Local fashion designer Jenna Zielbaur recently launched a brand of cocktail dresses called Cotton Candy Couture. On Thursday, the former stylist hosted a preview party for her first collection at the new Candyality-Water Tower Place.
"The main goal of our preview party was to introduce the fashion-forward 'it' girls of Chicago to Cotton Candy Couture and really start building brand awareness," Zielbaur said. "We wanted this introduction to take place in a fun, colorful, very unique, get-people-talking kind of setting, as that is what Cotton Candy Couture is all about."
The 6,000-square-foot shop rents out an area known as the Life Is Sweet museum, which displays arts and artifacts constructed out of candies and candy wrappers. At Thursday's event, Cotton Candy Couture dresses hung above frocks made out of sweets. "The concept of displaying our dresses as they were—floating—rather than hosting a typical fashion show again goes back to what our brand is all about: making a statement and pushing the boundaries," Zielbaur said.
Whimsy was another element that the designer used to bring the brand to life. "We believe that life is too short not to have fun with fashion, which played a strong role in the decision to pass cotton candy at the event," she said. Other in-the-name-of-fun touches included a Fig Media DJ spinning party tunes from behind a candy counter, a bar slinging pink specialty drinks, and the opportunity to pose for photos with pink fabric mustaches on sticks, which staffers distributed.
"Regardless of what is going on in my day … the second I take a bite of cotton candy it has always brought me to a carefree, happy place full of love and a lot of laughter," Zielbaur said. "This place I speak of is where we want all our customers to be when they are dressed in Cotton Candy Couture. And judging from the reactions at our preview, I think we may accomplish that."
