Part fashion museum, part all-day techno club: Inside Wellington’s Bizarre Bazaar
image via @universaldreamgirl/INSTAGRAM
words by daisy henry
“It took completely depleting my savings and both my home and shop rent bouncing in the same day, before I finally flung the door open and decided it was happening.”
Walking in the doors to Wellington’s Bizarre Bazaar (BB) boutique is sure to be unlike any other experience you’ve had. With an eclectic combination of influences, the store pays homage to Harajuku’s fashion scene, Berlin’s techno underground and Vivienne Westwood’s Sex boutique (among other things). Picture a Thelma and Louise mural, psychedelic fire-breathing cats, neon-lit food carts and a sawn-off ’60s Beetle.
After first taking control of the space, owner Jess Scott’s plan was to open a bar or an art gallery. “Over time, the clothing aspect became an increasingly more central part of the project, until gradually it eclipsed everything else,” she says. Having officially opened its doors in the depths of the pandemic, Jess saw BB as an “antidote to not being able to travel, party or explore”.
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A few years on, the store has cemented its name in Wellington, attracting all kinds of creatives. “It’s like moths to a flame, you create the space and like-minded people will seek it out.” Now, the boutique hosts a range of vintage fashion, streetwear and local designers, with pieces from Age of Aquarius, Jess Grindell, Luti, Olivia Rowan, Sarah Garfield and more.
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Tell me a bit about how the vision for Bizarre Bazaar came about?
I studied journalism (among other things), and during my marathon stint at university, started working part-time at a secondhand store. I moved into a buyer role and was there for nearly five years, while studying, freelance writing and, for a hot minute, living in Japan.
In late 2019 and early 2020, I was interning in Tokyo, doing social media for a startup that invented an attachment for an electric toothbrush, which, powered by the toothbrush’s motor, functioned as a vibrator. The hours were flexible, so I spent a lot of time sourcing vintage that would eventually end up in the store. I’d been collecting for years, always knowing I’d do something in the rag trade, although I’d only ever seen it as supplementing my writing career.
After uni, I planned to move to Tokyo or New York to write and flip vintage on the side – basically live out my Depop-era Carrie Bradshaw fantasy. I came back to New Zealand with more than 100kg of vintage clothing crammed into my personal luggage, just a few weeks before we went into the first lockdown. It felt like the person I was meant to become had been stopped in her tracks.
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By the end of 2020, I was feeling disillusioned and directionless. I hated my job, was slogging through a thesis I’d long since lost interest in and along the way had fallen out of love with writing and didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with my life, degree or mounting student debt, stuck in New Zealand for the foreseeable future.
At the time, my partner, Rowan, had a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop that backed onto the cavernous 150 sqm site BB now shares with his cafe. It had been vacant for years, as everyone, himself included, saw potential in the sunny street-facing half, but no one had use for the other side. It was a sprawling, warren with minimal street frontage, that saw no natural light.
We took over the space before we knew what we’d actually do with it – it was too good an opportunity to pass up on and we knew we could make something work. The sunny side became additional cafe seating, and the windowless cave would eventually become BB.
Our original plan was a bar or art gallery, with a wendy house as the VIP room, a few racks of clothes and a focus on extremely elaborate, ridiculous drinks. Over time, the clothing aspect became an increasingly more central part of the project, until gradually it eclipsed everything else (story of my life…).
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How would you describe the store’s aesthetic to someone who’s never seen it?
A total sensory overload. Opulent, eclectic, sexy, trashy, maximalist. It’s very bright, with lots of neon and clashing colours. It’s a mish-mash of influences, paying homage to everything from Harajuku’s fashion scene to Berlin’s techno underground, Vivienne Westwood’s Sex boutique, trashy Americana and that very specific maximalist campiness embodied by Melbourne’s vintage stores.
We opened in the depths of the pandemic as escapism from the mundanity of our circumstances – an antidote to not being able to travel, party or explore. It’s an immersive experience. It feels part fashion museum, part all-day techno club, 90s runway shows and crazy AI-generated visuals looping on a giant TV screen.
What was the process like putting the store together and were there any challenges or roadblocks along the way?
