A new erotic boutique intends to fill a hole in the Missoula market, beginning with a soft opening this week.
Co-owner Shannon Smallwood and her business partners envision Wild Side as a welcoming space stocked with high-end, ethically made sex toys, size-inclusive lingerie and gender-affirming gear that includes binders and packers.
Wild Side will start gently with a soft opening on First Friday, March 1, from 5 to 8 p.m. featuring some sexy local arts and crafts, including leather harnesses and barbed wire jewelry.
“We just want to create a space that is really welcoming for people from the queer community, the BIPOC community, somewhere that feels safe to be able to ask questions and touch things and feel things and learn things before you buy,” says Smallwood. “Sex toys are expensive.”
She’s also planning to bring in sex educators and host classes on BDSM practices, shibari (Japanese rope bondage) and more. Her business partner, Emily Mayberry, describes their elevator pitch as “a feminist-forward collective that exists to fill the need to provide a safe, inviting, immersive space for everyone to explore the world of self care.”
It’s been a hectic time for Smallwood, who also co-owns Compass Barbershop, which just moved into the 742 S. Higgins location next door recently vacated by the Tuxedo Gallery. Compass will now have twice the space and expand services to include an esthetician, and Compass’ old spot will be Wild Side.
Haircuts and sex shops might not seem very related, but Smallwood says one of the most inspiring parts about her job is supporting people’s gender identity.
“Giving a gender-affirming haircut is my favorite part of my job. I’ve done a bunch for kids and you should see their faces, they’re just so happy,” she says. “I get letters from kids that are like, ‘Thank you so much, I feel comfortable in my skin now.’ So continuing that and reinforcing that is important to me.”
One of the vendors at the First Friday celebration is Butter Dragon Creative, aka Patrick Boise, a health economist. As a side hustle, Boise sews menstrual pads and, ahem, personal towels out of high-quality fabric in charming “sexy cowboy” prints. He’s excited about Wild Side’s sex-positive, body-positive mission. He and his husband both get their hair cut at Compass Barbershop.
“I’m on the board of the Western Montana Community Center, and Compass has been super involved in the queer community, including makeup and shaving tutorials for the trans community,” he says. “When I heard they were doing this Wild Side thing, I just had to connect and make this happen.”
Smallwood and Mayberry say they’ve also given a lot of thought to how to make their little shop a safe space for the queer community and people of color, given that Compass is sometimes vandalized with Nazi stickers, and Montana is governed by a Republican supermajority that has passed laws targeting drag queens and gender-related changes to birth certificates. Mayberry says they’ve investigated their options, learned from sex shops such as Wink Wink in Bellingham, Wash., and they stand strong behind their convictions.
“I’m a believer that if you have something to say, you should say it,” Mayberry says. “You should be putting yourself out there when you think what you believe in is important.”
Wildside Boutique’s First Friday event is March 1 from 5-8 PM.
