Clothier to Kings and Queens

Mardi Gras Mobile Mardi Gras The spectacular outfits worn by Mardi Gras Royalty at their coronations are all hand-made by a very few local designers...designers who are truly highly skilled artists.

by Jere Hough

Published: Thu, January 17, 2008 - 12:48 pm CST

Patricia Halsell-Richardson is a psychiatric nurse...by day. After work she gives herself a little therapy...designing and then sewing clothes for Kings and Queens and their attendants. She says, "This is the way I relax..something to keep me busy."
And does she stay busy! Mardi Gras is close and it's the finishing touches on the robes for the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association Royalty.
Her crew of three: Mary Funderburk, Saunja Johnson, and daughter, Carla Lett.
Halsell-Richardson indicates a robe, "The Queen's family is all into music. They all play and instrument or sing, so her train is all about music....I wanted to have a piano, especially a baby grand piano, that looked real. I wanted it to look like it was popping out at you."
What did the Queen say when she saw the piano?
"She walked in here and saw this, she just hollered," laughs Halsell-Richardson. "She says, 'Oh, I couldn't believe it was going to look like this. Oh Miss Pat, it's just beautiful.'"
Halsell-Richardson got her start in this business twenty years ago when her niece was in that year's Court. "I made her gown and train, and everybody loved it, and since then, it's been up, up, up." She mentions that she got a lot of help from another Mardi Gras Royal clothier...Karen Thornton.
After about a month's break, Halsell-Richardson will start on next year's Royal garb.

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