Fashioning Bay St. Louis Arts

Carter Church (right) looks on as members of the Jambalaya Vaudeville Tour try on some of his lavish costumes.

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, April 22 – Before the eye of Katrina passed over this place eight months ago, this town was primarily known as a place where the arts culture of New Orleans took refuge by the sea.

Bay St. Louis was populated by a creative, colorful and conscientious community, always ready to explode into an artistic passion at the drop of a paintbrush or sewing needle. One of its most passionate residents remains Carter Church, who lives in what seems like a large FEMA trailer in present-day Bay St. Louis, but this pre-fab structure that houses his workshop survived Katrina far better than his own home. Flood water crept into the workshop, but there was no damage to the costumes that have draped the famous and fashioned Mardi Gras unlike anything else. Church has become known as the "costumer of Mardi Gras."
Katrina did diminish the call for costumes for this year's restrained celebration. But Church's artistry continues to pour out designs that will flavor Mardi Gras celebrations for years to come.
On a wooden workbench, books are filled with designs for costumes that have brought Mardi gras royalty back to the ruffles and flourishes of an era dozens of major hurricanes ago. The costumes have won Church rewards from Mardi Gras officials and have brought attention from movie stars like Carol Channing. Channing who who has made a career of modeling some of the most exquisite turn of the 19th/20th Century fashions in movies and on Broadway relied on Church to recreate pieces for her wardrobe.
Recently, Church’s creations traveled to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, as part of an exhibition to highlight the work of Bay St. Louis artists. Artists are independent contractors who earn a living only when they are able to sell their work. Old Town Bay St. Louis before Katrina was the marketplace for residents of New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities to buy local art. In the immediate future, the market here will be closed and artists will need to find new venues. Already, communities in Minnesota and Port Townsend, Washington have brought art treasures back to local galleries to support Bay St. Louis artists.
If there is a Mardi Gras celebration at the Clinton Library next year, you can blame Carter Church.