Ampersand: What was the inspiration for the event?
Shayne McBride: Well, this is our second year having it. Last year it was called 'Heads will Roll,' so we auctioned off the heads and I mean, Halloween in Athens is like Mardis Gras in New Orleans, St. Paddy's day in Savannah. It's a big damn deal, and so we wanted to have a Halloween party, but we also wanted to help out local organizations, so it's a fundraiser for Community Connections. So basically every year, it's like we're gonna do this, have a Halloween party every year, but change up what the theme is going to be. We've been doing a lot of work with Rachel Barnes from Dynamite. She's been helping us with the photo shoots we've been doing, and so when we were talking about having this party, she was telling us that she was working on a collection. It just seemed like the perfect combination because we weren't gonna do the auction again for the heads. It was great because she's starting this new endeavor and to help her get it off the ground, she's helped us do so much stuff and the clothes are fantastic and it's a little bit different. Ya know, we do hair for Athens Fashion Collective and a lot of other stores and fashion shows so this was totally different, which is fun.
&: What did you learn from last year's party that has gone into planning this one?
SM: We learned that people do not necessarily want to buy Halloween-themed art. Also, we had it last year at Stan Mullin's, which was really great; his studio is ridiculous, but we had to get a lot of paper work and permits. We had to get portapotties and all this stuff, and so this year we wanted to make it a little bit simpler on ourselves. And Halloween this year falls on a Friday and there are so many good shows going on so we knew we couldn't compete with The Drive-By Truckers and Elf Power, so we decided to do it the week before, which was great because then we could do it at the 40 Watt. So we don't have to worry about bathrooms. And we don't have to set up our own bar, bring all that in and find bartenders and you know, Dead Confederate played last year in the Powder Room so we had to get a sound system and a PA. It was so nice to not have to do all that stuff because we are doing this other project that launches just in time for the holiday season, the Townee Boy Calendar so we got all manner of local talent, we got chefs and bartenders and musicians and politicians and dancers and just you know, DJs, dudes about town, so we knew we didn't have the same amount of time we did last year for the Halloween party because we have this calendar coming out in a month and a half. We love the 40 Watt, they're really good friends and good clients, so it seemed like a great way to bring back the 40 Watt Dance Party for a good cause.
Photo courtesy TobinRussel.com
&: So what does the Community Connection of Northeast Georgia do?
SM: So I think more people are probably familiar with Community Connection's big fundraiser, which is Taste of Athens, which is gonna be awesome this year. It's being completely revamped and the chefs are actually putting in their input to help plan it. Community Connection, what they do is, they make sure that no need goes unmet in Northeast Georgia. They run the 211 Helpline. So, if your house burns down and you don't know what to do or we've had cases of you know, maybe someone has an elderly parent who's moving in with them and they don't know about the Athens Council on Aging so they can call and tell the operator what's going on, what their issue is and they can give them assistance whether it's financial or just finding programs for them. They also do a needs assessment for the area. So they go through and find out, you know, what's really going on, you know, do people need money, do they need food? You know, what's really happening? So what they're gonna start doing is actually start following up with the calls to find out how the agencies are doing and get feedback from actual callers and stuff. The other thing that they've done in the past, Nonprofit Development, so if you wanted to start a non profit, you could come for help and then there's also HandsOn Northeast Georgia. So basically they're like the catch-all, like the safety net for all the nonprofits in town. Fenwick Broyard, the executive director for Community Connection, he's done a lot. They're actually working on doing like a full kind of community platform so that every nonprofit can come and then get information. He's actually the guy, when he was working at the land trust, he started the West Broad Farmers market.
&: What do you expect this year's turnout to be since you had the party last year?
Photo courtesy TobinRussel.com
SM: Last year we had like 400 people. It's interesting because it is the week before Halloween and some people are like, 'Whatever, it's not Halloween.' I'll be interested to see what happens. I think we're going to have at least that many people because it's a party and you get to dress up, and it's a good time for a good cause and everybody loves that. And with students, you know, most students aren't here for Halloween, you know everyone goes to GA/FL, or it's fall break so they don't really get to see the majesty of Halloween in Athens. It's crazy. So, that will be kind of cool too. I think it's fun too because we're teaming up with Rachel and Dynamite, which we haven't really done before so that's good too. I mean, to have kind of a, 'There's two of us bringing people to the party.'
