Teanne Harris: Frenzy's Kickass Chick of the Week

When I read this story, I couldn't believe the selflessness and strength shown by this woman. Her fiance decides at the last minute that he doesn't want to marry her, and she donates all of the reception decor and favors, etc., to a local Senior Citizens home so that they can have a Halloween party! Then, she picks up her plane ticket and goes to Hawaii for a solo honeymoon. I love her and I don't even know her! You go, girl!

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/weddings/2009/11/02/2009-11-02_bride_jilted_at_the_alter.html

Modern Witch/Ninja Mannequin Massacre: Halloween 2009

CARNAGE!

The frenzygals decided to "act out" a little bit to celebrate our first Halloween in business. We had a lot of fun creating this display. It is deceptively simple—we spent weeks planning and acquiring the necessary props for this display.
Surprisingly little of it was actually made by us, though. In fact, the total amount of hand-made object for these windows was limited to:
Maureen knitted those wicked-awesome, thigh-high legwarmers!
Kris made the spellbook from an old dictionary and some random ephemera/stamps/ink.
We put eyeballs in the monkey pod stalks at the front of the display.
We shredded the pink dress and the Undertaker Tshirt, and we used red tulle to make the "blood sprays".
Maureen sewed the muslin backdrop, and Kris used "spray blood" to finish the massacre window.
The ninja costume is a black turtleneck, black pants, black socks, black gloves, a standard black eye mask, and a black pillowcase. EASY!

Details matter at frenzy: the Witch is controlling the Ninja by using the Ninja Mind Control spell on the open page in the spellbook. We looked up ingredients from Zombie powder used by Haitian witch doctors to add some authenticity. Our wicked lady also has acquired the Brain, Heart, and Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz display. Her books include an astronomy text, for use with her telescope, and field guides to demons and other spirits. Of course, being a Modern Witch, we eschewed a traditional cauldron in favor of a crockpot.

One last shoutout: the great spiderweb in the side window was made for us by Judy McCardel of Underfoot Weavers in Danville, Ohio!

Frenzy Does Hardcore-Pretty

Ordinarily, when Frenzy customers come looking for formal dresses, we ask questions about the event to help the ladies select an appropriate frock. Last weekend, we were inundated with lovely young ladies who were looking for dresses. When we asked what type of event they were attending, we got an unexpected answer: A Rugby Match. And not only were these ladies attending a rugby match in formal wear, they were PLAYING in the match in formal wear. Apparently, every year the Kenyon College Women's Rugby club plays a "formal" match.

Needless to say, we totally approved of the idea and scrounged around to find dresses that had been damaged during the course of the year that we could supply to them at a lower cost. We managed to find about 10 dresses that suited their needs.

Of course, we HAD to go see how our lovely dresses held up to the rigors of rugby. Those women ROCKED! Serious punishment was meted out, all in lacey, sparkly packages! Ladies of the Kenyon Women's Rugby Team, you're our KICK-ASS Chicks of the Week!

Precious Metals/Glam Rock

One of the hottest fashion trends forecast for the fall and winter is Rock Chic. In other words, the rest of the world has finally caught on that rockers have a super sweet aesthetic of their own, and the fashionistas of the world want to capitalize by faking a hard, studs-and-spikes, devil-may-care, punk edge that is legitimately owned by those who really understand and enjoy the bands and fans who live the rock-and-roll, heavy metal lyrics that inspired this "trend." (OK, enough editorializing. I suppose it is nice that all of the true "metalheads" are finally getting to call everyone else "posers.")

Anyway, we decided to create a "Precious Metals" window display (to exploit the trend, I admit!) that focused on both metallic accents (also a hot trend) and a rock-and-roll theme. We paired silver stilettos with metal-band Tees, and wrapped it all up with some music-themed decor to create this fun display.

Most of the clothing items in this display were straight off the rack. You'll notice the reemergence of Maureen's silver "Tin Woodswoman" skirt. Also, Kris made the bright orange/pink necklace worn by the 80s chick in the left window. But the crowning achievement of this display is Maureen's handmade knit punk mohawk hat.

The Art of Adornment

For September's First Friday event in downtown Mount Vernon, we wanted to support the opening of a new art gallery on South Main Street and the many other art events that were occurring. So, we developed the idea of creating an "Art of Adornment" window display in which we created an "art gallery" in which the art that was displayed was an array of fashion accessories.

We used approximately 50 yards of black cotton fabric, plus a couple of black sheets, to create the backdrop. We have curtain rods hung on the back wall, so Maureen turned the fabric into curtains and draping fabric for the floor. Then, we collected a variety of old and new frames, pedestals, and blocks. We hung the frames from the ceiling using cup hooks and 20-lb test fishing line.

Choosing the items to highlight took the most time. We selected items that we knew would stand out, with bright colors or unique shapes. About a yard of black velvet was used to finish the framed accessories. Maureen used a dowel to put those ties in the frame--awesome! We also had a couple of female busts that were designed for displaying jewelry, and Maureen found the armature that she had for making latex masks, and we used it in the guys' gallery. All in all, we think it is a striking display, especially after dark.

Back-2-School at Frenzy

At the beginning of August, we put up our first Back-to-School display. We found props all over the place: We bought used lockers from the Cleveland Institute of Music, when they were selling theirs to make room for new lockers. We borrowed the antique desk from Maureen's parents-in-law, and the whiteboard was part of Kris's household furniture. We had the football and megaphone from a photoshoot we had done for our Football Guide advertisement, and our sister-in-law, who runs a school of performing arts for baton, cheer, and pom, lent us the pom-poms.

The girl in black in the left-hand window is writing repeats on the whiteboard, "I will NOT pay too much." The textbooks are a collection of Kris's texts from college and texts Kris worked on when she worked for a publishing company.

Wizard of Oz: Did We Win?

We decided that all of our handiwork would be most visible against a vivid, but simple backdrop, so we chose a solid emerald green (Emerald City green, actually). The theme of the window display contest was "There's no place like home," so we painted the slogan, plus our own little spin on it (Home is where you can truly be yourself.) on the portion of the backdrop that faced the street. The yellow brick road was added by using yellow anti-slip stuff that usually sees only the inside of drawers.

After several people stopped in to mention that they didn't "get" our window, we added little keychains with photos of the original characters so that visually, people could match the original characters with our interpretations of them. This little touch didn't seem to help all that much...

Ultimately, we did NOT win the contest. We were given a prize for "Most Creative Use of Merchandise to Tell the Wizard of Oz Story," because the young people in the cast (the cast voted on a winner) apparently all voted for our window. We're still calling it a victory because it made people stop and look, which is exactly what a window display should do!