We're not quite known for our fashion sense in OC. Hell, some people even make fun of LA's attempt at Fashion Week, and they're supposed to be better off than us. Strangely enough, in a recent poll by Movoto, a nationwide real-estate blog that keeps releasing preposterous polls that nevertheless get referenced by nearly every major press outlet, three OC cities ranked among the 10 best-dressed cities in the country. Newport Beach was No. 3, as could be expected, but a seemingly perplexing choice comes in at No. 4: Westminster.
If anything, the city's impossibly high ranking proves how silly Movoto's listicles are—and saying that isn't an insult to the good people of Westminster. Instead of actually knowing the culture of the area, Movoto chose its cities with bunk qualifiers such as the quantity of high-end fashion, shoe and jewelry stores; tailors; and dry cleaners per capita. And it collected these statistics via Yelp searches. As if hipsters dry-clean their clothes—AS IF.
Using that criteria, though, we know the glammed-out housewives Movoto is hoping to sell real estate to are obviously not shopping and strolling at the Westminster Mall, whose highest-end store is an Aéropostale. A closer look shows what actually placed Westminster on the list—Little Saigon, specifically the Asian Garden Mall in the heart of the enclave. No Gucci there, but Movoto's stats show Westminster has the second-highest amount of jewelry stores and tailors per person living in the city—and there are enough bling and cutsie stores at the Asian Garden Mall to make Fashion Island seem as glitzy as, well, the Westminster Mall.
Filtering the city's No. 4 placement through that prism, the ranking makes more sense, but definitely not in the way Movoto was thinking. Between girls in their luscious ao dais, the suit stores, and the awesome coincidence between how hipsters and older Asian folks dress (a phenomenon the Internet has deemed the Accidental Chinese Hipster—Google it!), Little Saigon is looking rather good. Of course, Westminster still couldn't beat out Santa Monica, which came in at No. 1, but at least it's four points higher than Mission Viejo, a ranking even we know better than to try to explain.
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