After absorbing all that the Dark Arts Festival’s first night had to offer, I got the most out of our hotel’s in-room hot tub and slept a luxurious four hours while the men spent the night’s end plotting. In the morning, it was time to explore Salt Lake City. We had just a few hours before the Festival’s fashion show began and wanted to make the most of our day. As mentioned before, I’d never been to SLC and wanted to see the namesake attraction. We followed the “Salt Lake” signs in good faith, only to be led into a maze of highway stretches, half-empty amusement parks and a pocket of foul weather. With time running out we scrapped the ill-conceived idea entirely and headed for the nearest Deseret Industries outlet.

Named after the phonetic Mormon alphabet, Deseret Industries is an organization much like GoodWill, with a chain of massive secondhand outlets peppered across several states. Clint had been singing praises to these stores, so, with a little help from my phone’s electronic navigator, we started on a new journey. Let me tell you a thing I learned that day: Salt Lake City has a great many businesses called “Deseret”. By the time we reached our destination it was clear that there was no way we’d make it to the DAF fashion show in time.

After embracing this fact the only avenue left was to orchestrate our own fashion show, right there in the isles of Deseret Industries, fluorescent lights and all. In an astounding display of benevolence, the staff endured an hour’s worth of Clint changing among the racks, Paris mercilessly pillaging the keyboard department, and me offering unwelcome commentary on the clothing selection to anyone within earshot. I wouldn’t typically encourage this sort of behavior, but sleep deprivation lends for new perspectives, see. Please, enjoy this humble photo-offering and remember to get your Zs.

Words and photos by Zoetica Ebb