A community of their own

In September 2022, internationally acclaimed non-binary writer and performer Alok V Menon (they/them) hit Australian stages wearing a pair of earrings featuring pink, hairy legs. Designer Nikita Majajas (she/her) posted on Instagram that she created the earrings after reading Alok’s work about the politics of body hair.

Nikita draws inspiration for her jewellery brand Doodad and Fandango from pop culture and queer aesthetics, so it was fitting to see her work showcased by Alok during their Australian tour. Nikita lives in the Blue Mountains with her wife Charlie Villas (she/they), a DJ, music curator and self-professed fashion victim, and together this queer creative power couple are making waves far beyond their mountain hideaway.

Charlie and Nikita are both beneficiaries of the technical college or TAFE system, in the types of creative education like theatre, fashion, jewellery and object design that recent governments have sought to defund. Nikita started Doodad and Fandango 8 years ago, and the business really took off during the pandemic lockdown and the online shopping boom.

“Every day I pinch myself that I get to do this full time,” she says, referring to her home studio where she hand-makes each piece of jewellery to order. The studio has a funky black and white checked floor, with pops of colour and glitter scattered about and a giant laser cutting machine in one corner, which Nikita says changed everything for her practice.

“I feel guilty because I do work in plastics, so I do what I can to minimize and reduce harm and my environmental impact,” says Nikita.

“I make it myself, I don’t get stuff made overseas, I source materials locally, recycle acrylic waste, use paper packaging instead of plastic – I just try to balance it all like that.” Balance is a recurring theme in Nikita’s life, who says living and working in the Blue Mountains is “ a beautiful breath of serenity,” while also creating shiny, pop-inspired jewellery from acrylics and laminates.

“I love high and low mash ups, I love colour, I love making people happy,” she says of her creative practice.  

For Charlie, who has just returned from a gig at Darwin Festival and is a renowned DJ across the Sydney queer scene and the national festival circuit, she first fell in love with music while browsing the record store near the Blacktown train station as a teenager.

“Back when records were cheap,” she says, sitting around her mid-century retro kitchen table overlooking the bush, “I fell in love with soul and disco.”

A family friend introduced her to the party scene, and studying theatre further opened up the world of music.

“I started putting my hand up for house parties, and it grew from there.”

After leaving her job at Universal Music Publishing six years ago, Charlie thought “I’m just gonna go for it,” and has been making a living as a full-time DJ ever since.

Charlie and Nikita have lived in the Blue Mountains for about a year, choosing the location for its space, nature, affordability, and proximity to Sydney for Charlie’s work. “Being here during the week, it’s so lush, I get to decompress. When we drive up around the bend at Lapstone it feels like home, I just let out a big sigh,” says Charlie. They bought their house in the middle of the pandemic, when real estate viewings were one of the few reasons they were allowed to leave their restricted Sydney LGA.

Their house is a beautifully curated mid-century pop-art dream, with most pieces of art and furniture either made by Nikita or found in vintage stores throughout the mountains. According to Nikita, the pair’s love of pop culture comes from “wanting to be engaged, wanting to know what’s going on, wanting to be connected to what people are thinking, what everyone’s talking about, being connected to the buzz.”

For Charlie and Nikita, pop culture is not merely an aesthetic, but a way of life. There’s a synergy running through Nikita’s jewellery, Charlie’s DJing, and how the pair live and work.

“In the queer nightlife scene, that’s where you form your families and that’s where you express your identity,” says Nikita.

“If you’re trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming, that’s your identity, that’s your lifeline, this is how I dress.”

“And it’s a safe space,” adds Charlie. “During the day you have to dumb it down for work, conform, mask everything.”

“And when you enter this space, it’s like ‘I can just be’ – you know?” says Nikita. “As soon as you step out of that space it’s like back to normal, it can be dangerous. Creativity really fuels a lot of queer identities.”

Charlie and Nikita are hoping to replicate the energy and sense of community they find in the Sydney queer scene in their new mountains neighbourhood. While Australia’s recent census did not collect data on sexuality and gender identity, anecdotally the Blue Mountains is home to a high number of LGBTIQA+ people, many of whom are also creative practitioners. It’s a well-worn and welcome path, with many queers and creatives having moved to the mountains after being priced out of Sydney, and finding space, acceptance, and community here.

“I think people like us coming into these areas, we bring a lot of new ideas, a lot of genuine love for the area, and we appreciate the things that are already here,” says Nikita.

“We just love to promote other people, especially creative communities and queer communities, we love to elevate what people do,” says Charlie.