Putting something so incredibly personal (yet obviously so public) out into the world was incredibly daunting. I got stuck in this weird pre-opening stasis, where I didn’t feel like the store (or I) was ready and that it needed to be ‘perfect’ before it was unleashed upon the world.
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It took completely depleting my savings and both my home and shop rent bouncing in the same day, before I finally flung the door open and decided it was happening. I could have continued fussing over displays for weeks, so I probably needed to be given literally no choice but to open. I have since realised that the space is a constant work in progress and will remain in a perpetual state of flux.
Who did you collaborate with when bringing the store to life?
My partner, originally also my business partner (it quickly became apparent this would end in divorce and disaster), was very involved in the conception of the store. He designed most of the interiors and I filled the space. It has grown and changed a lot in the past three years. I look at early photos and am shocked at how empty it was, but the bare bones are still the same.
The first thing that went in, when we thought it was going to be a bar and gallery, was a surrealist Thelma and Louise mural by Xoë Hall. Then came the car – a sawn-off ’60s Beetle – and the biggest TV we could find. We were initially going to glass that section of the store off and run it as a drive-thru cinema experience. It may still happen one day, but at the moment is mostly used for photoshoots, Instagram bait and business meetings.
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James Buckner, a street artist from Dunedin, sprayed the tiger behind the counter, local artist Johanna Grant-Mackie hand-painted the pillar at the front of the store, then painstakingly went back over it with a silver gel pen, to get that “scale” effect.
What’s your favourite feature of the store?
The Vivienne Westwood shrine, our Thelma and Louise mural by Xoë Hall, the psychedelic fire-breathing cats that Johanna Grant-Mackie painted on a pillar, the neon-lit food carts used as display shelves, Ruby Urquhart’s Barbie doll orgy scene paintings… I guess it would be weird not to mention the car, too.
What’s the best and worst part of being a store owner?
A lot of shopkeeping is hosting – inviting people to come into your space and hang out, chat and play dress up, which I love. I’ve met many of my closest friends through the store. It’s like moths to a flame, you create the space and like-minded people will seek it out. Eventually, everyone you’ve ever wanted to meet (even Eartheater!) walks through the door.
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Getting to play matchmaker between customers and the special pieces I’ve found, or that a friend or collaborator has made, is super fun. Styling is one of my favourite aspects of what I do. It’s incredible to be able to harness the transformative and self-actualising power of clothing, to help people to look the way they feel on the inside.
I also love getting to see people get really excited over the space, and the pieces in it, blowing their minds with not only clothing but also an experience that you’d never expect to find in Wellington.
However, The transition from solo creative genius to the managerial and mentorship role you inhabit as an employer is a difficult one. It took me almost a year of being in business to make my first hire and I’m still having to unlearn the idea that I can, or should, be able to do everything myself. I’ve come a long way, in the last year especially, but delegating doesn’t come naturally to me. Working every day for almost four years has begun to wear a bit thin too…
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What do you like about the area and the Wellington creative scene in general?
While Wellington is a small city that doesn’t initially present a lot of creative opportunities, there is a disproportionate amount of incredibly cool, talented creatives making their own opportunities.
It feels like every second person I meet has got some crazy fun project in the works; someone’s always hosting their own micro-festival out in the forest, shooting a music video, putting on a fashion show, bunker rave or club night, hosting a bikini jello wrestling competition to promote their label… It’s easy to make waves in a city this size, to build a platform and a following, and use it to springboard yourself to wherever it is you want to get to.
Similarly, I never have to look very hard for designers, models, photographers and makeup artists to collaborate with. Someone amazing is always just a degree of separation away.
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Who are the local designers exciting you the most right now?
In New Zealand, I’m eternally obsessed with Jimmy D (soon to be stocking at BB). He’s collaborating with our friend Sam Clyma on a very limited range of super sexy hand-beaded pieces.
I recently attended a breathtaking fashion show by June Joy Hullena, held in a 160-year-old church. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about some of the suiting looks – wool jackets with trains and matching micro shorts. They honestly wouldn’t have been out of place on a Comme des Garçons runway.
And over in Australia, Karlaidlaw! She has been one of my favourite designers for years, but the collection she just showed at Melbourne Fashion Week was absolutely unbelievable – the fur bustier!?
Keep up with Bizarre Bazaar here.
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