Port Dover store owner embodies ‘fantastic’ pinup esthetic

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Vintage style, not vintage values, is a motto popular with today’s pinup community, and it rings true with Suzie Major, owner of Suzie’s Bombshell Boutique in Port Dover.

“As a teenager I had always been into vintage style,” Major said. “I figured out pretty early on that the 1940s and ’50s esthetic was my favourite.”

While working as a real estate law clerk for 15 years, she began buying vintage-style clothes online because she couldn’t find stores that carried them.

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“I got to thinking I can’t be the only person who would want these clothes accessible to them, to have a store where they could go and try it on,” she shared. “I didn’t go to school for business or fashion, and I’ve always been blessed – or maybe it’s cursed – with that ‘How hard can it be?’ attitude.”

Major opened Suzie’s Bombshell Boutique in July 2016 at 21 Market St. E. in Port Dover, opposite Powell Park.

“When I got the idea to open a store, it was also to try to find a sense of community,” said the Port Dover native. “I didn’t know where the people are that are wearing these clothes or listening to rockabilly music, but Port Dover is a music community, people love live music.”

Looking for events that were a union of classic cars, old time rock ‘n roll music, and pinup girls — commonplace in the United States but not so much in Canada — Major connected with the Lead Kings Car Club, organizers of the Jalopy Jamup car show in Rockton.

She began hosting pinup pageants at car shows – including Motorama in Toronto – that brought the girls out of the woodwork.

“There’s always been girls out there into this kind of stuff, but they had nowhere to meet people into the same kind of thing,” she said. “Every year there seems to be a new group of girls that are just discovering it. When new girls get interested in it and enjoy that sense of community and inclusion that comes with it, their enthusiasm encourages more people to get involved.”

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Major hosted her fifth annual Pinup Picnic in Powell Park in June attracting more than 30 women dolled up in pinup style. It was the first time the event featured a classic car show and a fashion show that included her own recently launched clothing line.

The motivation for creating her own line stemmed from people coming into the store asking for bathing suits.

“If you’ve been to the beach lately it’s all butts hanging out of bathing suits, which is great,” she said with a chuckle. “I saw that there was a hole in the market where people would like something that makes them feel elegant or glamorous.”

Major referred to vintage patterns and old magazine ads and began sketching designs that she would want to wear, including a beach jacket that is ideal to wear over a bathing suit on cooler evenings.

Technical drawings were sent to a factory co-ordinator and after several rounds of sampling, her line of clothing went into production featuring solid colours and a pattern with a tiki, tropical vibe.

“My very first attempt at a clothing line has been really well received,” she said. “I’m shipping it all over the world, and I have it in a store in Las Vegas that purchased my line.”

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Major is now working on a pinup essentials collection for the fall, focusing on the basics from which a wardrobe can be built for everyday wear. Next year’s summer collection will feature original fabric patterns and prints that she will design.

“A lot of times people say, ‘I bet you feel like you were born in the wrong era’ and I say no, absolutely not,” she said. “We have the benefit of picking and choosing what we want from that era. There’s certainly a lot I would not pick from the ’50s such as the treatment of women.

“But the esthetic is fantastic.”

bethompson@postmedia.com

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