Ha Ha Bar has been the stalwart of style on the Northside for many years now. We’ve always loved the edgy interior, delicious drinks and snacks.

Ha Ha Bar has evolved from its humble offering as a bar, now as it stands, a modern and artistic environment where creativity flows from the food to the uniforms. To better reflect the establishment’s added culinary credentials, a refreshed venue emerges Ha Ha Bar & Dining Room.

A buzz with change, this week we sat down with Mitch Thompson of fashion label Perpetually 5 to chat about Ha Ha Bar’s next move – a range of uniforms designed especially for Belco’s favourite bar by Mitch and co-colllaboration Suzan Dloulhy of SZN Designs.

How did you get involved with Ha Ha Bar?
It was kind of a social thing. I do a bit of DJing around Canberra and have been a loyal customer of Ha Ha for a while. Last year, when I was helping organise the CIT graduate show, Kinetic, I asked Az (Ha Ha Bar co-owner Aaron Ridley) if we could use his bar for our celebration. He agreed, and the seed was planted. Earlier this year he approached us about designing the uniforms. We’ve been working on it since then.

It’s an unusual engagement. What was the brief?
It started off pretty broad, to be honest. Az simply said what we needed to do was provide something affordable, new and different. With that, we had a lot of scope, but having been a part of the bar through music, had a pretty good feel for what we needed to achieve.

How did you go with the collaboration? Is Perpetually 5 and SZN a natural fit?
Working with SZN is great. Suzan is very much focused on black and white fabrics with are loose and flowing. Me, I’m into colour (and a lot of it!) with a more tailored fit. We’d investigated developing a uniform for ‘creatives’ as part of our final year work, so this was a pretty natural progression. Having worked together, we knew where our limits are, and which elements of our respective styles would provide the correct design solutions.

What can we expect to see at Ha Ha Bar when the line is launched?
We’ve taken a lot of the elements of the interior, notably the graffiti, and worked it in to patterns for the designs. We really want to show off the venue through the uniforms. Interestingly, though, the process may eventually be reversed, as some of our patterns may be used in the soft furnishings of the bar. I guess we’re going full circle!

What’s next?
Hopefully, once we reveal the uniforms with the launch of the new menu later in November, La De Da uniforms will get a makeover! Also, Suzan and I are enjoying our collaborations so much we’re hoping to open our own studio/retail space. Given the way our design styles contrast – but work together – we’re thinking of calling it Vs (versus).

Click here for the Perpetually 5 website.
Click here for the SZN website.