Remem­ber how I prom­ised to post more often and I haven’t really delivered on that? Well I’m try­ing to get less busy so I can. Truly I am. And one of the ways I’m doing that is by clos­ing the House of Boom. Please tol­er­ate me while I cut’n paste this in third per­son rather than re-writ­ing it. 

The House of Boom is clos­ing – but it has noth­ing to do with cycle­ways.

After six years of pro­du­cing eth­ic­al cloth­ing for fat babes, made in Wel­ling­ton by people on the liv­ing wage or more, the House of Boom is wind­ing things up.

“I’m just really, really tired,” says own­er Joanna McLeod. “So tired. And it feels really yuck try­ing to con­vince people to pay fair prices for cloth­ing when I know they’re strug­gling to pay for gro­cer­ies”.

“A good pro­por­tion of my cus­tom­ers were pub­lic ser­vants, who have either lost their jobs or are liv­ing in really uncer­tain times, so it makes sense that they’re being cau­tious with their money. And since Boom has always been a side quest for me, and I actu­ally have anoth­er full time job that pays the mort­gage, it would be bet­ter that their spare dol­lars be spent on oth­er small eth­ic­al busi­nesses who are fight­ing for their live­li­hoods.

I had big big dreams of run­ning an eth­ic­al busi­ness that actu­ally turned a profit – but I’ve run out of steam. I’m really proud of how vis­ible Boom has man­aged to be, the kaupapa of fat lib­er­a­tion that I’ve pur­sued as part of it (even man­aged to pen­et­rate our nation­al soap opera!). I’ve met so many amaz­ing people, I got to col­lab­or­ate on a gin, and I have a ward­robe full of all my dream clothes (with pock­ets!). But it’s time to wrap up now before I’m totally burned out”.

Nat­ur­ally a busi­ness that has always been about tak­ing up space isn’t going to slink out quietly, no mat­ter how much Joanna would like to just be tak­ing a nap in the sun­shine right now. So there’s a bunch of events to say good­bye.

  1. First up this week­end is the final pop-up sale in the house of The House of Boom, where you can get 50% off all stock in sizes 16–34, plus a selec­tion of second hand plus size clothes. Can’t make it along in per­son? You can still shop online.

    Closing down sale: the very last pop-up sale at the House of Boom - sizes 16-34, 13-15 September 2024, Thorndon. 50% of all stock!

    Clos­ing Sale at the House of Boom Pop-up Shop

  • Fri­day 13 Septem­ber: 6pm-9pm (join us for drinks & nibbles at this event)

  • Sat­urday 14 Septem­ber: 11am-4pm

  • Sunday 15 Septem­ber: 11am-4pm

189a Grant Road, Thorndon (Gate is on Aor­angi Tce).

"Kaukau Momona Gentle Glow - Poneke 28 September" over a sunset coloured pool filled with fat babe clones

On 28 Septem­ber, the House of Boom is put­ting on a fat swim –  Kaukau Momona – Gentle Glow at the Aquadome in Mount Vic­tor­ia. It’s a chance to get togeth­er with oth­er fat babes for a joy­ful swim­ming exper­i­ence. Swim, play, lounge, and relax in a room full of people who look like you. The pool will glow with magic­al fairy lights in all col­ours of the rain­bow for a beau­ti­ful, tran­quil even­ing.

In early Novem­ber, there’ll be a screen­ing of the doc­u­ment­ary Your Fat Friend about author, pod­caster and act­iv­ist Aubrey Gor­don (keep an eye on Boom socials for more inform­a­tion)

And then finally there’ll be the annu­al Camp Boom – a week­end con­fer­ence of fun and power, fea­tur­ing speak­ers, work­shops, arts & crafts, gentle move­ment, wine tast­ing and the best cloth­ing swap ever. Extremely lim­ited tick­ets are still avail­able.

Please join the House of Boom for some or all of these events, tell your friends and keep fight­ing the good fight. Fat lib­er­a­tion is good for every­one.