These pictures represent the glamorous, peroxided roots of my costuming career. During college at LSU in Baton Rouge I became friends with two guys who were members of the Krewe of Apollo in Baton Rouge, one of the local Mardi Gras Krewes that hosts an annual ball and special events throughout the year. When they found out I could sew they enlisted my help making costumes and even occasionally brought me with them onstage, and this somehow led to a five year drag performance career. I spent all of my spare time during and immediately after college designing drag costumes for my alter ego Miss Goldie Lishiss and her fabulous partners-in-crime, Miss Sopheelya Groin and Miss Selma Pussy, who together comprised the performance trio "30% Mo Hoochie." Highlights of my drag days include hosting a weekly game show at a bar, hosting Baton Rouge gay pride one year, and performing at Jazz Fest in New Orleans. I designed and built a great many costumes, but for better or worse, this was all back before the rise of smart phones and before it occurred to me that I might try to make a career of costuming, so I didn't get good photos of a lot of my pieces, including some of my favorites. However, every photo below features a costume (or more) that I built myself, and every sketch below was made into a costume. A few of them even overlap! To this day those years were some of the most fun I've ever had, and I couldn't be happier that they led me to a fulfilling career in costuming!