Words by Willow Kristeller
Photos Courtesy of Nessa Nouveau
When Nessa Nouveau first began her business in 2019, it came from a place of creativity and resourcefulness. I spoke with her about the early days of her store and her part in bringing the Anchorage community together. Nessa started Penny Royalty out of a love for pre-loved clothing and a need to save money. She found that dressing in vintage was a great way to express herself. She figured out that it was a good business for her to go into as not only a way to further her interests, but also to save money in the process.
Later on I found out it was a skill set really, to be able to go into a building full of not-so-great things and then finding the gem, and bring it back to life.”
Now located in Spenard, Penny Royalty is one of two uniquely vintage clothing stores in town. It offers all categories of pieces, accessories, knickknacks, and interior design items. Its new location is now in midtown Anchorage, across the street from Bear Tooth Theaterpub and Grill.
Starting in 2021, Nessa and Penny Royalty Vintage began hosting fashion shows to showcase local designers, bands and artists from around Anchorage. The first show was in Penny Royalty’s first location on the south side of Anchorage.
“I started the shows as a way to bring people together. We brought out 12 bands and had local designers make pieces for it” she said
After the rent at Penny Royalty’s first storefront tripled, Nessa decided to move to Midtown. This proved to be serendipitous because it allowed Nessa to meet the owner of Drift Hair Salon, which in turn provided her with a space for her next show.
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The following spring, Nessa decided to throw an Earth Day show at the salon. However, just a few days before the show, Nessa found out that her mother was dying.
“So I flew down, watched my mom die, and then flew back and put on a fashion show.”
In having that turbulent experience with the spring show, Nessa realized that one of the best ways that she could remember her mom was to host another show with a theme.
“My mom was a really eccentric artist, so the next one is going be a fall show and be a memorial for loved ones lost. So I brought some of her art and made an altar on the stage of a gothic cathedral and it was gothic themed.”
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I also spoke with Nessa about how she finds models for her shows, considering Anchorage may not always be the easiest place to find runway ready subjects.
Nessa explained that she is really drawn to unique characters, people who not only are beautiful on the outside, but truly on the inside as well. She had been tossing around the idea of doing a conjoined twin piece. Where two people would be bound together and be walking down the runway as one unit, wearing one piece.
“One day I was at my store and I was busy doing stuff, and I overheard a conversation between two people in my store. They were talking about a doll they had found that looked haunted, I looked up and realized they were identical twins. So I offered them the opportunity to model in my fashion show as a Siamese twin piece.”
I spoke with the twins Whitney Esteban and Shannon Fries about their experience of being asked to do the show.
“We were so excited and thrilled to be asked. We just thought it sounded like a lot of fun. We were bound together with a belt and we were wearing one big skirt so we were attached almost all day. We also got to have our makeup done and it was a really cool experience. We also got a great portrait taken of the two of us that might be our only nice photo of us so that is a bonus.” Whitney said.
At each show, Nessa incorporates local artists and musicians into the theme to make the biggest sense of community she can.
“I have local designers make the pieces, and then I usually have quite a few local bands that play. I’ve also had local artists come and do performance pieces, or I’ve had a burlesque and fire dancers, I try to get different things each time.”
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Planning for these events are crucial. “All of the funding from these shows comes from my own pocket. I pay the sound guy, the light guy, the stage people, for the space, all of it comes from me. So having it in the fall, winter or even spring is crucial because if it’s in the summer, no one is going to show up.”
Penny Royalty is planning another fashion show for winter 2025.
“It is going to be a Winter Masquerade. I want this one to be very empowering toward women and very feminine focused. The last show I did was a Divine Masculinity show and that was just a very foreign concept to me as a whole and I think it was very challenging for me as an artist to relate to.”
The Penny Royalty shows continue to showcase art, music and design from the Anchorage area, while also adding a little fun to the mundane.
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True North is a publication of the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Journalism and Public Communications. It has been published since 1995.