Staple Draping at the Doo Dah Parade

Loading a staple draping cart for the Doo Dah Parade, 2013. Photo by A. Laura Brody.

I am not great at self promotion.

I get caught up in preparation and process. I start making and arranging, getting models and paperwork in motion, design and build mass goofiness and voila! Tunnel vision. I can barely manage to get everything done on time, much less arrange for photographers and a film crew. There is no brain space (and certainly no money) left for promotion.  “To-do” lists are the only way that I remember to post anything.

So I staple draped at the Doo Dah Parade. And I have no pictures of me in action. There’s probably some out there. If you can find them, please tell me! I’m the chick with the scissor holster on my thigh.

I’m not sure how many folks I dressed during the parade. I had to ask my model (Jeanie Frias) and my cart designer/driver (Dave Robkin). Maybe 2 dozen kids and 3- 4 adults? There were groups of kids following our cart, yelling out demands for colors and outfits. We were demented Pied Pipers luring children around the parade route with brightly colored costumes. Some kids came back 2 and 3 times with different requests and I had to ask them to take turns.

 If it’s not clear already, I love this work.

I love dressing up folks in reused and donated fabrics. I love showing them that you CAN make your own clothing. I danced volunteers into the parade route while I stapled and tied their costumes around them, flitting about to trim up their hems. I knelt in the middle of the tortilla and marshmallow-strewn streets (it’s a classic Doo Dah thing) to make that little girl the animal print sari she craved. I chased down the Derby Dude who stole yellow satin off my cart to make into a cape, and then towed him along on his roller skates like a pull toy while I made him a cape tie. It was hot, it was tiring, it took tons of effort and it was a blast.
But my favorite moment?

A girl, maybe 9 years old and full of sass is following me around, demanding her 3rd outfit and spouting off lines like a stand-up comic. While I’m making her lavender tulle tutu, she asks me “So why aren’t you famous?” So I cracked up. “No. Seriously. Why aren’t you famous yet?”
I don’t know, kid.

Maybe you should do my PR.