Hello Flamingo were really happy to be asked to continue their collaboration with the creative team at Missguided and create bespoke props for the new store opening in Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent

The props were a giant disco ball banana and mermaid’s tails fitted to mannequins.

All designs and concepts were brought to us by Treasure Evans, Missguided’s Retail Visual Manager, winner of the Most Innovative Person Within VM award at the 2017 VM and Display Awards.

The 4.2m long banana was hand carved from polystyrene and fibre-glassed by the Hello Flamingo in-house production team. The top of the banana was covered, by hand, in 38,000 individual mirror tiles! The inside of the peel was flocked in a realistic off-white flock and the outside of the banana was sprayed high gloss yellow.

In store the banana sits on its own stage, and with a steel armature inside the banana it has strength and rigidity making it safe to be climbed on by customers in the store for photo opportunities.

Mermaid tails were hand sculpted and moulded by the in-house team. Individual clay shells were made to create a mould, then silicone casts were taken. The tails were hand painted and look stunning. The tails were made to fit the bottom of a mannequin, making them look like real mermaids!