Those who know Kathy Frey as the vibrant and fashionable owner of Festoon, a store clothing and home decor store on North Duke Street, might be surprised to find out that her entrepreneurial success has its roots in something a bit blander:
Celery.
Those humble beginnings were a lot more than 60 years ago.
“When I was very young, I was taught to work very hard,” recalls Frey, 71. “I had my own, personal business at 9.”
That business was loading up bushel baskets of celery at Kreider’s Celery Farm and selling it along a route in her neighborhood.
“I recently had that entrepreneurial desire ever since then.”
Frey’s journey from celery peddler to boutique owner has been paved with work, uncertainty, and a vow never to let fear get in with the following opportunity.
“I’ve a burning desire to do whatever I actually do with my whole heart,” she says. “It’s worked well for me.”
After attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Frey got her first opportunity with Hager’s Department Store, doing fashion illustrations that appeared in the Lancaster newspapers.
Later, she’d answer an advertisement for a delivery job at a Marietta flower shop. She’d soon parlay the opportunity into another avenue for artistic expression: training with well-known floral designers.
“The flower shop came out for sale and I went to the bank, and they saw my determination and loaned me the amount of money,” she says.
She owned Kathy’s Flower Werks for 18 years.
“Among my flower shop and the following section of my entire life, I said out loud, ‘If I ever open up another business, I would call it Festoon,'” Frey says. The term is festive. It describes a celebratory garland of flowers, sometimes appearing as a hand-carved architectural feature above a screen or door. “It just seemed to fit,” she says.
In 2004, that opportunity came in the former Hager Department Store building, where she had gotten her start. By the period, the building was home to condos, a cafe, and boutique-style shops. When her lease ran out eight years ago, she moved Festoon to its current home in a spacious former firehouse on North Duke.
The festive shop is an eclectic mixture of clothing and accessories to books, candles, and home decor, much of it locally made, including Frey’s clothing line, Selga, which she launched in 2017.
“I’ve been on the planet of color and fashion and design. It’s just been a truly wonderful evolution of who I’m and my creativity,” Frey says. “I’m here living my dream and being section of a great business community here in Lancaster. Something always resulted in another.”
Fashion is just one more form of artistic expression, and for Frey, that too has been an evolution of sorts. There were times in her life, she says, when her profession dictated a specific look, but nowadays, she approaches fashion like she does the others of her life — without fear.
“I’ve personally evolved into anyone I’m now by just realizing it’s all within your body language, it’s all in the method that you carry yourself, it’s all in your self-confidence and finding ways to love yourself no matter what,” says. “It allows me to be just just who I am. I’ve been a free spirit and I’ve now fallen right back to that wonderful way of believing in myself.”
Frey describes herself as a woman of faith and says that her belief system has helped her not merely to succeed but also to produce the confidence to be herself. She also stresses the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people and says she’d never discourage someone from expressing who they’re by what they wear.
Frey believes that discovering who you’re through the art of dressing does not have any limits — no matter what your age. You will find no fashion do’s or don’ts just because someone has ended 50, 60, or 70.
“I think that whatever makes you feel good-looking in the mirror is what you should wear,” says Frey, who describes her favorite style as boho chic. “When someone really feels like they wish to wear a swimsuit at age 80, I encourage that. … I’m wearing bib overalls. I find I’m more myself now than I’ve ever been. It’s about just being happy with looking in the mirror.”
