Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga is trying something new again! While posting photos of the Clearance costumes for our very first Summerween sale, we came across some costumes that never seemed to get the attention they deserved. We would like to give people a chance to take a second look at these outfits. In their Clearance photos, you will see the package cover art plus a small photo of the costume on a mannequin, either on the headless one for just this purpose, or as it has been displayed in the store.
The grey dress above is the last one of it's kind. If we had the time to show a customer what the dress really looked like, they normally bought it because it's AMAZING! The silvery grey velvet with raised black flocking is stunning! The design of the robe / gown is very flattering with sheer capless sleeves and black sequin trim. The hat is more of a damsel cap than the horrid, 3 foot tall 'Dunce cap' the package suggests. The underskirt is pretty pitiful and best replaced with anything else.
The Ladies's costume, of which I seem to have overlooked the name, is a
beautiful, vibrant red velvet dress, a full lace overlay and a wide
corset look belt. Forget about the silly hand piece! The three
garments can be worn together or with other clothes for lots of mix and
match outfits.
The men's costume, like the ladies, might actually be more useful if you took the pieces apart. While the jacket has one short sleeve for the hand armor, I think it would look better with both sleeves cut off for more of a long vest look, with or without the vest. It also has a rather nice pin at the neckline which can be used elsewhere, the vest has a nice skull pattern that would also work on a pirate costume. The hand-pieces on both the male and female costume only cover the middle two fingers, so they can be switched to either side or worn as a miss-matched evil pair by the same person.
These costumes are from a company called Disquise, the line was called the D/Ceptions. While these were excellent costumes, the packaging was TERRIBLE! It was so bad, the art director should not have just been fired, he or she should have been drawn and quartered!
Not only were the packages dark and unattractive, the biggest D/Ception was the over use of funky Photoshop work on the models giving them giant bobble heads and enormous feet with teeny tiny hands. Lost in the crazy image was the costume that no one ever seemed to notice. Over the years, the most common remarks I heard about the costumes included "I don't want that big mask!" and "Where can I get those boots?" There were no masks, those are the distorted images of the models' heads and Disguise doesn't sell footwear. That's why the costumes eventually landed in the Clearance section. Sadly, even then, no one looks at them. So, in all fairness to inanimate objects longing for good homes, I'm giving everyone one last chance to take a 2nd Look.
The photo used above is actually not the package art, it's an image found on the internet. At least it shows the proper proportions of the model instead of making her face look as large as her torso. The main problem with this package is showing the gown as having only one shoulder. When customers try on the dress, they often complain about the side seem being ripped. The dresses weren't torn, they were made with TWO shoulders and the 'torn spot' was actually the other arm hole. This issue got so bad that I took a black marker and drew the right shoulder on all the packages.
Last but not least is my personal favorite of this group. It is made up of several extremely useful pieces. It includes a black velvet tank / crop top, a long velvet skirt with slight train and kick split up the side front, a long sleeved black lace shirt with flowing sleeves, a very nicely detailed tie back belt with silver chains and a matching headpiece. If I were still young and hot, I would have this costume in my closet to mix and match up dozens of ways - probably with 2 or 3 other costumes from this line. They were all GREAT costumes - but very few ever appreciated them or would even LOOK at them. So here's your chance. Hope you enjoyed them. Come grab a few while they are still around.
