Liz Liles

Liz Liles is a designer, dancer, model and musician. She also runs an underground music venue … in her living room. So if you’re at a house show and an unassuming but heated 19-year-old gets up in your mug, don’t piss her off.

“I stopped a band once, got on the microphone and started yelling, ‘If you’ve never seen me before, get the fuck out of my house!’” Liles recalled of a certain house show gone wild. “This was on my birthday! There were so many kids out front, throwing beer bottles in my yard.” Ah, the life of a clandestine music-venue operator.

Fortunately for Liles, she has other creative outlets. Like her clothing line, Wizard Clothing, which is not a collection of Wiccan dresses.

“My name’s Liz. And ‘wizard’ sounds like Liz. And then my boyfriend calls me ‘Wizard’ sometimes. And when I started making clothes, they were all kind of magical looking—weird cloaks and that kind of stuff,” she explained. Liles began making clothes eight months ago, inspired by friends who could sew and used vintage and secondhand goods to make new outfits. “I have my certain thrift stores that I really like and try not to tell other people about.”

C’mon, tell us.

“My main one is the Goodwill Outlet, which is in south Sac, and that’s the place where they charge by the pound.” Liles got into vintage fashion at 14, when Le Fun opened in Midtown. “I’m more of a romantic person, and I like the way vintage makes women look,” she said. “Romantic, instead of a saucy, ‘fuck me’ kind of thing—I’m sorry I said that.”

It’s OK.

So are big sunglasses vintage or saucy? “One of my friends calls big sunglasses the 10-foot fakeout,” Liles said. “Like you see a girl from afar and say ‘That girl’s cute.’ But then she gets up close and she’s not cute.”

Pwn3d!

By the end of July, you’ll be able to pick up sunglasses, shoes, vintage music equipment, local designers wares and more at BuffCastle, a new boutique Liles will open in Midtown. She’s mostly is excited to sell her friends’ original screen-printed shirts.

So what else? “I just started an all-girl band, called Fatty Acid. I play drums.” For how long? “For never. There’s a drum set at my house, and I just play it. And because of dance, I guess I have rhythm.” Amateur drummers, a neighbor’s best friend.

“They’re the ones who call the cops on us,” she added. “So I called the cops on them.” Touché.