Porsha Thelusma Photos
Thelusma and George.
Two years ago New Haven-based entrepreneur Porsha Thelusma was unboxing shipments at a local boutique. Before her soft opening, she sat regally, flanked by two carefully curated racks of vintage clothing in her own store, the WOW. She was dressed in the camo fatigues of a guerrilla — and in some ways, she is one.
The WOW began by taking a DIY approach to retail, and the result has been a blooming underground crew of craftspeople, creatives, and healers.
Originally envisioned as The Weekend On Wheels, a portable store, the concept morphed into a collective of artists with a common goal. “I’m gonna do something with a lot of weekend vibes. It needs to be personal and it needs to be something people can feel for themselves,” Thelusma recalled thinking.
The Weekend On Web was launched as a website on New Years Day 2018, focusing on wellness, entertainment, and music. Thelusma also began hosting events focused around wellness and personal growth. Her first event, put together with the help of her friends Danielle Campbell and yogi Vern Montoute, was The Backyard Healing Festival held last September at Bag Studios. The event featured yoga, panels on self care, a workshop with wellness personality Emilia Ortiz, vendors, and more. Weekend On Web also held holiday food drives for families left in need by the government shutdown, took part in a community dialogue on the #metoo movement and its intersection with other civil rights movements, and provided introductory classes on yoga and herbalism. This helped create a growing community that included herbalists, massage therapists, yogis, and spiritualists — centered around a vintage store and art space owned and operated by Thelusma and George, in West Haven. The events were a way to get to know the people who ran the space.
Gathering for the WOW’s recent soft opening.
The WOW store is celebrating its grand opening on Saturday. Intimate and well appointed, the space is half store and half workshop. To enter it is to enter Thelusma’s and George’s world. George is the earth to Thelusma’s water. Grounded and industrious, she has been instrumental in the growth of the WOW from concept to brick and mortar.
Along with clothes, herbal and metaphysical items make up a lot of the WOW’s inventory: sage, stones, and palo santo, as well as more mainstream hermetic items like CBD infusions. Metaphysical products are trendy, but according to Thelusma, a longtime hoodoo practitioner, trends usually imply a need asking to be filled. Physical things like stones and incenses make the spiritual more tangible. In this sense, the WOW is what is called a tulpa, an idea turned into reality.
“The WOW has helped me to be more of an adult but also more of a kid,” Thelusma said. “It’s been one of the biggest things to show me what I can really do.” It’s also a bit of a sandbox. “We’re doing too much at the same time, but somehow it’s all working,” Thelusma added.
The WOW is intended as a place to celebrate difference and find mutual respect. Buying clothes is often a fraught experience. The WOW allows people to try clothes that they would like to experience for themselves without being bound by the traditional, often gender-based, conventions of garmentry. They recently held a successful clothing swap for the LGBTQ community According to George, this safe space vibe is something they keep with them whether at their home base or a pop up event. They stand for making art and experiencing the world for yourself and for your enjoyment. Their message is spreading and more and more people are hopping on board.
“It’s amazing what you can do when you go with your gut,” Thelusma said. “On paper I should not have the WOW, but it’s a mission to problem solve. It’s about making a way out of no way.”
For Thelusma, part of finding a way has been letting go. “The old Porsha would have tried to take on everything herself,” she said. But the WOW has now expanded to a crew of about 10, including photographer Jordyn Beschel and herbalist Kaitlyn Scott of Rose and Ritual.
“When we’re having fun and the events are happening it’s everything we could have hoped for. It’s been so rewarding seeing that there is a need and want for it, and that if you share yourself someone out there will value it and value you.”
The WOW celebrates its grand opening on May 4 at 14 Gilbert St. in West Haven. Upcoming events are listed on the WOW website, and they are taking donations for expansion here.