MAMassachusetts field entry
The Garment District & Boston Costume
Cambridge, MA
A 12,000-plus-square-foot Cambridge 'alternative department store' with 40,000+ new, used and vintage clothing items, a floor where secondhand clothes are sold by weight, and Boston Costume's thousands of theatrical rentals, wigs, masks, makeup and retail costumes.
The Garment District turns clothing retail into three overlapping businesses: a massive vintage-and-contemporary store, the hunt-through By The Pound operation and Boston Costume's theatrical rental and retail warehouse.
Field notes
Why it belongs
Vintage store, contemporary clothing shop, used-clothing store, shoe-and-accessory retailer, by-the-pound thrift operation, theatrical costume rental, costume shop, wig store, mask store and theatrical-makeup supplier.
Most clothing stores organize merchandise into increasingly tidy racks; this one eventually leads to clothing sold by weight and a warehouse of theatrical identities.
The Garment District occupies more than 12,000 square feet at 200 Broadway in Cambridge and says it carries more than 40,000 unique items at any given time, spanning contemporary, used and vintage clothing, shoes and accessories. The same operation also contains By The Pound, whose roots reach back to 1981 and where secondhand clothing is still sold by weight. On the first floor is Boston Costume, a theatrical-costume institution dating to 1965 with thousands of rental costumes plus retail costumes, wigs, hats, masks, makeup and accessories. These are connected components of one physical shopping destination and remain one OddStops profile.
Store contents
What you will find
Directory categories
Known for
- 12,000+ square feet
- 40,000+ unique items
- New clothing
- Used clothing
- Vintage clothing
- Shoes and accessories
- Decade fashion
- By The Pound
- Clothing sold by weight
- Boston Costume
- Thousands of theatrical rental costumes
- Retail costumes
- Wigs
- Hats
- Masks
- Theatrical makeup
- Cambridge alternative-department-store atmosphere