new threads

We got a little more playa-fied on Tuesday. We went over to the Black Rock Boutique to get some fancy new duds.

A group of Burners from Portland have been setting up shop here for years, helping new and veteran Burners find the look they want.

We ran into Cobra Commander and Phoenix Firestarter waiting in line.  “I just ask them for something dark and threatening,” Cobra said.

We didn’t find much in the way of dark OR threatening inside, but there was plenty to choose from  nevertheless.  Perhaps a blue gingham dress with white apron? Umm, no. Too domestic. Wrong message.

In the end, three of us emerged with our new threads, happy and transformed. Everyone who visits the boutique must exit via a fashion-show ramp on the outside of the tent. There’s blaring music, and you dance down the runway, and if you’re lucky, there are cheers and whistles from those waiting in line for their turn.

Once inside the tent, we got to go through the racks of donated and reconditioned playa wear.
Once the boutique visitors came back outside, they danced down the runway.

About the author: John Curley

John Curley (that's me) has been Burning since the relatively late date of 2004, and in 2008 I spent the better part of a month on the playa, documenting the building and burning of Black Rock City in words and pictures. I loved it, and I've been doing it ever since. I was a newspaper person in a previous life, and I spent many years at the San Francisco Chronicle. At the time I left, in 2007, I was the deputy managing editor in charge of Page One and the news sections of the paper. Since then, I've turned a passion for photography into a second career. I shoot for editorial, commercial and private clients. I've also taught a little bit, including two years at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and a year at San Francisco State University. I live on the San Mateo coast, just south of San Francisco in California.

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