Fanshawe College's fashion merchandising students are pairing up with the Palace Theatre to help better promote the theatre's productions and get some hands-on experience.

Faith Coates, marketing director for the Palace Theatre, contacted Fanshawe to suggest the partnership. She remembers how popular and eye-catching the downtown Christmas windows were when she was growing up and thought this same idea could apply to the theatre, she said. "Windows are one of the best ways to market."

Plus, it is a great opportunity for students. "It's always great to have something in your portfolio. It helps them and it helps us because we don't always have time (to decorate the windows)," she said.

After getting in touch with the fashion merchandising coordinator, Wella Nolan, who presented it to the students, Coates had a response "in minutes" from interested students.

The way the partnership works is students are assigned to a play, Coates sends them a picture of the window and a summary of the play, and students draw up sketches and collaborate with Coates, the play's producer and its director to determine the display.

"I tell (the students) to be braver and go for it, go crazy," said Coates. "The wilder the better. We want the windows to be evocative, not literal."

The most recent window is for the production Her Wake, and was created by Erin Colley and Camille Copetti. The East Coast-themed play translated into a window display featuring a colourful, painted hilltop background, a "sea" made out of tulle, a boat with its sail hanging dropped down from the top of the window and fishing rods.

"I am very pleased, they look very attractive from the street and they stand out extremely well," said Coates of the first window display.

While the project is not directly related to fashion, it still gives students a chance to try out what they've learned in the classroom.

"It's three-dimensional design," said Nolan. "Doing these things outside of school, the actual application — you learn more about how to technically execute something and problem solve."