Stores in L.A.

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Eva Recinos

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.
*10 L.A. Art Spaces That Change Our Idea of What an Art Space Is

Over a few speakers in a Los Feliz store, a rockabilly tune plays loudly. To most Angelenos listening to the radio today, the song probably sounds beyond foreign, but the girl twisting her hips while in line at the cash register obviously really digs the groovy track.

That's the magic of Vintage Vortex V, a collection of storefronts that celebrates bygone eras with everything from furniture to clothing to knick-knacks. An eclectic group of people gather there to sell and buy items from a much cooler culture that makes all our modern gadgets look drab -- for example, the bright lights coming from a vintage Playboy pinball machine.

The first storefront opened in December 2012, and on March 1 the space threw a grand opening party for a additional space featuring a number of unique vendors. In and out walked vintage fans dressed like they'd just stepped out of a time machine wearing everything from a flowing, multicolored dress that screamed '60s to an oversized fur jacket that would drive PETA nuts. The crowd ranged from stylish 20-something couples to fashion-savvy individuals in their 40s and 50s.

Tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. VVV will hold another grand opening for its new record store and recording studio. DJs will be blasting out rockabilly music from the '50s, '60s and '70s while visitors munch on items from Canter's deli and scope out vinyl, turntables and stereo equipment.

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Eva Recinos

See also:
*Top 10 Weirdest Stores in L.A.
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.

Do you ever sit at home wondering where you can find a set of Shepard Fairey-designed playing cards for your next poker tournament? Or maybe what store carries those 24-karat gold Karl Springer chairs you ache to add to your dining table?

Well, it seems the folks at Hammer and Spear somehow heard your crazed mumbling. Power couple Scott Jarrell and Kristan Cunningham -- you might recognize the latter from HGTV's Design on a Dime -- bring their flair for design to a new store downtown that offers all sorts of unique objects.

The store's interior looks like something out of the pages of Dwell magazine; expect to spend a good amount of time just roaming the many sections and finding little treasures in every square inch.

Hammer and Spear opened to the public March 15 and the surrounding neighborhood gave it a warm reception. "We're still racing around and remerchandising since selling quite a bit of product in the first few days, but it's a great problem to have, and we're grateful for it," says Cunningham.

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Unlike in Wedding Crashers, real-life wedding crashing can be used for more than getting laid.

More First Person pieces:
*I Was Sick of L.A. Traffic. So I Took a Plane to Work
*I Rode the Entire L.A. Metro in a Single Day
*Why the San Fernando Valley Hate Needs to End Once and For All

Between July and October of 2011, I crashed more weddings in Los Angeles than I've probably been invited to in my entire adult life.

No, this was not some movie-inspired ploy to get laid. I was with my then-fiancé, now husband, and it didn't strike us as strange to visit these weddings uninvited. For the approximately 40,000 Iranian Jews living in Los Angeles, making an unauthorized cameo at other Persian weddings is not only a necessary part of planning your own wedding but also a rite of passage.

Relatively speaking, our wedding was to be a small affair, about 400 people, a mere get-together really. (Later our Iranian guests commended us on our "simple" and "intimate" party, while our American friends wondered where all these people came from. What did we think this was, the queen's Diamond Jubilee?)

So each Saturday or Sunday for months before our big day, the caterers, florists or bands under consideration had us come check out their work — while they were feting some other bride.

No matter now socially accepted the practice is in our community, I found myself with pre-crashing jitters each week as I slipped into a black just-pretend-I'm-not-here dress and my fiancé reluctantly put on a suit.

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Ryan Romero Photography

Library Store On Wheels

See also:
*10 Best Vintage and Second-Hand Boutiques in L.A.
*10 Best L.A. Art Galleries For Partying
*Top 10 Weirdest Stores in L.A.

First the food truck revolution brought us restaurants on wheels, mixing up your own neighborhood's restaurant offerings. Now, the next wave is shopping on wheels.

Here are ten repurposed food trucks rolling on the streets of L.A., purveying anything but food.

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Eva Recinos

Denim Refinery's new boutique lets you go old school for a new look.

In a city where the fashion seasons change more obviously than the weather seasons, trendiness reigns supreme. And while that state of affairs inspires Angelenos to flock to shops in search of the latest, most fashionable clothing, fashion maven Janet Sung saw inspiration in a different place -- our closets.

The creative mind behind Denim Refinery, an online store and denim customization site, Sung transforms her customers' outdated denim into something hip and fresh. On the site, visitors can choose from "refinements" such as Dipped (which gives certain parts of your clothing item a lighter look), Wax (which turns denim into a leather-like material) or Paint (which lends your denim an artsy look). Up for more than a year, the site continues to send customers' denim to a Long Beach factory before returning the transformed item to owners around the world.

"It's basically taking the middle man out of the whole manufacturing process and opening up a resource that was only available to manufacturers, to individuals," she explains.

Sung also created Shop DR, a portion of the site that lets customers choose from already-customized jackets and jeans with brand names like Levi's. Now, loads of denim and Sung's fashion sense come to downtown in a boutique open to the public.

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World 8 lets you find an epic item for your gaming lover

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*10 Things to Do in L.A. on Valentine's Day for People Who Hate Valentine's Day
*Top 10 Bars With the Hottest Women in L.A.
*10 Bars Most Likely to Get You Laid in L.A.

"You always buy me the same shit."

If you haven't heard that before, consider yourself amongst the lucky lovers whose significant others keep their thoughts to themselves. That one year your girlfriend ooh-ed and aww-ed over the flowers and cleverly-packaged chocolates you gave her? She might have been faking it.

And even if your babe likes getting classic gifts for Valentine's day, it couldn't hurt you to maybe think outside the box when it comes to cute trinkets. Especially if you're looking to conquer a new beau. It's like a wise man once said: the more creative you are, the higher your chances of getting laid. Or something like that.

So hop in your love mobile and hit up Los Angeles' more cooky shopping spots for gifts that will make your Valentine's Day less lame.

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TLC

Sam and Kelly pose on the set of TLC's Something Borrowed, Something New

Who wouldn't want to wear their mother's (or possibly their grandmother's) wedding dress that resembles a prop from Little House on the Prairie more than a gown fit for a contemporary bride, you ask?

On TLC's new reality show Something Borrowed, Something New, airing tonight at 10 p.m., a conflicted bride-to-be will choose between her mother's wedding dress, a cherished family heirloom or a new gown picked out especially for her.

We spoke with the ridiculously beautiful and dapper fashion hosts Kelly Nishimoto and Sam Saboura, who combined have more style, sass and swag than Honey Boo Boo at a pageant show, to learn the secrets and trends of modern bridal wear.

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Megan Friend

Wertz Brothers Antique Mart on Lincoln Blvd

Imagine a microcosm of western civilization's material culture jumbled together and beautifully stockpiled into a 20,000 square-foot warehouse. Imagine all the stuff you grew up with: all the randomness, all the things you never thought you'd see again, all the memories, all the emotions, all the traditions, all the bizarre trends of your youth, all of the fleeting fixations of your past and all the collectable fascinations of your present. Trinkets, tea sets, toasters, paintings, porcelains, books, nets, vintage textiles and so much more.

This is the experience of visiting the Wertz Brothers Antique Mart in Santa Monica, which will sadly close its doors tomorrow, Feb. 1, to make room for other business developments at the location.

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