Photo Credit: LAIKA Studios 

For two days, on Aug. 14 and 15, Henry Selick’s 2009 stop-motion film “Coraline” – based on the 2002 book of the same name by Neil Gaiman – returned to theaters in celebration of LAIKA studios’ 15th anniversary and since “Coraline” was the first film that LAIKA ever produced, why not give fans the opportunity to see the iconic film in theaters. 

The special showing  – put on by Fathom Events, LAIKA and Park Circus – was freshly remastered and recolored and featured additional footage from head costume designer Deborah Cook and senior hair and fur fabricator Jess Lynn as they combed through the LAIKA archives, looking at the miniature costumes and wigs that brought the characters to life. 

The art of creating stop-motion animations dates back to the 1890s and is one of the oldest filmmaking techniques that is still used today. With photography as its medium, stop-motion films play a series of photographs in a sequence – 24 photographs per second – to give the appearance of continuous motion. 

In recent years, the use of CGI has advanced the filmmaking technique but no matter the advances in technology, stop-motion is an art that will always require the human touch. 

Photo Credit: LAIKA Studios 

According to LAIKA’s website, the film took over 500 people and four years to complete, typically taking ten people about three to four months to construct a single Coraline puppet. In the end, there were 28 identical Coraline puppets, the main one of which stood at about 9-¾ inches tall.

During the bonus footage of the film, Cook said the main goal was to make the film feel as genuine as possible which was done through the creation of hundreds of tiny wigs and garments for each of the characters. 

Photo Credit: LAIKA Studios 

Many stop-motion characters are given one or two outfits that they are seen in throughout the entirety of the film. This is done because creating hundreds of tiny outfits isn’t always the easiest or quickest process. However, Coraline Jones is seen in seven costumes throughout the span of the 1-hour and 40-minute production, which Cook said makes Coraline the stop-motion character with the most costume changes out of all stop-motion films. 

In an interview with the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM), Cook said no garments were purchased for the film, everything was entirely handmade to custom-fit each character. 

“Not even doll clothes [were used], as they’re actually far too big and wouldn’t fit our characters or have as much attention to detail paid in their making or in their choice or scale of fabric. Barbie’s jeans, for example, are more than twice the size of Coraline’s,” Cook said. 

According to LAIKA’s website, Coraline’s gloves were knitted by hand by a miniature knitter, who made six pairs of gloves using needles so small, that they were as fine as a strand of human hair. A single garment of that size took anywhere from six weeks to six months from conceptual design to finished product. 

Photo Credit: LAIKA Studios 

Both the hand-knitted gloves and Coraline’s blue star sweater were lined with latex after being completed to ensure that the duplicates held the same shape, then they were hand sewn onto each puppet, said Cook. 

“The most surprising aspect of working in such a small scale is how much detail can actually be achieved once you’ve set out to have no limits in that respect,” Cook said in an interview with FIDM. “The most challenging aspect is finding fabrics in the scale we need and working to deadlines without losing sight of our attention to detail for the costume.”

Cook said that they had to use some unique techniques in order to give the clothes a natural fit on the puppets. 

“[The garments are] weighted with very tiny weights to give them a natural sense of gravity and they often have different gauges of wire within their structure too, which connects to the armature to encourage the costume to move along with the characters’ movements in a realistic way,” Cook said. “The costumes are sometimes airbrushed or even lightly sanded to ‘fade’ and ‘age’ them in certain areas so they look realistic. They’re often treated with stiffeners and fabric protector to stop them fading from the strong stage lighting or the extensive human handling.” 

Photo Credit: LAIKA Studios 

Along with all of the many garments created for each character, Coraline alone had over 6,3000 face replacements and 42 different wigs, according to LAIKA’s website. The hair used for the wigs was a special blend of three colors and was made of everyday hair products that included Got2Be Glued Hair Cement and Garnier Fructis Texture Paste. 

Jess Lynn, LAIKA’s senior hair and fur fabricator, said each wig is made with such detail to make the movement look as real as possible. 

