If Halloween is getting a little too cutesy, here’s the place for you: Le Noir Bizarre, a Gothic-Victorian-steampunk All Hallow’s Eve celebration Sunday at Sanford and Son Antiques. Horror flicks will give way to Edgar Allen Poe, candy will be replaced by Gothic accessories, and pumpkins will make way for a steampunk tea party.
Nobody did morbidity quite like the Victorians. Tacomans who like to play-act Victorian can sink their teeth into a whole afternoon of it.
“There isn’t much to do around here for Halloween except pumpkin patches and haunted houses,” said organizer Julia Jones. “I wanted to do something edgier. There’s nothing like that in Tacoma.”
Turns out Jones has tapped into a deep vein of steam-era nostalgia in Tacoma. Jones started with a successful online business selling Gothic prom dresses. From there, the Maple Valley businesswoman opened the brick-and-mortar store A Little Touch of Magick deep in the descending labyrinth of downtown Tacoma’s Sanford and Son last year. Selling Gothic, Victorian and steampunk attire, it was so successful she had to expand down the hallway a few months ago. She had many customers ask about her Halloween plans.
Jones decided she’d combine a store grand opening with a community event to benefit charity. Pulling in everyone from vendor friends to former interns and students from School of the Arts, Jones has assembled an All Hallows Eve event worthy of Poe himself. It will take up three floors of the antiques store and appeal to all ages and neo-Romantic styles: Le Noir Bizarre means “the strange darkness.”
On the Broadway level will be live music by Tacoma steampunk band Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society, combining dark harmonies, high female vocals and a melancholy guitar sound. Fire-eater Deanna Riley and three hearses from the Rain City Hearse Club will be on the street. Inside, there will be a coffin photo booth for those who like their Halloween photos authentic. The Blue Mouse Theatre shadowcast will perform selections from the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Abby’s on Broadway will offer Gothic-themed wine and beer tasting for ages 21 and older.
Down one level is Jones’ store, its purple walls covered with gold roses and quotes from Poe’s “The Raven.” Next door is the Tea Works cafe, dark maroon and gold and decorated with lace tablecloths, treadle sewing machines and antique lamps. During the event, the cafe is hosting a Victorian tea party peppered with readings from “The Raven” and attended by both tea-leaf and Tarot card readers. A children’s face-painter will offer Halloween makeup.
And on the Commerce Street basement level, Sanford’s antique library with its rolling ladder and dusty tomes will play host to SOTA students reading Gothic literature, singing from “Phantom of the Opera” and playing classical violin pieces. There also will be a special-effects makeup artist offering services and 25 local vendors selling everything from black Victorian jewelry to ouija boards. Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society will sign and sell copies of their latest CD at 3 p.m. and offer an acoustic performance.
There will be a booth for the event’s charity Stand Up For Kids, which provides basic necessities for Pierce County homeless children. While Le Noir Bizarre is free, activities such as the tea party, make-up and photo booth are being offered with a suggested charity donation.
Which all begs the question: Do steampunk and Gothic – big trends in Seattle – have enough devotees in Tacoma to make an event like this successful?
Absolutely, says Jones. Steam-Town, Tacoma’s own steampunk group, has more than 100 members. As soon as the Tea Works opened, Jones says, they were asking to meet there. Her own store does a good trade, including steel-boned corsets handmade by a SOTA student, who wears them herself every day to school.
Hans Meier, Steam-Town organizer and owner of Meier’s House of Clocks, will offer his steam-punk goggles at Le Noir Bizarre.
“A number of my friends will be dropping by,” he says. “It seems more like a Gothic event, but there’s all sorts of crossover in lifestyle of Gothic, Victorian and steampunk.”
So what exactly is the difference?
“It’s all about the color scheme,” says Jones’ retail assistant Amanda Jones (who’s not related). “With Gothic/Victorian, it’s very classy, mostly black with blood red or purple highlights. The difference between them would be accessories and stance: Victorian is very upright with corsets and neat little shoes. Steampunk is mainly browns, royal greens and reds, looking kind of grimy.”
Plus all of the gadgets and gizmos and goggles, Meier adds. But it’s not just visual: “Steampunk is more a lifestyle, it’s rooted in the earliest science fiction, in Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. It’s all in fun, hopefully,” he says.
For those who go, however, Le Noir Bizarre isn’t necessarily a costumed event.
“Maybe next year that would be nice,” says Jones. “It’s just a celebration of the unusual and bizarre. I wanted to bring something really different to Tacoma.”
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568, rosemary.ponnekanti @thenewstribune.com
Le Noir Bizarre
What: An All Hallows Eve celebration of the macabre
When: Noon-5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Sanford and Son Antiques, enter through 744 Commerce St., Tacoma (the green doors); events also upstairs at 743 Broadway, Tacoma
Cost: Free entry, activities by donation to benefit Stand Up For Kids
More information: lenoirbizarre.com
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