Transition - Halloween to Christmas

Transitioning from Halloween to Christmas at Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga can provide some strange scenes.  But don't worry, we'll have it sorted out soon enough.

If you were driving by at just the right time on November 5th, you may have seen store manager Susan Stringer changing the mannequins in the window.   Changing big, heavy mannequins isn't as easy as some people think, especially in a small space with large windows on two sides.  The easiest way to do it is to start with the mannequins next to the window then 'back' out the door, changing each one in turn. 

After changing the two elves shown above on the right, she removed the ghostly looking female and got Santa started.  When Mrs. Stringer stepped out to the parking lot to see if Santa was standing in the best lit spot, she noticed that Freddy Kruger seemed to be mincing the unsuspecting Jolly old Elf and his workers.

Don't worry!  Freddy was replaced with another bright, happy elf before closing time, lest he traumatize to many Citizens of Red Bank.

Inside the shop might be a little more frightening as Halloween decorations from the window got piled up in front of the Children's sized Clearance costumes.  A box of pumpkins and a treasure chest full of other decorations becomes a strange wrestling mat for the Zombie Babies.  Looks like Santa Baby isn't fairing to well.

Oh well!  Just another day in the life of a costume shop.

 ************UPDATE************

Santa and his Elves Prevailed! 

Back to Normal

Hours return to Normal!

Hours:  Monday-Friday 9-6, Saturday 10-2, Closed on Sunday

Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga has been running on extended hours for the last three weeks of October.  We also stayed open until 7 pm on Monday, November 3rd for the convenience of customers returning Halloween Rental Costumes. 

If you failed to return your costume on that day, PLEASE remember to drop it off on your way into work or on your way home.  You can also send it back with a friend. 

If you need to MAIL it to us, that's OK, but you need to call us and let us know that it's on it's way.  (423) 870-3510

Send to: 
Beauty and the Beast - Costume Return
3708 Dayton Blvd.
Chattanooga, TN 37415

Be sure to include the NAME it was rented under to insure proper credit for your return and avoid prosecution.

Happy Halloween!

Have fun and stay safe!

What's Hot for Halloween? CREATIVITY!

Pardon me while I step out of the proper writing format of "This Author" and just chat about Halloween this morning.  Tomorrow is the big day and everyone is scurrying around trying to get all their last minute shopping done.  Cleaning, decorating, getting all the costumes, accessories and make up together and ready to GO!

I'm happy to see, at least at Beauty and the Beast, the costume trends are moving away from the super sexy stuff.  I can't speak for other stores because I don't have time to shop there and the sales people don't report to me, I can only talk about what I personally see.  Maybe my "Family Values" store image has finally taken root.  Whatever the reason, I'm happy to see bright, beautiful young people shopping for all kinds of OTHER costumes.  I'm extremely happy to see so many people looking for more creative options. 

Personally, I'm pretty old school, I like classic scary costumes.  For me, classics are Frankenstein, the Monster's Bride, Dracula, Werewolf, Witches, Grim Reaper and Devils.  For this generation, the classics are Jason, Freddy, Micheal, Leatherface and Zombies.  However, I know as a child, my one true wish was to be Cinderella, so that little girl desire to be a Princess for just one night will never die.  My Halloween costume is a Day of the Dead inspired creation, a skeleton in a long brightly colored dress and big hat.  My husband laughs and calls it my "Happy Dead Person" costume.  In a way, it's a combination of classic scary skeleton and princess dress!

Whenever the media asks me the age old questions "What's Hot for Halloween" I never have a good answer because there is never ONE costume that outsells everything else to the point of being overly noticeable.  At Beauty and the Beast, our sales are all across the board, Heroes, Princesses, Classic Monsters, Patriotic, Famous People / Media Characters, and the buyer's own imagination.  Perhaps the good answer for "What's Hot for Halloween?" should be - At Beauty and the Beast, what's hot is CREATIVITY! 

Clearance Spotlight

More fun stuff from the Adult and  Child sized Clearance!


 

Batman for $20? You can't beat that. From the less popular Batman and Robin movie, these suits have printed blue muscles on the chest and no padding. We thought we had sold out of them, but while cleaning up the back room about a year ago, we found a whole box full. Still have most sizes Small, Medium and Large. Maybe not the best choice for the serious Bat-fanatic, but it's really fun for those with a sense of humor and a tight budget.

