What is it that Americans really want? Is it safety, or anarchy, an open society or a police state? It would seem the answers should be obvious, but such things aren’t so clear-cut in 21st-century life, or for Connecticut in the wake of the school shootings in Newtown. When the National Rifle Association (NRA) came out with a statement on the tragedy at a press conference a week after the shootings of Dec. 14, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called for armed guards in all schools across the nation. Never mind that this would give the gun business a major boost, making the proposed solution seem more self-serving than community-minded. The implication is that Americans should accept the necessity of living in a society that’s a throwback to the image of a Wild West where every citizen should have been armed and ready to shoot at any provocation, at a moment’s notice. Except that just to keep a balance of power, rather than being armed with a sidearm, one would wish a rapid-fire automatic weapon as the preferred protection.This hardly seems like a path to a safer environment for our school children or any other Americans. Fully trained and professional soldiers might be able to handle live firearms in public places, evaluating situations carefully and with the understanding that military experience can bring before taking lethal action. But security guards, even ex-military, who see only sporadic violence might have a harder time accurately assessing the intentions of people in a crowded place, who may not be actively brandishing a weapon but still might seem threatening. The more loaded weapons there are on the street, the more likely they will be fired, whether in error or in justifiable self-defense.Such a sadly predictable response from the NRA was both disappointing and disturbing. There has to be a better solution to our societal problem of mass violence in the schools and other public places over the past decades than arming all of us. To say more people are killed with blunt force trauma than with automatic weapons doesn’t make anyone feel safer in our schools, movie theaters or shopping malls. And it doesn’t present a full picture of those American lives, especially on a terribly regular basis in individual neighborhoods in cities like Hartford, Bridgeport, Chicago and Baltimore, which are touched by gun violence but don’t result in death, but rather injury, fear, grief and anger. Better answers must be found, and serious, respectful suggestions should be forthcoming from responsible gun owners to address gun violence and its effects on the American reality. If gun owners want their rights to own guns protected, it’s time they thought of ways to protect their fellow citizens that don’t include increasing the number of guns on the streets by hundreds of thousands. While long-term solutions won’t be simple, they must be targeted through careful thought and research and implemented with cooperative, open-minded effort from all who care about the kind of society the United States will offer to future generations.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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