Julie Newmar battles Supreme

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http://www.latimes.com/local/califor...214-story.html

On Fairfax Avenue, where young shoppers camp for days outside a skateboard apparel store and nearby merchants scream about the ruckus, Catwoman is on the case.

"We love all people," Catwoman said Monday morning while sharpening her claws, "but they have to go."

Julie Newmar, the Tony-award winning actress whose many roles included a purring, slinky Catwoman on the "Batman" TV series, owns real estate on Fairfax. This is the storied street that for generations was the heart of L.A.'s Jewish community — lined with delis, bakeries, Jewish music stores and judaica gift shops — but in recent years has transformed into a hip hub of urban street wear and trendy eateries.

She and her litter of tenants have been up a tree about the crowds and the trash they leave behind.

"I have a tenant who had to close, another who hasn't been able to pay the rent for three months," said Newmar, 84, who showed me a spread of letters she's fired off to city officials imploring them to do something. "It's a cancer. I'm not against anyone, but you can't destroy this wonderful neighborhood called Fairfax."

The store in question is Supreme, which has been around for years and has outlets in New York, London and Paris. As far as I can tell, the marketing strategy is to create hysterical demand by occasionally releasing limited supplies of new hoodies, jackets, shirts and other apparel for $100 and more, and crowds march in as if they're under hypnosis.

Supreme drew crowds at a downtown L.A. pop-up bazaar last summer, collaborating with Louis Vuitton to peddle clothing and bags with price tags into the thousands. The Times reported, in a near certain sign of the apocalypse, that bandannas were going for $370.

The next big "drop," as Supreme calls its latest offerings, will be this Thursday on Fairfax, which means young shoppers with fat wallets have already begun assembling as if summoned by a cult leader. For some, it's not just about wearing the clothes, but grabbing all they can and reselling to the consumptively addicted at a ridiculous profit, similar to the way ticket scalpers operate.

Newmar reached out to me through her publicist after Wehoville.com ran a story under this sassy headline: "The Hip Punks in Line for the Dope Merch on Fairfax Are Driving the Neighbors Crazy."