Warrior Queen has long been one of my favorites.  It comes in Standard and Queen.  Full length red velvet dress with silvery grey and black trim.  The crown has red rhinestones and a very full, sheer black drape.  I believe that most people trying this one on just get confused about which way it goes or how to do the double wrap belt.  For about $20 (plus sized is a little more), this is a great dress to use as a base to build an empire, start your own Game of Thrones or convert into a Viking.

Funky Witch is an unusual piece that came out several years ago, now reduced to just $15, all Small child size 4-6 intended for children 2-3 years of age.  This adorable velvet dress in either pink or orange with spider web lace robe and long black fur trim and crazy hat was most popular with pre-teen girls.  We reordered heavily in Large, only to receive SMALL costumes in 'Large' packages, which was quite upsetting to young ladies trying to get into these tiny dresses.

This writer would suggest that customers ignore the oversized furry hat and ad a $4 cat dress up kit for an amazing cat costume!   It would also work for taller, thin girls in the 8-10 age range as a top with leggings.

 This Scary Clown coat came in the wrong package.  It is currently reduced to $16.50 and comes with a mask and one fingerless white glove.  The picture on the front was a different costume out of the same line of scary costumes for boys sized Large (size 12-14 for boys aged 8-10) and Teen.  The entire series of costumes came with masks, but the over the head clown mask is to small for most boys in that age range.   This clown coat is exceptionally nice with faux leather shoulder and cuff accents and rainbow striped trim that seems to defy my camera the ability to properly focus.  Great accessories would include a wig for $7 or less, a make up kit with nose for $2.50 and a scary plastic hammer for just $6.50!

Clearance Spotlight - Make it Work!

How to Pin  - Go from Baggy to Fitted without sewing!

Sometimes really good costumes land in the clearance because they just don't fit right.  Many of these items can be quickly and easily adjusted to look fantastic with no sewing ability at all.  You have have heard people say "Just pin it up", but if no one ever showed you how to do that, your results may not be acceptable. 

Today's Clearance Spot light is one of the Uptown Girl costumes from Rubies, currently in the clearance section for $38.  These were extremely popular for several years at Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga, but only if we had time to pin up the jackets for the customers.  The problem was that the pants fit nice and tight, but the jackets just kind of hang like a bag.  Most of the young women who wanted these costumes wanted to show off their curves!  Here's how you can do it at home, with these Red or Neon green 'pimp girl' costumes, or with just about anything else.  The same techniques apply.

All you need for this Jacket Re-Do is three large safety pins and a trusted friend.  First, turn the garment inside out.  Put it on and button it.  Have your friend loosely grab the back of the jacket to figure out where to start.  Then using a large safety pin, start on one side where you were holding it and just weave the pin in and out to the other side.  Close it up.  We did this one rather quickly, but you will get better results if go slow and make your pleats even.

If you are alone, you can still do this with the help of a pencil or chalk.  Just hold the garment together in the back and mark where your fingers and thumb are grasping the material.  Take the jacket off and weave the pin through the fabric between the marks.  This may take a couple of tries to get it just right.

If your bust is much larger than your waist, you will want to do the same in the front with two pins, shown with yellow arrows.  Do not make it TO TIGHT as the pins can tear holes in the fabric!  Give yourself some room to breath and move.




This is the back view, a little out of focus, of how this gathering should look in the back. 

Please notice that these costumes include the hat.  At Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga, we REMOVE the hats from the bags so they still look nice when you buy one, even out of the clearance.


Now, if you've got yourself looking good, and you need a Mac Daddy to hang out with, we just marked the black leather look suits down half price from $80 to just $40!  Men's costumes do not include hats.  At the time of this writing, we still have them in Medium, Large and Extra Large.

Last Week!

Time is running out for Halloween 2014! 

If you haven't made up your mind, you better start thinking fast.  If that costume you ordered off the internet isn't here yet, you might want to start hitting the brick and mortars for a back up plan.  Ya never know if that thing is gonna show up, if it's gonna fit, if it's gonna look ANYTHING like the picture.  If you were waiting for all the 50-60% off sales, hope you don't think the temp store still has anything popular in your size.  What?  You haven't even been over there yet?  Man, are you ever gonna be disappointed!

So, is that about the way the conversations are going in your home or circle of friends?  At Beauty and the Beast, Chattanooga, we are very prepared for those last moment panic attack shoppers.  We've been helping out desperate people for 25 years.  Yes, we're running short on Disney princess dresses for sale, but our rental racks are still bulging.  We still have over a thousand different styles of adult and children's costumes to buy, hundreds for rent.

As a matter of fact, we only recently realized that we don't have our Halloween Classic costumes out on the rental racks at all.  So come on in... We can still make you look GOOD, and no one will know you procrastinated.