They say necessity is the mother of invention - well sometimes if you want something done right, you just have to do it yourself. And when it comes to bringing that something to life born from your own imagination, its often easier just to whip it up yourself. Or maybe with your mama, grandma or sister.
Young Kylie Minogue used to make her own outfits with the help of her grandma. Reflecting on her pop superstar status she has claimed “I would never have reached that point in time, or that place, without the Lycra and the Janome [sewing machine] and throwing in a few beads or something, back in 1989”.
Texan popstar Selena Quintanilla used to design and make her own outfits with her mother, embellishing Victoria’s Secret bras, improvising with scarves and sticking rhinestones or beads on belts and hats, because nothing existed in the Tejano style (a Tex Mex blend of folk, country and pop with mariachis, accordions, and strings) she wanted to wear, in her size - and mostly the stage wear was made for men.
Kacey Musgraves has paid tribute to Selena’s unique style with her latest album cycle looks, - evidenced here in some side-by-sides created by @lost.in.pieces.
Slayyyter made her own costume for her Coachella debut this year - that may also owe a nod to Selena-style - a ruffled vintage lace patchworked top teamed with a trucker cap that proudly stated ‘Worst Girl at Coachella’ spelled out in rhinestones and boots she handprinted the night before.
She told Vogue “I like being very hands on with my costume design—every time I make my own outfit, it just feels comfortable. I know what silhouettes and proportions I like on myself.” She explains making her own costumes is fun and says she didn’t stress about it at all, creating her piece just two days before the show.
It actually reminds me a little of the wedding dress from classic Australian film Muriel’s Wedding - made BY MY MAMA! Yes my mother, Mouse, worked in the film and TV industry for years as a mainly self-taught seamstress - I think I have the story right (I often don’t) when I say the designer Terry Ryan gave Mouse a very detailed sketch and said ‘make this’, and she had to sneak to Spotlight after work to find patterns she could use to cut it. This costume is now on display in the National Film and Sound Archives.
I have regularly taken advantage of my mother’s fabulous skills to turn some gigantic, daggy, ill-fitting long 70s dress made from some unnaturally great 70s fabric and found for five or ten bucks into a tight-fitting mini fit for stagewear minutes before heading out to do a show.
Here is my mama stitching hearts and flowers and bees and evil eyes and music notes to jazz up one such frock, in an very basic homage to the Nudie suit, just before heading out to this gig in LA… the back of the dress is really quite a work of art, but I didn’t think it through very well because I forgot to turn around and I wore my hair long, covering up Mouse’s amazing design work there! Ah well, add it to the list of onstage costume secrets, which include dresses held together with gaffa tape, staples and safety pins, holes in old fabric covered up with stitched on embellishments, dresses slashed at the wrist or the armpit or with a busted zip taped together to enable me to slide myself into it. That’s showbiz kids.
My daughter Holiday Sidewinder makes many of her own stage outfits from scratch - often with a helping hand from Grandma Mouse - but she is super inventive and clever and can always work out how to cut and stitch and drape an outfit instinctively. This wild pirate wench look is a total testament to the power of imagination.
Debbie Harry detailed in her memoir how she used to throw together outfits from whatever she could find - this iconic zebra dress was upcycled from a pillowcase her landlord found in the street and said ““Oh this would be a good dress! Just cut here and look, it’s already there!’”. Might be the best landlord story I’ve ever heard.
Patsy Cline used to like to imagine up her own outfits, and her mama Hilda would make them.
When Destiny’s Child were starting out, Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles- Lawson designed and made many of their matchy-matchy outfits, with a tiny budget and a lot of imagination, trying to highlight each girl’s favourite feature to help their confidence. Ms Tina, in an interview with the Washington Post, said “The label, after the girls started getting a lot of recognition, they had a meeting with my husband and they told him that basically I was the problem and I was going to be the reason why the girls would be limited in their crossover appeal, because they were just a little too flashy, a little too Motown, but what they really meant was that they were a little too Black.
As an African-American, I know, I’ve always known, that our fashion, our vibe, our style, our swag, has influenced the fashion world greatly,” she said. “I remember I used to design things and I would get criticized for it, but they next thing I know it would be on somebody’s runway.”
Beyonce would also catch the designing bug and launched her own label, with Tina - -named House of Dereon after’s Tina’s mother - in 2005.
Gwen Stefani is also known for whipping up her own outfits and later, launching her own fashion label, L.A.M.B.
FKA Twigs invited her mother to design her incredible costume for Glastonbury 2024, saying she wanted something that could incorporate ballet and Vogueing and contemporary dance and ‘there was only one person that could really nail it, and that was my mum’.
The fabulous Charo has been wearing costumes designed and made by her sister Carmen since they left Spain together as teenagers. In 2022 Chart posted this pic with the message: Hola Amigos I Want To Share With You This Bitchy - Bitchy Outfit Design and Make by My Sister Carmencita That Start Start a Fashion Explosión When My Cuchi - Cuchi . Was Only a Kitchy- Kitchy . I Hope You Like It . PS l Was Holding My Breath For 3 Minutes to Look Skinny Winnie . Besos
I’ve always kept a (small) box of half-made dresses with a lot of potential and amazing trims and fringes for future exotic stagewear of my dreams. I’d still far rather make something to order than buy an expensive designer outfit. I just need some fancy gigs to justify making some costumes…. although I could always chop up some curtains a la Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music for my next lewk.
Here’s to mamas and sisters and grandmas and tiny budgets and big imaginations and bold homemade visions.
Til next week!
Lo x
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