How quinceañera dress sellers are trying to stay in business amid ICE sweeps

For decades, Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park has been the place where people across Southern California flock to buy dresses for quinceañera celebrations.

About 20 dress shops on and off the boulevard display their bright dresses and the aspirations that go along with them through storefront windows.

The stores may look the same as ever — but since the ICE raids, business is certainly not.

“The first weekend after the raids, sales went down to zero,” said Sandra Rodriguez, manager of Reinas Events, which sells quinceañera dresses and party planning services.

Rodriguez has been doing this kind of work for a decade. The business district used to teem with families on the weekends, she said, but all that changed in June when federal agents began detaining people across Southern California.

“Many people are afraid, regardless of whether they’re documented or undocumented, because they’re afraid of being confronted by an agent who doesn’t respect their rights,” she said.

The quinceañera is a girl’s coming of age party, celebrated when she turns 15, mostly by Latin American immigrant families and Latino families.

The event can appear like a wedding, sans groom, including a church mass and a big party with music, a DJ, food and drinks. Dresses sell from about $400 to $5,000. And the dress’s tailoring makes the quinceañera look more like a movie princess than a bride.

Morteza Boutique in Huntington Park is one of about 20 shops that sell quinceañera dresses along the Pacific Boulevard business district.

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Manuela Rivera/Morteza Boutique

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Fear of federal agents is one big reason for the downturn in sales — but so is the fear of losing work. It means people are cutting down on unnecessary expenses, like fancy quinceañera parties.

The change has been leading people who run the stores to try new strategies.

Looking for business by ensuring clients will be safe

Rodriguez and managers at other shops here say that in recent years a good weekend would mean 15 to 20 families stepping into their stores to look at dresses. Now, a weekend with four to five families is considered a good weekend.

Manuela Rivera, manager at Morteza Boutique, said she’s having to find ways to sell dresses without customers having to physically come into the store.

“To sell a dress, I don’t need the client to be in the shop or for the dress to fit her. I can help them use a measuring tape,” she said.

She’s also offering to deliver the dress when it’s ready.

Storefront business has been these shops’ bread and butter, but Rivera has also recently created Instagram and TikTok videos to drum up sales. Some have received thousands of likes, but she said she’s only racked up three sales from that effort.

To address customers’ fear of coming face to face with federal agents, some stores are getting creative.

“We’ve created a policy we’re calling ‘Closed Door,’ so people can make their appointment and we lock the store’s doors so they feel safe,” said Rodriguez of Reinas Events.

Two to three clients can be in the store at the same time, she said, when the doors are locked. She’s using social media to let people know about the practice.

“People like it because they don’t like leaving their house, but need to get their errands done,” she said.

There’s a lot at stake for her business and others along this Huntington Park district. Rivera of Morteza Boutique said she doesn’t know whether her store can continue through the fall with so few sales.

When they do get customers on the phone, managers reassure customers that it’s OK to come in.

“There may not be many people on Pacific Boulevard, but the street is safe… the street is empty because of fear, [not because agents are here],” Rodriguez said.