Seattle Post Intelligencer
Small Retail: For the love of Indonesia
Zamboanga features batik from the nation where owners met
By NOEL LYN SMITH
P-I REPORTER
While browsing the apparel at Zamboanga, try checking the label, because it may offer some encouraging words: “The most important day of your life is … today.”
This statement can be found on Zambowear, the store’s clothing line of shirts, dresses, skirts, pants, tops, shorts and hats, made from rayon batik.
Batik is a wax-resist dyeing technique that originated in Indonesia, a country that carries a personal connection for store owners Julia and Joe Ensley.
Both store locations, on Bainbridge Island and in West Seattle, stock a variety of Zambowear, and each garment is dyed and sewn in Bali, Indonesia.
“We are absolutely known for this batik clothing,” Julia said.
They travel each year to Indonesia to submit new clothing designs and search for items to stock their stores.
Creating the batik clothing requires a batik master to build a stamp from copper strips that are bent into the shape of the design and attached to a handle. Then the stamp is dipped in melted wax and pressed onto the fabric until the wax is saturated into the material before it is dyed.
Areas covered by the wax adhesive retain the fabric’s original color. A heated roller removes the wax and the fabric is dried.
The most popular Zambowear is the “skull” Hawaiian shirt, with its pattern of white skulls on a black background.
Julia said it is not unusual for her to hear from a customer who bought a Zambowear item several years ago and is looking for another one because the fabric is beginning to show wear.
“They don’t want us to change anything about the style, except the color,” she said.
Besides clothing, the store sells many other items — wooden masks and decorated mirrors from Bali, soaps imported from France, jewelry, wind chimes, hinged trinket boxes and home accessories.
Popular gift items are the Pig Catapult, a hand-held device that shoots small plastic pigs, and Fat Animals, spherical plush pillows with names like “Frankie Frog” and “Miss Ladybug.”
“I think you have to find a niche and stick to it,” Julia said about the merchandise.
Another characteristic of Zamboanga is the upside-down Christmas tree that hangs each holiday season from the ceiling.
It started as a way to save space, but has grown into a store tradition.
“Most people love it. … Some of the small kids don’t like it at all, (they think) we don’t know it’s upside-down,” she said.
Julia is a native of Brighton, England. Her grandparents, Jack and Lois Wade, owned the W.J. Wade department store in Brighton.
A black-and-white photograph of the department store hangs above a painting of Zamboanga in the Bainbridge Island store.
She remembers exploring her grandparents’ business as a child and making more than one visit to the store’s Santa Claus.
“So, I suppose having a store was always in the back of my mind,” she said.
Joe grew up on Bainbridge Island, where his parents, Marjorie and Harmon Ensley, owned a riding stable for years.
Joe and Julia met while riding a bus in Sumatra, Indonesia — where they were both visiting at the time, she from Switzerland and he from Alaska.
Julia relocated to Alaska. It was Joe who wanted to start a business selling imported items from Asia.
Soon the couple was selling silver jewelry from Thailand at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer.
They started Zamboanga in 1987, opening the Bainbridge Island store in 1994 and the West Seattle store in 2003.
Throughout the Ensleys’ retail adventure, they’ve made the journey to Alaska to sell at the state fair before making their final appearance in 2014.
Locally, they sell Zambowear each year at the Northwest Folklife Festival.
Both stores keep them busy, but they manage to operate Bainbridge Buttons, which specializes in wooden, bone, shell and coconut buttons.
“I think often if you are suited to retail, it’s like an acting profession,” Julia said. “Retail is your stage. You can’t envision doing anything else.”
