The Garment District

A source of second-hand and vintage threads for cash-strapped students and rockers since the 1980s, the Garment District shares its crumbling warehouse premises with a costume shop—the perfect combination if you're off to a fancy-dress party. On the ground floor is the fabled By the Pound—literally a pile of clothes, shoes, belts, bags and assorted junk dumped in a pile on the floor. Everything is $2 a pound. (On Fridays, it's $1 a pound.) Head upstairs for a vast array of second-hand jeans, branded clothing and vintage attire, some of it unworn—we loved the immaculate 1950s PJs.