[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]t’s just after 10 a.m. on a Wednesday and Echo Park’s Out of the Closet thrift store is already bustling with customers buying everything from books to candles to clothing.
The shop, painted in an unmistakable bright magenta, has anchored this block of Sunset Boulevard, between Lemoyne and Logan streets for more than a decade, serving as a neighborhood hub for all walks in the rapidly changing community that surrounds it.
Now, after years of weathering change and watching adjacent shops turn over into upscale coffee shops and pilates studios, Out of the Closet — the vintage thrift store chain that was an early provider of free rapid HIV testing in L.A. — will shut its doors for good tomorrow, Saturday, July 21.
The chain's other stores will remain open, but the closing of the Echo Park shop is a sign of the times in an area that's been gentrifying for years.