Union, A ‘Best-Kept Secret’ For Men, Mixes High-End European Labels And Current Streetwear Finds

The menswear store Union is small, easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there, and tucked away on La Brea Avenue next door to Stüssy and across the street from Sugarfish and a Bonobos Guideshop. This stretch of La Brea has quickly become a men’s shopping destination with Steven Alan, Stampd and Unis all within spitting distance of each other, but that wasn’t always the case. On an overcast afternoon earlier this year, graphic T-shirts from a collaboration between Union and the skate brand Bianca Chandon were hanging on rack downstairs, while upstairs, higher-end items with a conceptual slant from labels such as Junya Watanabe, Thom Browne and J.W. Anderson were on display. It’s a funky, surprising mashup of luxury avant-garde and streetwear that is popular now at stores including Opening Ceremony and Dover Street Market, but it’s a mix that Union, in many ways, predicted and helped popularize. “One of the beauties of the store is that it’s been able to change with every new era of fashion and retail,” says Chris Gibbs, the store’s current owner. “There are many iterations of what Union has been.” Read more at Los Angeles Times.