Conversations with Angelica Kai Bautista

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelica Kai Bautista.

Hi Angelica Kai, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m an LA baby and I was born in Echo Park, raised in Mt. Washington/Glassell Park and Glendale. Being the youngest, I was exposed to a lot and grew up pretty fast…and guess what? I liked it and can appreciate that now. Life usually contrasted and fluctuated over time like a living, breathing organism. I knew what wealth could be like for a pulsing faint sliver in time, and I knew what bankruptcy felt like for a long time. I knew the energy of huge celebrations of life and the energy of the celebration of death. This was just the beginning. I learned the scope of life early on.

My parents met here but grew up in the Philippines to work for the “American Dream” and raise four kids in the 80s. That meant that we (the kids) had a lot of unsupervised time to figure out how to make time more exciting. Time could be spent with my siblings cutting mohawks on my dolls, or laying on the floor with ketchup in our mouths, pretending to be dead, to scare our grandma. Quality time with my dad was watching Elvira and Benny Hill which I much preferred than going to church every Sunday, yet still had to do. I think that formed the “goth” in me. I loved the rituals and pageantry, the bloody statues and realistic eyes fascinated me, but the service killed my soul.

Growing up with multi-generations and siblings meant I was exposed to a lot of different music ranging from Johnny Mathis, The Cocteau Twins to Eazy-E. I feel like growing up in LA, sprawling with all the neighborhoods, cultures, and sub-cultures really formed me, and in a symbiotic way I formed part of it back.

I continued brewing the mix with traveling and living all around the world starting from the age of 19. I’ve lived in spurts in the Czech Republic, Guatemala and many places in between. was a hair stylist, designer, set dresser, yoga teacher, farmer, energy worker, medium, etc. The pandemic brought me back to L.A.,where it all started, and now I am an entrepreneur with my shop Still Wild.

How does this teeny little excerpt and glimpse have to do with anything? Well, my shop is a strange mix of cute, macabre, campy, cosmic and glamorous. My eyes have seen a billion things, and I’m a treasure hunter, so I apply that to my shop. It’s just starting and constantly evolving. It is never the same shop twice. From baguette earrings, jeweled eye snake clips, bat-winged harnesses, Sorayama-esque corsets, fuzzy cat pencil skirts, cathedral briefcase purses, antique coffin nail crucifixes, and chicken bags, it really is a small, but grand eclectic dark and technicolor universe. Everyone has their universe in them. I love that my shop allows their universes to visit and share with mine.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
TECHNOLOGY! I despise it, but try not to say that out loud so it doesn’t hear me. We already have a rocky relationship. And yes, I know it’s hanging on to that statement, in writing, for perpetuity. I purposely tried stay distant from technology, because I wanted to live a natural life, free from any programming. I didn’t even know how to start my computer. The iOS was outdated, and I was supposed to update it but had no clue.

Balancing every aspect of the business is challenging. There is finesse involved. Being a new entrepreneurs we need to understand taxes, finance, social media, photography, social skills, IT, scheduling, etc, to infinity.

Since I do pop-ups, another challenge is the sheer physicality of building a shop and breaking it down constantly. It’s hard on the body. Sometimes it’s scorching hot or sometimes raining outside.

Resting is a challenge too since we’re always anticipating, applying for, and prepping for markets. It can cause burnout. I see it happen amongst us vendors. I ran myself ragged and now I’m learning. It’s like finding the point of natural breathing. Expansion and contraction need to be equal. Output and input need to be equal. Rest equals expansion. Rest equals creativity flowing, and that is the magic behind it all.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I design and create some of my items and curate a majority of the rest. My gifts are my eyes, openness and perspective. I love strange things in unlikely places. I’m testing the boundaries still and keeping things kosher, but will probably contract deeper to more creepy-crawly spaces, and play with expanding to the ethers where you can hear light.

What’s next?
I am going to listen to my soul and see with my heart. I have markets booked for New Jersey, Nevada and Arizona this year and many locally. Eventually, I would like to have a physical brick-and-mortar where I can make the hours suitable for me. I would also like to do live sales from the shop. I want to expand more into antique and one-of-a-kind finds spanning centuries and cultures, but also find cool t-shirts from cholos in Thailand. I had a rosary collection when I was in my early 20’s. One was made like a locket and had dirt from the Paris catacombs inside of it. I remember being at a bar in New Orleans, and the bartender, who is now deceased, opened it up and dropped the dirt behind the bar on the sticky floor. I’m still looking for that rosary and dirt, in a proverbial sense. Ultimately I want to treasure hunt, because I love it, and if people enjoy what I find, then that is a bonus. They can treasure hunt too. I just make it easier to find.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stillwildshop/?hl=en 

Image Credits
Dominique Singer