Every Showgirl costume I make has a story. Eventually, I will be able to share all of them. This particular Showgirl headdress was inspired by a Bob Mackie design from Jubilee! (It is pretty much a knock-off, but real artists steal, so I am ok with that.) I did make it my own by making the actual crown part a different star design. But the rhinestone dreads have been done, many times, by many artists.
I made this video to share the history of the Showgirl headdress called “Bo.” First, I share how the original piece in the show got its nickname and how popular it was in the show for secret photo shoots. Then, the reason I made one of my own. I reveal the secret about the base of this piece and how much it weighs.
If you are curious about the making of this costume, check out the Inside Gazealous Studio vlog series where I share how it came to life. The series is a three part video series where I talk about the inspiration, the process and the stats about the costume in depth.
Costume by Athena and Phelyx
Video and edits by Athena
Hey there, welcome to another Showgirl Story Time. So, I want to talk a little bit about this particular crown. This that I made was one of the very first things I made when I was stepping into the Showgirl costume design area of my life. And so this crown is actually up here close replica to the Bob Mackie design principal finale crown. Funnily enough, I actually never got to wear the one in Jubilee, because it belong to another one of the principals. And she was very protective of it. So I let her have it, and I didn’t even, you know, try to borrow it some time for photo shoots. Actually there was a lot of dancers that that did get to wear it in the 34 years that it was on stage.
So this, this particular crown, I made because I was inspired to. I had found this chain. And I was like, I want to make a “Bo.”
The reason it was called though was because in the 80s Bo Derek was sporting her little, little cornrow braids so
I kind of I stole the front of the design and the name. So this is my “Bo” replica, and it’s made out of a Dollar store tree topper and all of this chain, and rhinestone. It was before my love and I really started taking time to engineer, some of the metal sculptures, and it taught us a lot.
This beautiful thing weighs 2.2 pounds, I believe. And it was just like, so satisfying to make. It took a while. But it was fun, and we, we were like “Let’s do that again!”
So that’s kind of how we like, went into the whole showgirl hat, design, and construction.
Becoming a patron of mine, you will help me bring more of my showgirl art into the world, and I have tons of ideas for Showgirl hats and crowns like this, and my patrons are helping me get there. So, I hope you consider becoming a patron. and I’ll see you next Story time. Bye.
I have plenty more videos in this gorgeous costume. Click below to see more!