Paradice Avenue Souf Brings Back Big Business Saturday

by Lauryn Bray

On Saturday, June 29, Paradice Avenue Souf celebrated the return of their bi-monthly Big Business Saturdays. The clothing store, located in Mt. Baker at 2919 Rainier Ave. S., opened its doors to local vendors and the community, inviting passersby in for live music, food, and good vibes.

"I got tired of calling these small businesses — I was like, 'These aren't really small businesses. It's almost disrespectful at this point,'" said Harry Clean, co-owner of Paradice Avenue Souf.

Clean co-owns Paradice Avenue Souf with his friend, Rainier Beach-based artist and painter Ari Glass. They've maintained their retail space in South Seattle since 2020 after moving from their previous location in Georgetown.

"Originally, we had another location in Georgetown. It was a photo/video studio in an art gallery with the same name, and that was from 2016 to 2020, and then in 2020, we opened this one, which is fully a retail clothing store," said Clean in an interview with the Emerald as he stood outside his store. "We changed the business model. It's not a rentable event space anymore. It's not a gallery or a photo studio. It's pretty much just clothing."

The clothing store has its own brand, Paradice Worldwide, which sells clothing in-store as well as online. During Big Business Saturday, local vendors are invited to the store to use the space to showcase their clothing as well, allowing brands doing business primarily online to get some much-needed foot traffic.

"A lot of [vendors] were handpicked, but we also did a call out to see who wanted to [sell]," Clean said. "We're not charging for vendor fees. We're just trying to showcase them to the rest of the city."

As local brands sold clothing inside the store, Asian fusion restaurant Jolorene's Kitchen and Vietnamese-style milk tea and coffee, Tr Sữa 11, sold food and drinks to patrons outside.

Clean says if you're interested in selling your clothing at the next Paradice Avenue Souf Big Business event, all you have to do is reach out to the store's Instagram page. If asked why he does this, Clean would say he's just trying to keep his community's money within the community.

"I'm trying to push the idea of spending locally," he said. "This is helping them, but at the end of the day, it's helping me — it's helping all of us because I'm trying to create a culture of spending within the community."

Last year, Paradice Avenue Souf, "a youth-centered Black and Brown artist collective," held an exhibition at the Wing Luke Museum featuring "a journey through time to remember the deep solidarity of Black and Brown communities that trace us back to our Indigenous memories."

📸 Featured Image: Paradice Avenue Souf co-owner Harry Clean at the store's Big Business Saturday, which showcases their retail line as well as other local vendors, on June 29, 2024. (Photo: Susan Fried)