Costumes!

I've always loved costumes. Particularly, I love the process of creating a costume- coming up with the perfect idea, the possible approaches I could take towards its construction, and creating the finished product. Being from New Orleans and having performed ballets throughout my childhood, I have high expectations of my costumes. They should be detailed, clever works of art. Most importantly, costumes need to be personal.

My first costume memory began on a Halloween day, when I was five years old, and my brother was three. For months leading up to this day, all Michael wanted to be for Halloween was Batman. He loved Batman so much, my mom couldn't get him dressed in the morning without turning on the TV so that he could watch Batman. So it was a surprise when he came into her room on Halloween morning and announced that he did not want to wear his Batman costume that night. Now, under any other circumstance, my mom is very adamant about making my brother and me live with the outcomes of our decisions. But she had given up the battle of dressing either of us. When Michael insisted on going as "101 Dalmatians," my mom just started to think. She picked up two pillow cases, a pair of scissors, and a Sharpie marker. She cut one of the pillow cases into two long ovals and colored one of them black. She cut holes in the other pillow for his arms, legs, and face, then she drew black Dalmatian spots on it. Finally, she sewed the long oval "ears" to the spotted pillow case. Michael had no more complaints, and enjoyed trick-or-treating in his Batman tennis shoes and make-shift 101 Dalmatians costume.

After watching my mom make Michael's costume that day, I never approached the selection of my costume the same way again. Costumes are not just festive outfits; they are future memories and displays of creativity.