&: Do you think that you'll have more events like this in the future?
SM: Yeah, the Halloween party is something we do every year. And then we're going to have the calendar. We're trying to have, instead of just doing one random thing, we wanted to start doing something that we could have every year so we really thought long and hard about what's fun and what we could replicate so the Halloween party and now the Townie Boy calendar, you know those are two really great, kind of annual events rather than just being like, 'Oh we did this this year,' we really want to get some momentum behind it. So even this year I've heard from a lot of people, 'Oh my God last year was like the most fun,' so they're excited about going this year and by changing it up every year. You know, last year we had the silent auction, this year it's the fashion show. Next year, who knows? So that it's something that everybody looks for, you know, to make it an event that everybody really looks forward to, it's really fun.
Photo courtesy TobinRussel.com
&: So how did the fashion show come about?
SM: Basically, we were doing a photo shoot, and Rachel was talking about how she and Lori were working on this collection, and then when we were telling her about the party she was talking about how she wasn't sure if she wanted to have a 'fashion show,' and we were like, let's do it! What if we had a little guerilla fashion show at the Halloween party and not make a thing of 'its a fashion show' and be like it's a party and, 'Oh my god there are girls everywhere and this is crazy and this kind of unexpected surprise in the middle of the party?
Rachel Barnes from Dynamite
Ampersand: What was the inspiration for the collection?
Rachel Barnes: For years of being into fashion and collecting clothes from working at Dynamite, I kind of became known as, 'I would wear anything,' and on a regular basis people would say, 'Oh my God, only you could pull that off.' And it was always like this trophy for me to hear that. And so the collection is kind of the idea of all looks that you gotta be really ballsy and confident to be able to pull off some of those looks. So I found models that were that and I went for looks that were really like that. The hair is like that, the makeup is like that. It's all about kind of like being an It Girl, a confident girl around town who is like so confident that she can wear about anything and it looks bangin'. It's like a, 'Who is that girl and why is she so awesome?' kind of thing.
&: Is this your first time doing a fashion show quite like this?
Photo courtesy TobinRussel.com
RB: Well, I've been doing fashion shows for like ten years, really I think ten years ago was the first one. Just kind of a small one, and then I did a really big, kind of rogue one at Go Bar seven years ago with an amazing group of people. Seven designers, so you can imagine. And it was at Go Bar, tiny little Go Bar and like 200 people came out. It was massive, and a couple years later Sani from Community downtown approached me and said, 'Let's get something together,' and that's how Athens Fashion Collective started, which I love; it's always definitely been a pride and joy for me. But for me, this is my first time designing anything; I just learned how to sew like months ago. I kind of wanted to make it more rogue and more kinda like guerilla-style, just because I'm not quite ready to, you know, throw it out on a real Athens Fashion Collective runway. So, yeah this is definitely my first time designing, first time it's my clothes, which is huge for me. The fact that I get to see girls walking down the runway that I'm telling them how to walk in my clothes, it's a totally different thing, it's so much more exciting. So yeah, first time.
&: So do you have plans for the future?
RB: Oh, I am already thinking about my spring collection. I'm already like, 'Okay, I want it to be like this,' and the clothing line is going to be called Dorothy Valentine, named after my grandmother, but each line, each season, I want it to have a little theme. I'm still thinking up this theme; you know I feel like it's all very posh, kind of bourgie; the colors are very jewel toned, and metals, bloody colors, oxblood, purples, greens. So I'm gonna have like, 'Dorothy Valentine having tea with the queen in Russia,' it's gonna have a theme each time so I've already been thinking about the spring one, totally. Like, this is gonna be a bi-seasonal thing for sure.
&: Is there a website where people can go to check this out?
RB: There will be, there will be. I am working on it. 'Best Disco in Town,' is what it would be. It's gonna be a blog, but also a website, because I do art things too; I was a sculpture major. So, it will probably have art things, and it will be clothes, and then it will also be a blog.
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