“We’re adding a lot of movement in the story with the wig and that’s when we’ve done our job right,” Lynn said in a LAIKA Archives video. “The upside-down wig, you know, that was the first sign of where we were headed as a studio and what we wanted to do with the medium to show this moment of all these individual strands falling down just for this shot of her looking under the bed and it just makes the world so much more real.” 

Photo Credit: LAIKA Studios 

As a part of LAIKA’s 15-year anniversary celebration, they opened their first-ever online store on Friday for fans to purchase clothes, vinyl records, books and more from their favorite LAIKA films.

Highball Halloween 2021. Credit: Dave Toth Photography

Eat and drink and be alarming at Columbus’ own Halloween fashion show. 

Highball Halloween, the Short North Arts District’s annual Halloween fashion show – hosted by the Short North Alliance – returns to High Street this Saturday for the first time since 2019. The event will take place from 5-11 p.m. and will include live music, food and drinks and a costume contest, said the Short North Alliance’s executive director, Betsy Pandora. 

In 2020, Highball Halloween was hosted as a virtual event, said Pandora. In 2021, people were still cautious about gathering, so the event was hosted on a much smaller scale at the intersections of Goodale Street and Park Street. This year, the event is returning to its original location at the intersections of High Street and Goodale Street. 

2021 Highball Halloween attendees. Credit: Dave Toth Photography 

“There is something so magical about High Street. It is the heartbeat of the city and we are really excited to return there this year,” Pandora said. “This year is the sweet 16 anniversary and it has grown into such a significant event in the community, which all started on High Street.” 

Tickets start at $20 a person and all the money from the event goes back to the Short North Alliance, a non-profit organization that serves property and business owners of the Short North Arts District. 

This year’s event includes performances from Anna and the Annaroids, performances from a local stage production of “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” beers from New Belgium and Bell’s breweries and not just ghostly spirits but also cocktails from Middle West Spirits. 

“It’s a little bit like Mardi Gras,” Pandora said. “It’s a street festival. We shut down part of High Street and there is food and drinks and tons of music.” 

The main event of the evening, the Costume Couture Fashion Show, features looks – one couture look and four ready-to-wear designs – from seven local designers, one of whom will win a $1,000 prize, said Pandora. 

Designs from Ohio State alumni and designer Shiree Houf from Highball Halloween 2022. Credit: JAMS Photography 

Columbus is the third-largest fashion capital in the country, said Pandora, and there is nothing quite like Highball Halloween anywhere else. 

“The event is so special and unique. It is a place to be in costumes and to see others in costumes,” Pandora. “It is a place to see and be seen.”

More information about the event and tickets can be found here. 

Photo Credit: Drex Agency 

The Ohio State University is preparing to host the first-ever Buckeye Fall Fashion Market on Thursday from 4-9 p.m. in the Huntington Club at the Ohio Stadium. The event is a one-stop shopping opportunity for Buckeyes. 

The event is free to students and has a $10 entry fee for anyone without a BuckID. 

Anna Vonderhaar, director of marketing and loyalty programming at Ohio State, said the event will feature 20 brands, including Champion, Vera Bradley and Lululemon, who are presenting their collections of officially licensed Ohio State gear.

“Some of these brands are familiar to a lot of people, but there are also some that people might not be as familiar with,” Vonderhaar said. “What’s special is that it’s the first time you’ll be able to shop all these brands in one place.” 

The event has three presenting sponsors – The Wild Collective, Wrangler and Colleseum – who have dedicated a lot of their time and effort to ensure fans’ fashion needs are being met, said Vonderhaar.

“The goal is to make sure it is meeting our fan base,” Vonderhaar said. “We’ve heard from our fan base that there is a want for more women’s-wear assortment.”

Maria Donoghue, executive vice president of marketing at Colosseum and Wrangler, said that the interesting thing about the college market is that when it comes to shopping, women become the minority.

“For a couple of reasons, women’s fashion is always such a big part of the clothing industry but in college, it’s a much smaller piece,” Donoghue said. “In college, men take up about 60% of the market. It’s always been important to focus on growing that women’s business.” 

Donoghue said the Colosseum booth won’t be selling their collection but will instead be focusing on current trends and the future of the brand, while the Wrangler booth will have their current collection of Ohio State merchandise available. 

