Someone Else's Thrift Shop in NoHo Going Out of Business After 20 Years

As I was driving through NoHo Friday, my heart sank when I noticed a large "Going Out of Business" banner hanging in front of Someone Else's, the great vintage clothing and costume shop at 11024 Magnolia Blvd.

Back in the late spring I visited the shop and conducted an interview with its owner, Eva Baboun. But not long after I took on a new role with Patch as an associate regional editor and stepped down as editor of North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch. I never completed the story, but I always intended to, and I guess now is the time. 

Someone Else's has been in NoHo for 20 years and is certainly one of its unique gems. According to Baboun, the shop has supplied clothing and costumes to many TV shows and celebrities including Mad Men, That 70s Show, Stevie Wonder, the Olsen twins and Beyonce. Baboun's family started the shop and she has been working there since she was a teenager before taking over operations herself.

It's hard to describe Someone Else's exactly. It's like Elton John's closet from 1976 threw up, but also so much more. If you need a cowboy outfit, a kilt, a blue wig or a geisha dress, they can help you out.

Here is my interview with Baboun, where we talked a lot about how much NoHo has changed over the last 20 years. Most of those changes have been for the better, but the closing of Someone Else's is not one of those things.

Patch: How long have you been here?

Eva Baboun: We’ve been here since 1992, so this is pretty much our 20-year anniversary. We’ve been here in North Hollywood before North Hollywood was as cool as it is now. There was nothing here, there wasn’t even a Ralph’s. I mean, it was really different—we’ve seen so many places come and go. This is a store for everybody to come and shop at. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your sexual preference is. This is North Hollywood. This is character central. What’s so cool is you never know who is going to come through the door, it’s so random. No two people ask for the same thing. It’s really special actually.

Patch: What was this block like back then?

Baboun: There was a TV shop next door. It had been there since the 70s. Now they’re gone. It was more desolate, actually. More dirty, grimy. It wasn’t even an artsy kind of block at all. There were a lot of empty stores.

Patch: That’s when it really started to change though, wasn’t it, around '92? That’s kind of when the NoHo Arts District concept started.

Baboun: Yeah, people from the neighborhood would come in and say, 'Do you think NoHo is really going to change?' This was way before the subway was even here, and they were like, 'Oh god, now they are going to build a subway.'

Patch: Did you think it was going to change?

Baboun: I was so young. I was a kid. I didn’t even know, because there was nothing here. The Ralph’s was just a big, empty parking lot.

Patch: What was the shop like when it opened?

Baboun: Not like it is now. It was more of a thrift store selling stuff like Goodwill things. It’s evolved to deliver more to the customer. Plus, I think for me growing up here, my friends were wearing these clothes. Thrift store stuff was what people started wearing. Lots of musicians would stop here and they were always wearing the crazy clothes. So it just evolved, like North Hollywood. We evolved like North Hollywood, it’s really cool. I’m just coming back here now to the shop, and I’m so excited about what’s happening in North Hollywood. I was always like, oh, the Valley. But now its like, North Hollywood is really cool.