While many of the formal balls for the Mardi Gras season have come and gone, the designers of those beautifully decorated costumes and sets are already planning for next year.
Though their numbers are small, the Mardi Gras makers of Baton Rouge are a busy group whose talents shine in the spotlight while they toil away in the privacy of home workshops.
Just ask Loretta Shelton.
At 85 years old, Shelton is a self-taught seamstress who has been making Mardi Gras costumes for almost 40 years. She originally started her sewing business by making dance costumes. But when she was selected to sew the costumes for a ball in Plaquemine, Shelton found herself immersed in the carnival season.
“It truly is a labor of love,” the Plaquemine native says, trying to explain the many hours she devotes to hand-stitching the extraordinary jewel embellishments each dress demands. “That’s my TV homework.”
While she is planning to scale back and focus on embellishing, Shelton continues to bring to life sketches designed for the royal court of the Krewe of Romany, a Baton Rouge-based group she has helped since 1977.
This year, Shelton will sew, embellish and fabricate eight lavish costumes, including the captain and queen’s regal apparel, for this ladies-only krewe. That number varies year to year, depending on the size of the group’s royal court.
“To me, a Mardi Gras seamstress has to have a special eye. You have to read the sketch and read the girls themselves. You have to be able to visualize not just in front of you, but 40 feet in front of you,” says Shelton, noting that the details must stand out for the audience. “Everything in Mardi Gras is
super-sized.”
Like Shelton, Carol Guion understands the fantasy-driven nature of carnival. As a Mardi Gras sketch artist, costume seamstress and fabricator, 76-year-old Guion has been helping local krewes for more than 15 years. This year she helped costume the royalty of two Baton Rouge organizations: the Krewe of Iduna, an all-ladies organization, and the Krewe of Apollo, a gay male group, which celebrated its 35th anniversary.
For someone who grew up wanting to be a commercial artist, Guion’s entry into the Mardi Gras business was simply a matter of timing.
“I was sewing costumes for the Baton Rouge Little Theater [now Theatre Baton Rouge], when some krewe members wanted to know if I could make a hoop skirt,” Guion says.
Soon other krewes began asking her to do costumes. The work became so plentiful that she left her job at the theater, and in 2000, added a large workroom to accommodate her home business.
Full of energy and love for the creative nature of her work, Guion starts preparing for the next Mardi Gras season almost immediately after the current one finishes. But this year she plans to take a little more time for herself, though she notes there are few costume makers around with the training to pick up the slack.
“There was someone a while ago [who had expressed interest], but she needed a regular paycheck,” Guion says.
For Catherine Whitehead, the opportunity to let her creativity soar is payment enough for now. The 31-year-old accountant by day spends her off hours volunteering and learning new ways to bring her visions to life for the Krewe of Tucumcari, the oldest Mardi Gras krewe in Baton Rouge. Whitehead’s association with Tucumcari runs deep—not only was she a maid when she was in high school, but her dad, Michael Hale, is the president.
Since 2014, Whitehead has helped her dad in many facets of organizing the ball, but her favorite part is designing and fabricating props and backdrops for the stage.
“I like making things. It’s a lot of work, but it’s nice to be able to have this and to learn new techniques,” she says.
As Whitehead leads the next generation of Mardi Gras makers, she—like Shelton and Guion—is using her talents so others can enjoy a celebration that is uniquely Louisiana.
