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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Fashion department wows all with“Fall in Love with Erie” By Sarah Beck Staff writer
The visual fashion merchandising event at E. Lane Boutique was a major success. With much preparation and anticipation, the Mercyhurst fashion students presented their “Fall in Love with Erie” lookbook to the community. Within the first fifteen minutes of the event, the boutique was packed with eager friends, family and fashion enthusiasts. The fashion students who participate in this event are a part of the Mercyhurst Fashion Department’s elective, Visual Merchandising. Available in the fall semester, students in this class learn about many different visual merchandising skills. Projects aim to teach this and include creating a mood board and learning how to properly set up a display to be functional as well as attractive. This year the visual merchandising class teamed up with a local Erie boutique to create an event that showcased the skills these students have learned. In addition, it also helped to provide students with the opportunity to gain some valuable hands-on learning. This event is extremely beneficial for not only the fashion students but also the Erie community as it creates a wonderful feature for local businesses. The process of this project is quite fast-paced and begins with designing a t-shirt to be voted on and chosen as the design for the event. This year, the t-shirt was designed by two junior Fashion Merchandising majors, Megan Brady and Gabriella Matre. Whenever an event is planned, there are a lot of different details
Sarah Beck photo
Mercyhurst’s Visual Merchandising class at their presentation of “Fall in Love with Erie: A Local Erie Lookbook” at E. Lane Boutique.
to manage. To handle this well, it is important to assign leadership roles and jobs such as the project manager, assistant manager, social media team, ride coordinator, as well as a set up and break down team amongst many other roles. This year’s project manager was Shannan Gotham, a senior double major in Fashion Merchandising and Political Science with a concentration in International Relations. She also has a minor in Cyber Security. Gotham was very busy overseeing all parts of the event and making sure everything went smoothly. Once a boutique that is willing to partner with and host the showcase has been chosen, students begin their hands-on learn-
ing by going into the shop and playing with pieces that they want to incorporate into the looks for their displays. This year, the theme for the event was “Fall in Love with Erie: A Local Erie Lookbook”. The Visual Merchandising class split into different groups to create five different displays inspired by these local Erie companies: Erie Ale Company, Mozza, Franks Farm Market, The Cork and Andora’s Bubble Tea. Rachel Lossie, a sophomore Fashion Merchandising major served as the main social media team member for the event. “We wanted to make sure we focused on local Erie places so that they could be able to incorporate a little bit of our home into the event,” said Lossie.
Assistant Project Manager for the event was Janiece Withers, a senior Fashion Merchandising major with a minor in Creative Writing. “I was most excited to see how all of our displays correlated together without intentionally doing it,” said Withers. “I think all of our designs have to do with fall; they have to do with being very fashionable but in a way that is comfortable, and I think that each mannequin can display that.” Once the teams had finished applying all of their acquired classroom skills to their displays, they were ready to open their exhibits and share all of their hard work with the public. In addition, the event also had some donated raffle baskets from the local companies featured.
“[The local companies] definitely wanted to support Mercyhurst and the fashion department,” junior Fashion Merchandising major Natalie Deutschbauer said. Individuals who attended the event were able to buy tickets for the raffle baskets and also got a discount coupon for any clothing they purchased while at the event. Before leaving the showcase, attendees got the chance to vote on their favorite display; the group that won was inspired by the Erie Ale Company. Lossie was a member of the team with the winning display. “We did more casual looks to really have some casual brewing company outfits so you’re not too dressed up but that you are still looking cute for your occasion,” Lossie said. Another member of the winning team was Kelsie McKalip, a sophomore Fashion Merchandising major. “Having the opportunity to put together outfits was really fun. To experiment with different colors and everything, we had to tie in the red of the donated shirt (by the Erie Ale Company) which was interesting,” said McKalip. “Fall In Love With Erie: A Local Erie Lookbook” really was a fantastic opportunity for not only the fashion merchandising students but also E. Lane and the community to work together to celebrate collaboration and local talent. The Mercyhurst Fashion Merchandising Department would like to say a thank you to everyone that made it out to E. Lane Boutique to support the visual merchandising class and all of their hard work. If you missed the event this year, be sure to check out the next one in the Fall of 2022.
Hurst Hot Take: Halloween (1978) By Frankie Divincenzo Contributing writer
A Halloween holiday classic, the 1978 independently-produced slasher film “Halloween” was directed by John Carpenter. Staring famous actors and actresses such as Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes and P.J. Soles, the movie eventually became a hit and spawned a film franchise of 11 follow-up films. “Halloween” is about a sevenyear-old named Michael Myers who brutally murdered his older sister, Judith Myers, on Halloween night in 1963. Fifteen years later, Michael goes home to Haddonfield, Il-
linois, and is ready to hunt his stepsister, Laurie Strode. As he continually proves in intent throughout the film, he will go after anyone who gets in his way. Even though the Halloween series is a cult classic now, that was not the original expectation. The budget of the film was $325,000, which was shockingly small. In fact, the budget of the movie was so small that the actors shopped at JC Penney for their costumes. A documentary for “Halloween” even stated that the movie didn’t really look like a film production. Carpenter and the other people working on the film basically worked out of a van that was
the size of the Mystery Machine from “Scooby-Do.” The script for the original “Halloween” movie only took two weeks to write. Though “Halloween” is set in the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, it was shot on location in South Pasadena and Hollywood, California. If you look closely, you can see palm trees in the backgrounds of some shots, like the scene above where Laurie walks Tommy Doyle to the Myers’ house. The film was also not actually shot in the fall, but in the middle of summer. The crew got bags and bags of leaves and spread them all over the street so that it looked like it was shot in the fall.
It is amazing how such a small budget movie can become a cult classic series that people watch every year. Arguably, it is one of the many reasons why people love this movie is because the whole cast and crew did not expect its fame whatsoever. Despite the plot, the movie has unique cinematography. One cool effect is the way the camera is always angled makes it looks like Michael is watching everything One reason people likely look forward to this movie every year is because it is probably on every list of Halloween-themed movies to watch. Another reason people like this movie is because of the mov-
ie’s older style and uniqueness. It is not over-done or over-shot. Newer horror movies produced today generally have the same theme whereas “Halloween” somehow scares people in so many different ways that one would not expect to be scared. Isn’t that the point of a horror movie: to scare the crap out of you? If you enjoy being scared, definitely do not forget to watch “Halloween.” Even though Halloween is over, I highly recommend this cult classic. For those who do want to start their December holiday cheer on Nov. 1, it is a perfect time to send off the Halloween season with “Halloween.”
