At Sweet Factory Candy Boutique we’re active in our community. When it came time to start marketing the Boutique, we decided we’d try something a little different. Something that would allow us to promote the arts and be creative with the candy we sell.
Our first idea that we fell for was a concept to create a one-of-a-kind candy “couture” dress. We’d heard about the creations Kyle Nylund of www.kylenylund.com had created in the past and we knew we’d found a match.
Kyle came to our 17th Ave location and we worked together to decide on the best materials. Do we design the dress from wrappers? How feasible is this endeavor? Floral Gums and Cola Balls won’t last long and chocolate would just melt! Finally, we decided on Rock Candy. It’s bright, festive, interesting and tasty and was a hit with the crowd.
I’m not going to tell you how many boxes of rock candy it took to create the dress right now but I will say, it was more than 30 hours of crushing then glueing each crystal by hand to the undercarriage of the garment.
The dress was debuted at the Rihanna concert in Calgary this past Saturday and was well-received. Let’s just say, there are a lot of people in our city who tried to sneak a taste.
The candy dress will be out and about at other events in the city this month. For more pictures take a look at our Instagram feed – sweetfactorycandy or follow us on Twitter @sweetfactory17
Calgary’s Candy Fashion Week
The global fashion industry extols and showcases its trends and upcoming seasons through Fashion Weeks. But here in Calgary, more so on 17th Ave in Lower Mount Royal, people celebrate it differently.
In 2012, the store became the 1st ever fashion-inspired candy boutique in Calgary. Since the street is known as the city’s hippest and most stylish urban area, Sweet Factory has definitely sweetened the fashion culture. Unlike New York, Paris, London, and Milan’s Fashion Weeks, ours veers away from luxury and ‘houses’. Instead, Calgary has fun recycling and sweetening events! On this page, see the debut of our ‘couture’ candy dresses.
Behind the scenes
The team was inspired by the works of Kyle Nylund. He is a Vancouver-based professional artist that specialises in ‘radical whimsy’. We called and asked him about the store’s marketing strategy. Lucky for us, he liked the concept and agreed to meet us.
Kyle came to the store’s location at 17th Ave. We worked on outlines, debating which theme and scheme would work best. For over several days looking for feasible plans, budget, and materials, we settled with rock candy. Just by staring at Kyle’s sketch, it’s bright, festive, and interesting. We already knew there and then that it would make heads turn, which we were right!
The debut of the rock candy dress
We wanted to debut the rock candy dress somewhere filled with many people. Again, it seemed that Lady Luck was with us since there was an upcoming Rihanna concert in Calgary! We took the opportunity of the event. So, off we go, we flaunted to the public the beautiful creation of Kyle.
Calgary’s Candy Fashion Week
A week after the team’s fun tactic, we distributed flyers about the store’s upcoming event, entitled Calgary’s Candy Fashion Week. We invited the talented residents of 17th Ave to showcase their sweet, sweet artistry.
The event was successful! Everyone enjoyed it. The creations were remarkable as they are detailed and finely done. While there were prizes, the competition was very friendly. As we hoped for, our team wanted to have a good time with the local community.
Tune out for more
As ever, Sweet Factory always has fun-filled events for residents to join. The Calgary’s Fashion Week was just the beginning. So, check our website and social media pages often for more updates.
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Liked the creations of Calgary residents? The designs looked so real that our cravings soared! Ahh! If only it is possible to take one rock candy from their dresses. But, why only crave when Sweet Factory has quite a large and good selection of products.
Staying true to its name, we not only sell candies and chocolates. Other sweets varieties available in the store are soft-serve ice cream and popcorn. Find all about them here on this page: Our Candy Menu: Craving Satisfied By Sweet Factory.