Photos by Carlton Mickle.

This was the first costume I made for Bustout Burlesque.The beaded fringe

was one of the few things salvaged from Rick's flooded house. I removed the

beads from the old nasty flooded harem costume and washed and washed and

washed them. When the show started making some money around summer 2006,

the scarves and veil were updated. We also added rhinestones to the costume

and made new star pasties. The skirt-scarves were made from material I bought

in NYC specifically for the costume. I glued about 400 teeny tiny purple

rhinestones to the skirt-scarves and to my horror realized that they're not

visible at all. I thought they'd pick up some stage light and sparkle, but they

don't. That was a disappointing lesson. The veil and body scarf were made from

material I bought in Los Angeles for a fashion show I was going to do for

Halloween 2005. I was happily spending my budget away in L.A. when Katrina

came and I didn't go home for 2 months. The material stayed in a friends

storage unit in Santa Monica until another friend retrieved it 8 months later

and shipped it to me. The veil is made of a purple metallic fabric with little

mirrors embroidered into it. It really picks up stage light. I still love this

costume.