Welcome to the Crypt Clothing Company
The tale goes back to March, 1993, with
an event called Leather & Lace '93,
a fetish party held at the former Quality Inn on Ellice
Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
A student group on the University of Manitoba
campus (U of M Skydive) held a fund-raiser party with a
fetish theme to try to raise cash for its club. The event
was such a success, that it warranted a sequel,
Leather & Lace II held on July 9th of the same
year. Realizing the potential of these events, the leader
of this student group, Daemon Nightshade decided to strike
out on his own and hold the events himself.
The first of these solo projects was the
sold out Hallowe'en goth party called "A Gathering
Of Vampires" held at the West End Cultural
Centre October 29th of '93. It featured local bands Ballroom
Zombies, Scavenger Vacuum and
Undertek.
Named after a Sister Machine Gun
song, LL3 "Sins Of The Flesh"
was held in February '94 to coincide with Valentine's Day.
This near capacity event featured Drag Performances, a lingerie
fashion show and a human buffet performance piece.
Sins of the Flesh started what became
our continual conflict with local Liquor Act authorities.
A local media personality was invited to the event by the
company holding the fashion show. The next day in her newspaper
column, she wrote that there was no end to "the paraphernalia
at the fashion show they snuck past the Liquor Commission".
We were never able to hold events at that location again.
In April '94, we held our second goth
event, "Black Beltane". Featured
were local bands Ballroom Zombies, Twisting
Ground and Mung as well as a gothic
theatre performance where we accidently burnt off the eyebrows
of co-organizer, Chuck.
Chuck's eyebrows eventually grew back
and we began negotiations which would see The Crypt
take residence at Club Happenings every second Friday. Every
two weeks we sould show up at the bar and build our make-shift
dungeon. It served our needs for a while, until we were
contacted by Wellington's nightclub.
The deal became they take liquor, we take
door and we got to decorate the place. We hired some local
artists to do murals and we started building the cages and
the dungeon.
We had our retro nights, our goth nights
and once per month was Fetish Night. The Liquor Commission,
Fire Department, Health Department and Vice Squad all were
under pressure to close us down. They never did. Unfortunately,
realizing our success, the landlord attempted to double
our rent as at this point we were controlling both liquor
and door. We pulled a midnight move and bailed. A little
while later, we held LL4 - "The
Ascension", another Fetish Event while we
planned our next move.
August '95 marked the opening of Die
Maschine Cabaret in the Village, named after an
old Kraftwerk album. The insides were done
in a cybertech look and instantly it became the home of
Winnipeg's underground.
Within a year, though, all the original
Crypt partners were gone, each selling
off in turn to the investors we brought in to start the
bar. Over the next year, we held LL5 - "When
Angels Fall" and LL6 - "Dark
Love" where we crowned Mr and Ms Winnipeg
Leather. Come June, 1998, an old name resurfaced...
The original home of The Crypt
as a store was a small space in Winnipeg's Osborne Village.
Our focus was primarily Gothic attire and
Fetish clothing and accessories. We were
in this spot for only one year. The location was too small,
and so the following year we moved to our current site right
below the old store.
The Crypt continually grew and over the
next two years opened our sister stores Eden Lingerie
and Kick Shoe Company as well as opening
our Body Piercing Studio.
Our Tattoo Studio opened in Spring 2004 after a long search for an artist who was not only excellent at his artform, but who fit in well with the studio itself. Kick had been absorbed back into the main store by this point as the Crypt desperately needed the space and Eden, unfortunately, shut it's doors after 3 years of operation.
Now the Crypt would like to announce the opening of its 2nd location, scheduled to open its doors in Kildonan Place Shopping Centre (Winnipeg) in August of 2007 to better serve our suburban market. Don't worry, Our Osborne Village store isn't going anywhere!
And now you have it pretty much up to
date. Our look and size may have changed but our mission
is still the same; To support the scene and to provide
the best gear at the best prices possible.
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