Interview with Lois
I moved to San Francisco from Wisconsin with a boyfriend after college. While I was living in San Francisco I remember waking up every morning happy and excited to be there. It just had a really good vibe to it. The trolley was a quarter and I walked to work, every time I walked over a hill it was like I was in a whole new city. I got a job at Rossani Rag Dolls across the street from Jessica McClintock. They made “working women” dresses, stuff I never wore but I was designing it. My boss literally had me go to the stores and see what was selling, sketch it and bring it back. The building was modern, the women were hip and it was all sewn in Chinatown.
There was a woman’s coffee shop in the Castro at the time and they let me do a show. I did this wall multimedia piece with Xeroxes, it was exciting. It was the first time I had ever showed publicly, that got me going.
I saw an ad in the paper for the Peace Corps, everyone loved the Peace Corps at the time so I applied. Then my supposed boyfriend came home and told me he wanted to see other people, which I was fine with for so many reasons. I got into the Peace Corps and went to Guatemala. After the Peace Corps I got another degree in sculpture.
I moved to New Orleans when I was thirty. That was a real fruitful time, you walk into New Orleans and you’re just given carte blanche and everybody is excited. If you are creative you’re just included, immediately. I got a costuming job for a theatrical production. I was in New Orleans for 15 years doing costuming and I became real well known. I was in the paper all the time and eventually I was made Queen of one of the Mardi Gras Parades. Krewe du Vieux parade; it’s the first to go out during Mardi Gras. I was doing a lot of big three dimensional costumes with foam and I made big headdresses. I was also doing conceptual theatre, I started getting onstage with my models that were wearing unitards and with paper and tape I would create wedding dresses on them. After the dress was done I would rip it off of the model and throw it into the audience. It was a statement about clothing and wedding dresses in particular, they are only used once and then they are trashed so why not just make them out of paper. I’ve never married and I’m a bachelor and I love it. Then I did a lot of shows hand painting Tyvek jumpsuits and dresses and in ’84 I sold them at the World’s Fair in New Orleans in the jazz musician Pete Fountain’s shop.
I like designing things with themes based on my environment. In the garment district I was a knitwear designer. I designed some fabric that was bought by Kenzo and was in Mademoiselle; nobody knew who I was, but I knew it was mine. In New Orleans I had a manual knitting machine and I came up with this dress design that I called the Spanish Moss. It takes almost a week or more t make one dress. It was real sexy and I was on the Today Show with those.
Then I branched into doing costumes for MTV, TV commercials and eventually I costumed a couple movies. The MTV work was fun because it was fast and it was fun to hang out with the musicians. I did Bela Fleck’s first video and a lot of the costumes I took right out of my own wardrobe because I wear a lot of men’s suits. I think men’s fashion is tailored better and wingtips are my favorite shoes. At the time the members of Bela Fleck were making their own banjos and guitars and they were young, innocent and real sweet.
My artist friends and I were all getting in on the work because although New Orleans is a big city, the artists are a small group. When one person got a job we would get our friends hired on it. And then through the Contemporary Art Center we would get grants to work on projects together like outdoor sculpture pieces, that was always fun.
In New Orleans I came across a postcard of the Indians from the San Blas Islands of Panama who wore a line down their face. I ran in the bathroom I got my Maybelline eyeliner and tried it out and loved it! So pretty much all my years in New Orleans I had a line down my face, I almost got it tattooed. That was a kind of trademark. My roommate at the time was just gorgeous and dressed half male and half female and I was in wigs and the line down my face and we would do this daily because we could. Everyone thought we were brother and sister but we were just good friends. We both worked at a vintage store and we worked with the owner who was doing costumes for Le Petit Theatre right in the quarter, we were making a lot of costumes at that time. That friend passed away from AIDS. I can count 20 friends who died of AIDS in the late 80’s. That’s pretty sad but it did make you more aware of … a lot of things.
