Echo Park, as I have understood it, never exported clothing fashion until this century, but -- as is well documented -- in recent years it has outdone itself in regard to being a launching pad for indie designers.* New Yorker writer Patricia Marx, for one, took the time to mock the clothing worn by Chango patrons in a sloppy rush around town -- the point of which seemed to be reinforcing L.A. stereotypes to which Marx already subscribed. Then there are all of the boutiques (such as Show Pony, Custom Jeans and Lucas and a dozen others nearby) which sell the work of young, local designers. One under-30 designer is featured in Tu Ciudad magazine this month. Sara Diaz makes dresses out of French terry fleece, and you leave the neighborhood (in so many ways) to buy them, at Barneys. The Tu Ciudad full page she receives shows Diaz sitting in the window of her red, wood clapboard home, in Echo Park. Smiling mutt dog and a cat in frame, too. According to the article, punk rock brought Diaz to Echo Park. Peter Pan collars followed.

(Disclosure: I recently began freelance copyediting for Tu Ciudad.)

It turns out that, in addition to having Navy SEALs drop from the sky, the Dodgers celebrate the start of their season by releasing doves to fly fly fly. Perhaps an effort to balance the military display the game apparently requires. It was a surprise to me that these two blog threads -- the doves and the Dodgers -- should dovetail (pun intended) so precisely. Today, I found in my in-box two Echo Park Animal Alliance emails concerning the birds and baseball.

First, Danielle wrote:

I noticed that at yesterday's home opener for the Dodgers they released a whole slew of white doves during the opening ceremonies. Could the [lost doves of Echo Park] be some of the flock from a rehearsal? If someone has the info for the community affairs guy maybe we could track down the owners and see if any are missing?

Paula followed with:

I talked to Luther Nelson at www.whitedoverelease.com. He is the one responsible for the dove release at Dodger Stadium. They are actually homing pigeons and all 300 of them returned home to his property. He does releases at weddings and funerals.

The problem arises when people get the idea that they are going to do it themselves for less. They go to pet stores and buy tame white doves, rather than trained homing pigeons, and let them go. These birds meet with tragic endings. Sometimes people even mistakenly buy birds raised for food who can't fly at all. When they open the cage, the birds just sit there on the ground until they're picked off. Luther says he frequently rescues white doves from cemeteries.

Glad to hear the Dodger doves got home safely.

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*One exception to the 20th Century fashion blackout in Echo Park is Drea Kadillac, who used to live in Solano Canyon. Drea made hats, which she sold in her own La Brea shop (before Clover) and at Barneys.