Frozen Princess Arrives in Red Bank

The long awaited Frozen Princess dresses are almost ready to go!  Beauty and the Beast, Chattanooga is proud to say that we've almost made our deadline to get these costumes finished in time for the Christmas Parades.  The dress shown is not 100% finished as it still needs to have the lining tacked down.  The dresses, 2 per size Junior, Standard, Plus and Texas Small, should be ready to go out late Friday Dec. 5 or early Saturday the 6th.  Each dress and jacket set will rent for $45 each.  Wigs sold separately.


As explained in our last post, this is NOT exactly 'Elsa' as her dress design is impractical as a rental.  These dresses are sleeveless, heavy bridal satin with sequin trim on the upper bodice.  The jacket is stretch velvet with sheer drape and silver sequin trim.

If you would like to see the dress, you may drive by the window at any time.  Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves have graciously made room for this popular Christmas Wish.

Elsa - Progress

Good News:  YES!  Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga is working on "Elsa" styled Frozen Princess dresses for adult sized rental.  These will be deluxe costumes that rent for $45 each.

Good News:  YES!  We will have an extra full run of 14 dresses, in our normal rental sizes, 4 each of Junior (XS-Sm), Standard (Md-Lg), Plus (XL-2XL) and 2 in size Texas Small (3XL-4XL) 

Bad News:  NO!  I don't know when they will be finished.  Currently, we have 14 dress and jacket sets cut out and are sewing 8 sets at the moment to try to cover all the parades, conventions, charity events and birthday parties as quickly as possible.  However, since I let the cat out of the bag that I was working on them, I've been getting hammered with inquiries wanting to know when they will be ready, what will they look like, and "What do you mean it's not going to look just like Elsa?"  These are things that are very difficult to explain over the phone, so let's try to answer those questions here.

Ok, the main question I'm getting is "When?" but the more difficult question is "What's it going to look like?  Will it look like the doll? the dress that was available for Halloween? the one on Once Upon a Time?"  The answer is NO, it will be unique to Beauty and the Beast as it would be copyright  infringement for us to make an exact copy PLUS those designs are totally unsuitable for rental.

My first problem was to re-design the costume to be sturdy enough to simply hang on a hanger.  The sheer fabric across the shoulders would never hold up a heavy dress on our rental racks.  The second problem was to make it a wearable costume that will look good on multiple sizes as each person cannot have a perfectly fitted bodice.  The only solution was to make a sleeveless 'under dress' with a bolero jacket to create the baby blue sleeve effect and hold the flowing cape.

Finally, I had to find machine washable fabrics in quantities large enough to make 14 identical costumes, at less than retail cost.  If the dresses had to be dry cleaned, it would ad an additional $10 to $20 to each rental price.  Expensive fabrics and trims drive the cost up even higher.  That would make Elsa rentals as much as $75 which would be out of the price range of most of our clientele. 

Here is what we figured out.  The under dress is a sleeveless version of McCall's 5206 Snow Queen.  The pattern was altered to have a full lining in the bodice for extra strength and comfort.  The dress is made of heavy bridal satin in a beautiful aqua color.  A matching sequin dot fabric adorns the chest area with a touch of extra sequin trim.

The bolero jacket is from Simplicity 2072 but will not close in the front.  It will be baby blue stretch velvet to lend strength to the garment and accommodate women with larger upper arms.  The attached flowing 'cape' will be from the McCall's 7000 pattern and be very light blue cotton chiffon with sequin trim.

Busy Elves at Beauty and the Beast

Everyone's favorite jolly old elf has arrived at Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga.  Santa Suits for all your holiday events are now available to view, try on and book for your date.  You will find a wide variety of Christmas costumes for sale or for rent, including Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Elves for men, women or unisex, Angels, Snowman, Gingerbread man. 

Rental mascots include Grinch, Snowman, Reindeer (black or red nose), Nut Cracker and Rat King.

Deluxe Santa Suit $250 in Standard Size.  Super Deluxe Santa hair set $120
Sexy Elf in Green or Red (not shown) $34

Children's sized rental Christmas costumes include Angel and Elf (shown) as well as Sheep, Camels, Cows, Donkeys, and Shepherds for Nativity Pageants.

The white dress shown on left was originally made to be one of the "Swans a Swimming" for the 12 Days of Christmas, but makes an excellent Angel for groups who do not want to worry about wings on younger children.

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!