I lived in a fifth story walk up warehouse and one time my whole floor was a costume shop filled with racks of costumes. We had one show that was playing in New York and one playing in Germany and each run need their own set of costumes so we were making duplicates, it was fun but tough. In between the theatrical costumes I was doing costumes for commercials. I made this leprechaun for this Irish bar out of foam. There was one costume I did for Speedy Oil Change, it was this oil can with wheels and I don’t know what happened but I made it so big it wouldn’t even fit in the elevator. I think they just stuck it outside, I don’t know if anyone could ever wear it. I just go overboard sometimes. I was all excited making it and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.
I don’t have specific Mardi Gras memories but usually you’d have people over and getting ready and you’d have champagne and get high, dropping drugs. I can remember my costumes and my friends. My friend had this huge back yard and he would have the opening breakfast party before everyone hit the street. We would walk there and you’d swear you’re in a Fellini movie; it was just gorgeous mostly gay guys, so flamboyant! It’s just magical in the hot sun and you’ve already had three mimosas and the “electric cool-aid”, it’s just beautiful and everyone is happy. Every creative soul should go down and experience it. All the activity starts a couple of weeks before, it’s more about making costumes, being up all night and then going to the ball and making costumes for the next one.
I would sew standing up because we were moving so fast. In between theatrical productions there was always something else like MTV or movie people down in New Orleans during Mardi Gras so we were always trying to get jobs. I’m the only one of my friends who left.
From there I jumped on top of a mountain in deep woods with my dog, I went from one extreme to another. In the mountains you get a different experience, the meditation, solace and connecting with nature again.
When I came to our little town, which is only 3 blocks long, I drove past this warehouse that was caving in and I wanted it immediately. I bought it, gutted it and now I renovated it. I put in a 2nd story with a New York style loft and the first floor is my studio and the back part of it I left open to the sky with no roof so it’s like a walled in courtyard and out the back is the French Broad River. I’m trying to move into town although I still have my little mountain place. I’ve made connections and I’ve been real prolific doing paintings. I had a one-woman show and I’m doing a lot of women’s faces. I’m trying to start a line of greeting cards, I’ve already self published a story book about living out of a suit case and I’m working on a coloring book based on my Juju dolls. When you get a little older and your parents pass you realize you only have 30 years left so I feel like I gotta get cranking. I don’t believe in mistakes, just do it and don’t worry about it, it’s a great feeling. Who’s to judge? You got ideas and then you go and do them. I have to be making something or I get cranky.
There was a woman’s coffee shop in the Castro at the time and they let me do a show. I did this wall multimedia piece with Xeroxes, it was exciting. It was the first time I had ever showed publicly, that got me going.
I saw an ad in the paper for the Peace Corps, everyone loved the Peace Corps at the time so I applied. Then my supposed boyfriend came home and told me he wanted to see other people, which I was fine with for so many reasons. I got into the Peace Corps and went to Guatemala. After the Peace Corps I got another degree in sculpture.
I moved to New Orleans when I was thirty. That was a real fruitful time, you walk into New Orleans and you’re just given carte blanche and everybody is excited. If you are creative you’re just included, immediately. I got a costuming job for a theatrical production. I was in New Orleans for 15 years doing costuming and I became real well known. I was in the paper all the time and eventually I was made Queen of one of the Mardi Gras Parades. Krewe du Vieux parade; it’s the first to go out during Mardi Gras. I was doing a lot of big three dimensional costumes with foam and I made big headdresses. I was also doing conceptual theatre, I started getting onstage with my models that were wearing unitards and with paper and tape I would create wedding dresses on them. After the dress was done I would rip it off of the model and throw it into the audience. It was a statement about clothing and wedding dresses in particular, they are only used once and then they are trashed so why not just make them out of paper. I’ve never married and I’m a bachelor and I love it. Then I did a lot of shows hand painting Tyvek jumpsuits and dresses and in ’84 I sold them at the World’s Fair in New Orleans in the jazz musician Pete Fountain’s shop.
I like designing things with themes based on my environment. In the garment district I was a knitwear designer. I designed some fabric that was bought by Kenzo and was in Mademoiselle; nobody knew who I was, but I knew it was mine. In New Orleans I had a manual knitting machine and I came up with this dress design that I called the Spanish Moss. It takes almost a week or more t make one dress. It was real sexy and I was on the Today Show with those.
