Get Wilde: Houston LGBTQ-Owned Oddities Shop Serves Halloween Spooks Year-Round

By Jayce Tyler

If you’re a Halloween fanatic like me, the sight of spooky pop–up costume shops around town signals your favorite time of the year. But what if I told you that you could get your oddity and eerie fix all year round, simply by making a journey to Houston’s Greater Heights?

On the corner of Yale and 15th Street lies the Wilde Collection, an LGBTQ-owned oddities store run by Lawyer B. Douglas II and Tyler Zottarelle. Encircled by the shop’s curiously odd and avant-garde décor, I sat down with Douglas to discuss his uncanny career.

Born in Veracruz, Mexico, Douglas grew up surrounded by iconography from several, seemingly contradictory, religions, which inspired his art and aesthetic. His mother, born in Chihuahua, Mexico, taught him a mixture of Catholicism and Santería. From his father, born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, Douglas was exposed to a blend of Voodoo and Baptist practices. He also, on occasion, performs séances. “The practice of séance, if conducted correctly, can be a physically and mentally taxing event,” Douglas explains. “It can take me several days to recover from, so I do not conduct them very often.”

When asked about the scariest experience he’d had during a séance, Douglas confesses, “During one séance, the person I had under hypnosis later claimed that something followed him back into this realm and would not leave him. He told me a year after about things that had been happening to him since. Even with all my experience, I had to ask my mother to assist me with this one.”

As a child, Douglas collected items that “felt as if they had a story to tell,” as well as items that frightened him. “Possessing those items made me feel as if I had dominion over them and helped me conquer my fears,” he says.

Douglas was also fascinated by items that weren’t readily available or quickly manufactured. “As with any collector, I became a hoarder and realized that I was no longer enjoying the items I was accumulating, as I could no longer [fit them] in my home and was immediately locking them away in storage. I met my business partner, Tyler Zottarelle, who had also become a hoarder himself and we decided to open The Wilde Collection to make some of our treasures available to other people like us. Once we became determined to open the shop, we decided that it would have a gothic, Victorian aesthetic.”

Though the Wilde Collection has only been open for four years, Douglas and Zottarelle wanted the shop to appear like it had been around for a long time. “It was important to me that every person who walks into the shop feels as if they are experiencing something that they may have never felt before,” Douglas says. “We wanted our customers to walk away feeling moved by what they saw inside and to share their experience with others.”

The store features various haunted pieces, such as The Axman Letter, a Restless Doll, and my personal favorite, a creepy clown doll. Accompanying the pieces are placards telling each one’s story. “Due to my experiences with séance, I would say my favorite is my Ciprian Zahare doll that was used to communicate with child spirits during the height of the spiritualist movement,” Douglas shares. “I obtained it from a dear old Romani friend who was also one of my mentors. This is a doll used during the hypnosis séance I mentioned.”

Due to the items in Douglas and Zottarelle’s collection, I was curious to see if anything unusual had ever occurred in the store. “We have had a few interesting occurrences happen in our specimen room,” he recalls. “These incidents started happening when we brought a doll into the room, which we lovingly call ‘The Restless Doll.’ We have a few surveillance videos posted on our Facebook and Instagram showing things moving, lights flickering, shadows, items being ripped from the walls, and things breaking. Because we have been unable to debunk these instances, they do appear to be paranormal; if you believe in that type of stuff.” 

The Wilde Collection has a set of rotating displays, which can vary from Krampus for Christmas, to Jack Rabbit and Raven for Easter, and even a Carrie display. “Daily, I am surrounded by the pieces I love,” Douglas says. “The entire shop inspires me, so the decision to display something comes very easily and can come from all around me.”

When asked about how often the store receives new items to add to its collection, Douglas has this to say: “As soon as something sells, there is something waiting to replace it. Before we opened and during our travels, we met lots of interesting people, as well as other collectors, so we get many things through those sources. Since we are open seven days a week, we no longer have the free time to travel, but fortunately, because so many people have heard of our shop, many things now come to us instead of us having to search for them.”

The Wilde Collection is open from 12:00 noon–7:00 p.m. on Monday through Saturday, and from 12:00 noon–5:00 p.m. on Sunday. You can learn more by visiting their website, Facebook, and Instagram. Happy Halloween everyone!