Sheila, Alexandra Hargett create magical costumes for Krewe of Okeanos

The Krewe of Okeanos’ Twelfth Night Ball transformed the Enchanted Ranch special event center into the “Court of the Enchanted Garden” on the evening of Jan. 8.

Ruling over the evening’s festivities was King Okeanos X, Wayne Kraemer, and his queen, Ann DuPont. Both Kraemer and DuPont have Mardi Gras history in their past and wanted to more closely replicate the costumes of New Orleans Mardi Gras for their regalia at the ball.

DuPont has experience in costume creation and history so she was able to create her own dress design, incorporating unique elements in her gown from past Mardi Gras balls that she attended and appliques that would match the King’s costume.

Kraemer, who teaches at Texas State, and has no costume experience, knew immediately who he would ask to design his costume — Sheila Hargett.

Hargett, now retired, was the driving force behind the Costume Design and Technology Program at Texas State University for 45 years. During those years, Hargetts designs appeared in over 90 University productions and in regional theatres across the state including The Cherry Orchard, Macbeth, A Little Night Music, The Tempest, Into the Woods, Evita, and Anything Goes. Hargett received five Kennedy Center American College Theatre Awards for her work. Her designs have been seen in local, state, national, and international theatrical exhibits and published in “Theatre Design and Technology” as well as Rebecca Cunningham’s book, “The Magic Garment.”

The process began in July of 2021 with an initial meeting including Kraemer, Sheila Hargett and her niece, Alexandra Hargett to discuss what the vision for the King’s design would be. Sheila compared photos that Kraemer supplied with her own research on carnival kings from New Orleans. Once a concept was conceived, Sheila sketched out a design for the king’s tunic and proceeded to shop for fabric with Alexandra. At first, Hargett was hesitant to take on the task of designing the capes for both the king and queen in addition to the king’s tunic, but knowing that she had the assistance of her niece Alexandra, decided to coordinate that project as well.

Alexandra Hargett has always been drawn to the arts as she grew up surrounded by music and theatre. She graduated from Texas State in technical production in the theatre program with an emphasis on costumes. During her senior year, she led a small team in constructing costumes for The Survivors. After graduating a semester early, she was asked to come back and work at the university on the musicals Guys and Dolls in 2020, which never opened due to the pandemic. In the following year, she used her skills for freelance commission work, until the opportunity arose to create the king’s costume for the Mistick Krewe of Okeanos.

The result was magnificent.

The King’s tunic has a gold metallic and white brocade fabric base. It is embellished with hand sewn beaded lace appliques and adorned with hand sewn rhinestones and sequins.

The creative inspiration for the two capes came heavily from the water theme of Okeanos, the titan god of fresh water and rivers. Each cape is 12-feet long and consists of several layers. The outer layer is white cream peau de soie fabric. On each cape, the 13 strings of hand-sewn pearls, sequins, rhinestones, and metallic braided trim and fringe were placed to invoke a feeling of a waterfall, joining together at the bottom in a splash of swirling foam. In the center of the cape is an embroidered crest surrounding the letter “O” topped by an embroidered crown. The next layers are quilted batting and the underlining is crushed gold satin. Each of the trains are trimmed in white fur.

The embroidery was done by Tony Martinez who met with Sheila to decide the size needed. The image was then sent to Brazil where it was digitized and returned. When thread colors were selected, Martinez’s machine embroidered the design onto fabric. It was embroidered in five parts. Alexandra sewed various beads, stones, and sequins onto the pieces which were then sewn onto the capes by hand. Sheila said, “Tony really wanted to work on this project and we wanted to work with him. He is a true artist.”

Hargett was excited to do the project for the Krewe. She had been out of the costume shop at Texas State for four years and was thrilled to turn her home studio into her home shop. This transformation necessitated buying some items for the project including a new sewing machine.

Both Hargetts found the project more challenging and time consuming than originally anticipated. “These particular costumes were complicated and required a lot of hand stitching and sewing,” remarked Hargett. Dealing with the weight of the garments was also surprising. Sheila added that it “took a little muscle” to deal with the size and weight of the capes. Alexandra is highly skilled in costume technology, so a lot of the intricate work was meticulously performed by her.

One thing that Sheila quickly realized was that while she was working at Texas State, there were a lot of artists working in the shop with her, and for her, so she was happy to challenge herself with this undertaking and happy to be able to spend time working with and visiting with her niece. Sheila also enjoyed spending time and working with Wayne Kraemer. She and Kraemer both attended LSU, had some of the same professors there, and have been good friends for over 30 years while both taught at Texas State.

On the night of the ball, Sheila and Alexandra were very gratified with their work and the wonderful trains that the Krewe will keep in its collection. They were rightfully proud and the Krewe has some beautiful trains to use for many years.

Submitted by Mistick Krewe of Okeanos