Then I branched into doing costumes for MTV, TV commercials and eventually I costumed a couple movies. The MTV work was fun because it was fast and it was fun to hang out with the musicians. I did Bela Fleck’s first video and a lot of the costumes I took right out of my own wardrobe because I wear a lot of men’s suits. I think men’s fashion is tailored better and wingtips are my favorite shoes. At the time the members of Bela Fleck were making their own banjos and guitars and they were young, innocent and real sweet.
My artist friends and I were all getting in on the work because although New Orleans is a big city, the artists are a small group. When one person got a job we would get our friends hired on it. And then through the Contemporary Art Center we would get grants to work on projects together like outdoor sculpture pieces, that was always fun.
In New Orleans I came across a postcard of the Indians from the San Blas Islands of Panama who wore a line down their face. I ran in the bathroom I got my Maybelline eyeliner and tried it out and loved it! So pretty much all my years in New Orleans I had a line down my face, I almost got it tattooed. That was a kind of trademark. My roommate at the time was just gorgeous and dressed half male and half female and I was in wigs and the line down my face and we would do this daily because we could. Everyone thought we were brother and sister but we were just good friends. We both worked at a vintage store and we worked with the owner who was doing costumes for Le Petit Theatre right in the quarter, we were making a lot of costumes at that time. That friend passed away from AIDS. I can count 20 friends who died of AIDS in the late 80’s. That’s pretty sad but it did make you more aware of … a lot of things.
I lived in a fifth story walk up warehouse and one time my whole floor was a costume shop filled with racks of costumes. We had one show that was playing in New York and one playing in Germany and each run need their own set of costumes so we were making duplicates, it was fun but tough. In between the theatrical costumes I was doing costumes for commercials. I made this leprechaun for this Irish bar out of foam. There was one costume I did for Speedy Oil Change, it was this oil can with wheels and I don’t know what happened but I made it so big it wouldn’t even fit in the elevator. I think they just stuck it outside, I don’t know if anyone could ever wear it. I just go overboard sometimes. I was all excited making it and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.
I don’t have specific Mardi Gras memories but usually you’d have people over and getting ready and you’d have champagne and get high, dropping drugs. I can remember my costumes and my friends. My friend had this huge back yard and he would have the opening breakfast party before everyone hit the street. We would walk there and you’d swear you’re in a Fellini movie; it was just gorgeous mostly gay guys, so flamboyant! It’s just magical in the hot sun and you’ve already had three mimosas and the “electric cool-aid”, it’s just beautiful and everyone is happy. Every creative soul should go down and experience it. All the activity starts a couple of weeks before, it’s more about making costumes, being up all night and then going to the ball and making costumes for the next one.
I would sew standing up because we were moving so fast. In between theatrical productions there was always something else like MTV or movie people down in New Orleans during Mardi Gras so we were always trying to get jobs. I’m the only one of my friends who left.
From there I jumped on top of a mountain in deep woods with my dog, I went from one extreme to another. In the mountains you get a different experience, the meditation, solace and connecting with nature again.
When I came to our little town, which is only 3 blocks long, I drove past this warehouse that was caving in and I wanted it immediately. I bought it, gutted it and now I renovated it. I put in a 2nd story with a New York style loft and the first floor is my studio and the back part of it I left open to the sky with no roof so it’s like a walled in courtyard and out the back is the French Broad River. I’m trying to move into town although I still have my little mountain place. I’ve made connections and I’ve been real prolific doing paintings. I had a one-woman show and I’m doing a lot of women’s faces. I’m trying to start a line of greeting cards, I’ve already self published a story book about living out of a suit case and I’m working on a coloring book based on my Juju dolls. When you get a little older and your parents pass you realize you only have 30 years left so I feel like I gotta get cranking. I don’t believe in mistakes, just do it and don’t worry about it, it’s a great feeling. Who’s to judge? You got ideas and then you go and do them. I have to be making something or I get cranky.
