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PrintMiss Jackson's is a circus
A look behind the scenes of the store's circus-themed holiday windows and décor.
Christmas at Miss Jackson’s department store in Utica Square is not your typical red-and-green affair. Creative Director Stacy Suvino and Rachel Kern, visual merchandising and media relations coordinator, have created a special storewide Christmas theme to wow customers and establish a fantasyland for all.
Christmas time for Suvino and Kern is about recalling childhood memories of fun and wonder, so they chose a circus theme for the holiday season at Miss Jackson’s.
“It brings fantasy to life,” Suvino says. “It’s not a by-the-book Christmas, not all red and green, which is refreshing.”
Kern says the circus theme is appealing because it is versatile.
“There’s so many directions you can go with a circus theme,” she says. “We’ll have a performers’ window with a girl on a tight rope or a girl hanging from a swing with a flowery, feathery, flouncy outfit on; a girl on stilts; carousel horses; and the window’s wall will be painted striped.”
The process of designing one of Miss Jackson’s compelling window displays starts with a flash of inspiration, whether it be from shopping in antique stores or getting new items in the store.
“Holiday is about an idea, a fantasy — things that remind you of your childhood,” Kern says. “People respond more to that than to Santa Claus.”
Suvino, who worked on the Bergdorf Goodman window team in New York City before coming to Tulsa last summer, had never created a circus theme before.
“We’re putting our own spin on it and focusing on the 1920s as inspiration,” Suvino says. “It’s fun, interesting, happy, and during these economic times, we thought it would be a good time to put something like that in.”
Suvino and Kern design a new window each month reflecting certain times of the year, such as Fall Opening, Christmas and, coming up in April, Miss Jackson’s centennial anniversary.
The completed holiday window display will be available for viewing Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26.
 | Some of the elements of the Christmas window displays are vintage circus posters, a ringmaster, lighting, murals, swings, decorative framing and mannequins dressed in 1920s-inspired fashion and wigs. Most of the clothing is from the store with some vintage items, such as these accessories, mixed in for authenticity. “We usually install windows in a four- to five-day period because there’s not one detail overlooked; paint is touched up, holes are filled, ideas are completed,” Suvino says. |
 | The team stays within their window budget with the help of college interns and borrowing furniture and other accessories from local shops, such as I-44 Antique Mall and Charles Faudree. |
 | Tulsa Stage & Top built an old-fashioned circus wagon, back, and let the team use its warehouse to produce additional props, including this ringmaster stand, front, and magician’s prop. |
 | Kern creates all the hand-drawn or painted elements of the window displays. |
 | The windows’ circus theme is carried into the interior of Miss Jackson’s with a hot pink, gold and burgundy color palette throughout, right down to the lightbulbs in the chandeliers. The Christmas Shop in the central room of the department store is a circus tent complete with a striped fabric ceiling treatment surrounding the chandelier. A “Moulin Rouge”-type marquee will also be among the interior decorations. |
