On February 23, Cellink’s Blue Power mash band had the largest number of revellers on the road, an unrivalled dynamism and endless support as it moved through the streets of Georgetown on the way to the National Park but all that, aside the costumes were the real attraction.
The individual king and queen costumes, which were designed by Derek Moore and Rexon Williams drew gasps, stares of amazement and in a few quarters, total bewilderment as they floated along the Mash route. But a word to sum them up would be impressive.
‘Roaming’, the King of the Band Costume depicted a huge globe surrounded by a dragon, giraffes, palm trees, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Designer Derek said the idea was to show the international reach of the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph (GT&T) roaming service. He explained that the dragon represented China, the giraffes – Africa, the palm trees – the Caribbean; the Statute of Liberty – USA and the Eiffel Tower -France.
“I came up with the concept and went about creating a costume that would speak to the company’s solid image here and abroad. Though it was no easy work creating such a costume, it was fun,” Derek said.
The effort took a lot of sponge, PVC pipes, leatherette and a huge stack of Styrofoam plates. Derek said it was a long process, which took hard work from day into night. He said creating the globe was quite a task. But all that paid off when they took to the streets and the costume survived a downpour.
Derek said the rain came just as they left the Mash camp in Brickdam and he was a little worried about what would happen to the costumes. However, they endured the shower, the streets and, “are still standing”, he declared.
Though ‘Roaming’ did not capture the judges’ attention in the individual King Costume competition, Derek said, he was still proud of what he accomplished. He said it was one of his better creations to date since as the years go by his creative skills get sharper.
But one of his creations did win convincingly – his queen costume. It outshone the competition in the queen category with what he calls, “a peacock tail that was created to impress”.
The queen costume called ‘C-point’ depicted GT&T’s pride in the telecommunications industry given all that it has achieved locally over the years. The costume displayed a peacock tail surrounded by a mini-computer marked ‘DSL’ and two credit cards.
To get the effect of a real peacock’s tail, he said, they used over 30 pointers brooms (from coconut branches) which were wrapped with masking tape and then woven into fibre-glass.
“There was no way we could have gotten the effect of it looking real without the fibre-glass. After that we added the sequins and the sprinkles. It took a lot of patience and the dedication was there.”
Though the ideas were his and he was very instrumental in the costumes coming alive, Derek said, he could not have done it without Rexon Williams. He said Rexon played a huge role in the creation of both costumes.
After more than a decade of being involved in Mashramani, Derek said he still enjoys creating costumes that mesmerise. He said it takes a tremendous amount of time but the satisfaction comes when the costumes are finished and people love them.
Derek said the cost to create the costumes was substantial.
Designer Olympia Small-Sonaram was responsible for outfitting the Blue Power revellers. Onlookers raved about the costumes but some felt they showed a little too much. One thing is for certain though the costumes were hot and had Olympia’s signature to them.
ianaseales@yahoo.com
