NEONSLEEP

A wee interview with the brains behind NEONSLEEP! Welfe Bowyer has in many ways been responsible for creating a new kind culture. It's one that dares to stay up all night, isn't scared to let loose, lives for adventure and is increasingly global in scope! As Welfe explains NS is much more than a home for 'party photo', it's an original and innovative NEW kind of space. A hub for high fashion, street culture, jewellery and much much more...

You've changed the format of NeonSleep drastically, what's the concept behind the new site?
The new site is designed to act like a cultural hub, allowing fans to easily navigate all the aspects of NS. All sections are equal, whether your into the photos or street fashion or art.

How do you see the site evolving?
Treating each section as equal, allows each to also grow and shrink as needed. The new fashion sections, Sidewalk and Look are starting to gain momentum, with various NZ labels seeing the potential and getting on board. It would be great to have Auckland street fashion on there too. So any budding fashion photographers out there!?

What is about NZ culture that inspires you? What would you like to see more of?
NZ'ers are so do 'DIY'. Its an old cliche, but the reality of it is that NZ gives you a very good chance to do what you want. And you might just find your one of the only people doing it! There's less competition, which gives you more attention. This is good and bad, as designers are often pushed further amongst competition. So I would like to see more competition for sure.

Less?
Less P would be nice. People should just chill out with a nice cup of Peppermint tea.
And where would you like to see NeonSleep five years on from now?
In 5 years, I would like to expand the brand to include photographers from other cities around the globe. That's been the idea from the start. We've been mixing in photos from Berlin for 2 years now, and would be great to see some other cities (on one site) too! But yeah, just generally focus more globally, which hopefully just strengthens NZs position next to work from around the world.

You can check out NEONSLEEP HERE ( and don't forget to navigate all the features!)
Cheers Welfe! x