A brassiere lies on the kitchen counter beside a couple of yet unopened wine bottles. A dozen women have gathered at a Garden District mansion for assembly-line work. At tonight’s so-called sewing circle, they will create buckram hat frames and epaulettes for Mardi Gras marching costumes with a theme to be revealed only at the Muses Parade.
Shel Roumillat, Camel Toe Lady Steppers’ costume chair, PhD candidate, wife and mother, barks orders while circling a table piled with fabric, glitter and cans of spray glue. Around her waist hangs a wide, silver-sequined belt with a pair of sewing scissors slung like a gun inside a fuchsia and black zebra-stripe holster.
“Put your battery pack inside your hat,” she says. This year’s signature headpiece will flash blinking lights.
“Sequins go over the neon,” she directs. This sewing circle, including a pediatrician, personal trainer, bartender, jeweler, veterinarian and lingerie storeowner, follows instructions.
“Go outside and spray each of your toe patches.”
Roumillat should probably be spending time finishing her dissertation, but costumes take precedence during Camel Toe season.
“My mom taught me how to sew and I’ve always been good at crafting,” she says. Members are required to make their own costumes, but everyone doesn’t know how to sew. “We have to rely on spray glue,” she says.
“I’ve rediscovered a love for sewing and creating costumes,” Roumillat says. As a historian used to dealing with facts, she enjoys the tactile facets of costume design.
“That’s one of the things about this group. It’s given us all an opportunity to explore those aspects of our interests and passions that are not part of our everyday lives.” The theme for this year’s parade costumes is top secret, but one of the group’s founders, Casey Love, a Tulane political science professor, promises: “You’ll be hypnotized.”
What makes Camel Toes special, they say, is its changing annual theme, which influences the style of costume and dance. One year, the concept was Esther Williams’ bathing suit beauties. Another time, the theme was Bollywood.
The group’s 50 members vote on three costume proposals, selecting one to feature at the pinnacle event —Muses.
“It’s not always about being beautiful or sexy – it’s campy,” says Love who is in charge of parade logistics.
Their marching group stands out, however, for its “ability to glitter,” says Stephanie Barksdale, a Camel Toe participating in last week’s sewing circle.
To dazzle the crowds even further, the ladies perform two choreographed routines while marching to the beat of the Stooges Brass Band. Dance chair, Cynthia Garza, an anthropology professor, was a high school majorette with extensive prior experience marching up and down streets.
Some group members have little or no previous dance training and others are professionals, including Trixie Minx, a ballet dancer turned burlesque performer, and Nathalie Gomes Adams, a World Swing Dance Champion. Garza’s background includes Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban dance moves she learned south of the border.
Costumes and dance routines allow the women to step out of their daily lives and shine. “Every woman comes to life,” says Roumillat. “By the time we round that corner at Napoleon and St. Charles, we’ve shaken off the nerves. By the end of the parade, everyone can’t wait to do it again,” she says.
The Lady Steppers enjoy being on the streets with their audience rather than riding above on a float. They have slipped on Mardi Gras beads and endured cold weather, but feed off the energy of the crowd.
Putting on the show puts extra demands on their families. Camel Tot play sessions on Sunday mornings at Wisner Park corral children while dance routines are perfected. “For some guys, it is a little bit of a shock,” Marshall Love says about husbands’ seasonal time commitment.
“It’s a lot, but I know how much it means to her to do these things. It’s pretty special for these ladies to do something in the public eye – it gives them a thrill,” he said.
Husbands participate as “Camelback” security guards with duties that include lipstick holding, crowd control and keeping the ladies hydrated. As Camel Toe’s entourage, they wear complimentary costumes – always with a dash of hot pink.
“The level of friendship we have with each other is so amazing,” says Amy George, a Spanish professor. “It’s a different sort of friendship that forms out of this kind of commitment.” Attendance at sewing circles and dance practice is not negotiable and partners have to catch on to that.
“I know a Camel Toe who stopped dating someone because he didn’t like glitter,” George says. “I spend six months around glitter!” Ultimately, she chose the group over the disgruntled boyfriend. The new boyfriend is hosting a sewing circle at his house.
Published in New Orleans Times-Picayune
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