Dennis RomeroFor all its high-fashion pretense, New York is not “the most fashionable city in America.” That hipster haven known as Brooklyn barely makes the Top 20.
No, the place you want to be for sashaying is the city with no downtown, Irvine. It's No. 1 when it comes to cash-spending, “fashion-conscious households,” according to a new analysis by business-data company Bundle.
New York is No. 2. L.A. is No. 3, but …
… if you took Irvine and L.A. together, as many other studies do when it comes to things like metropolitan statistical areas, we'd crush New York, even adding Brooklyn's meager showing to its results.
What's the deal?
A runway in L.A.; Credit: Jason Hargrove
Plain and simple, we spend money on clothes. High-end clothes. According to Bundle, Irvine …
… ranked nearly four times above the U.S. average in clothing spending. Home of the OC and one of the richest cities in America, Irvine residents can certainly afford those designer duds.
Too bad all that cash is spent at South Coast Plaza, in neighboring Costa Mesa.
Analysts looked at “households that had at least four transactions at top-end designer merchants in the past 30 months,” according to Bundle.
The company says:
Credit: Bundle
Big cities including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas and Chicago ranked as the most fashionable, likely owing to the abundance of designer stores conveniently accessible in those cities.
San Diego nearly made the Top 10 so, despite our laid-back ways, Southern California has some kind of style, even if we don't always get credit for it.
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