Whitney Bansin, CEO and designer at The Wild Collective, said that although the brand is based in Las Vegas, Nevada she is excited to be a part of the event. 

“We are a fashion-forward brand so being a presenting sponsor made a ton of sense to us,” said Bansin. “Ohio State is a great collaborator and allows us to really lean into our designs and create new and exciting products.” 

Bansin said that The Wild Collective will be bringing their current collection – which includes glittery bomber jackets and leather pieces – to the event. 

Vonderhaar said that although this is the first time this event has happened she hopes to continue working towards providing fans with more opportunities to shop their favorite Ohio State clothes.

More information about the event is available at The Team Shop. 

Photo Credit: Tony Bentivenga

One year ago, on Oct. 22, 2022, the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation (CDDC), the Columbus Fashion Council (CFC) and IL Moda Brands partnered to create the Common Thread Shops on Third – Columbus’ first fashion and retail district in Downtown Columbus that features local and national labels that were born out of the Columbus fashion industry. 

On Friday, The fashion council celebrated the first anniversary of the shops with a block party hosted at the shopping center with a DJ, giveaways, champagne toasts, food and dessert trucks and more.

Photo Credit: Tony Bentivenga

The event included an exclusive pop-up shop called “Prajjé Oscar and Friends” – put on by IL Moda Brands and Project Runway star and this year’s Fashion Week Columbus headline designer Prajjé O. Jean Baptiste – that featured both ready-to-wear and couture designs from some of the contestants who starred alongside Baptiste on “Project Runway All Stars.” 

Lubna Najjar, president of the Columbus Fashion Council and founder of IL Moda Brands, said the original goal of the Common Thread Shops was to bring the runway designs of local up-and-coming fashion designers to storefronts in the community. 

Photo Credit: Tony Bentivenga

“The shops provide an opportunity to test their market within the city of Columbus, which is a huge test market for apparel and retail,” said Najjar. “The hope is to continue to evolve the program and bring new tenants in new opportunities in the pop-up shop monthly.” 

The block party also served as the grand opening for two new tenants at the Common Thread Shops; By Field and Flower from vegan hatmaker Brooke Denune and Haitian-American mixed media artist Ludie Senatus’ label, who will join the six other brands at the shops including Alex Vinash New York, Encinas Designs, Xantha Ward, Joan Madison Couture and White Canvas Designs & Holistic Wellness. 

Brooke Denune, founder of By Field and Flower, said she first began her fashion career at Kent State University where she studied fashion merchandising before graduating in 2018 and moving to Los Angeles to start her company. 

Photo Credit: Samantha Harden 

The goal of the brand, Denune said, was to merge her love for fashion with her passion for giving back. For that reason, a percentage of every hat sale made goes towards protecting bee and butterfly habitats around the world. 

“Pollinators are so important to the environment, that’s kind of the base from where everything starts,” said Denune. 

Denune said when Lubna came to her with the opportunity to join the Common Thread Shops she jumped at the opportunity. 

“I’ve known Lubna Najjar for like 10 years now. She was my mentor back when I was in high school and she is kind of the whole reason I got into the fashion industry,” said Denune “Now I’ve worked in the fashion industry for about seven years, all over the place. Living in L.A. was great, but there is just so much competition. The city just isn’t designed to help small businesses. I just feel like there is so much more room for growth in Columbus.” 

Photo Credit: Samantha Harden

Denune said she wanted to bring the idea of hat bars — a store with a variety of hats that customers can choose from and customize — to the Midwest and she wanted to make it affordable. 

“With TikTok recently, it has grown and the thing I think people don’t realize about the hat bars they see on TikTok and they do amazing things and they are so cool, but they are $800 hats,” said Denune. “I wanted something like that. Everyone deserves to have a customized hat but I also wanted it to fit in their price point.”

Photo Credit: Tony Bentivenga

By Field and Flower is now open at the Common Thread Shops on Third. The shops are open Thursday-Saturday 12-6 p.m. at 249-275 S. Third St. 

For more information visit the Common Thread Shops on Third website.