Time for a change: Bella’s window display showcases fashion through the years

If time appeared to pass quickly before your eyes every time you walked down Wyoming Street, you wouldn’t be mistaken.

To help it stand out among the city’s downtown antique and vintage-ware shops, Bella Marketplace, at 1212 Wyoming St., has created an ever-changing Time Machine Fashion Window that highlights fashions from a different era each month.

The display was conceived by Jonathan Bollas, one of Bella’s vendors who specializes in vintage clothing, and was inspired by the 1960 film “The Time Machine,” based on the H.G. Wells novel.

“In the movie, the image that always stuck with me was when the fashions go flying up and down off of the mannequins, the clothes changing as the decades fly by,” Bollas said. “I thought it would be a great marketing idea, not just for my space but for the whole store. Hopefully it’s something unique that will catch peoples’ eye and entice them to come in and check things out.”

The first display design was a full Edwardian design, with an authentic dress, coat, hat and shoes from the 1930s, and in ensuing months Bollas put together a scene from the 1970s, featuring a shell and feather gown, as well as the current orange sequined masquerade display he decided on for fall.

“I want to roll something new out at the beginning of each month, to keep it fresh,” Bollas said. “Maybe even more often than that when things sell. Right now I’m working on a real nice ’60s inspired theme for November, something that makes sense leading up to Christmas.”

Bollas began selling antique clothing with his mother when he was 16 and he enjoyed the work so much that he continued studying antiques when he moved on to focus on interior design at Ohio State University and the Columbus College of Art and Design.

After spending years working in antiques and interior design in Ohio, Bollas moved to Las Vegas in 2006 with aspirations of leaving antiques behind and focusing on interior decorating in one of the country’s fastest-growing cities. But shortly after he arrived in Southern Nevada the recession began to hit and the bottom fell out of the housing market.

Undeterred, Bollas has made his way into the antique sector and found success in synergy, combining his talents into designing unique spaces that showcase vintage items, something that has drawn interest for the entire store, according to Faye Simak, owner of the marketplace.

“The response has been great,” Simak said. “I know there have been people who’ve seen the display and come in specifically to purchase some of the dresses and items in the window, but there also are a lot of customers who tell me they noticed the beautiful scene, especially when it is lit up at night, and they end up coming in to explore the whole building.”

Bella Marketplace will celebrate its first anniversary with an open house starting at 4 p.m. today. It will include refreshments, discounts across the store and a chance to meet many of the vendors; Simak expects the Time Machine Fashion Window and the new display scene to be one of the highlights.

Contact reporter Hunter Terry at hterry@boulder cityreview.com or call 702-586-6711. Follow him on Twitter @HunterBCReview