By Molly Snyder Senior Writer Published Dec 02, 2002 at 5:10 AM

It's Annette French's third holiday season as the owner of the multifarious Dragonfly, a funky hive of new and vintage goodies, but this year her selection is larger than ever.

Upscale and affordable, classy and down-to-earth, Dragonfly (1117 E. Brady St.) is a delicate blend of the old Brady Street and the new. Perhaps the wide-appeal factor explains the shop's success that has allowed French to stock her shop with loads of new merchandise, including jewelry, movie posters, lavender pillows, cool coasters, fabulous handbags, holiday gift wrap and retro linens.

"I really went nutty ordering this year. I wanted to have a lot of different and interesting things," says French, who moved to Milwaukee from Boston where she had a similar shop, also called Dragonfly. French opened her first store just a couple of years after her father passed away and named it for his penchant for the thin, winged insect.

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Dragonfly also features heavenly soaps, candles, journals, aprons, boas, vintage spectacles, killer stained glass pieces and clothing for men and women, ranging from 1930s to contemporary wearables. But the fabulously funkiest awards go to black bras with plastic doll face cups by Mode Merr and "Go-go robics," a workout video featuring the Pontani Sisters demonstrating their strangely unconventional but so much more comical style of exercise.

French plans to have a holiday sale the weekend of December 13. Fly by if you haven't already.

For more information, call (414) 271-1244.


Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.

Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.