The Queen"s Needle is the product of the mad and marvelous mind of Monique Motil.

 

Monique has had a long and enduring long-distance love affair with New Orleans, making countless trips over the last two decades. She finally decided to relocate to her new home in 2019. 

 

How could she NOT fall in love with New Orleans, a city as nuts about costumes as she is? 

 

Surprisingly, while she has many years of experience designing and building professional theatrical costumes, her formal education was in sculpture and metal arts.

Maybe this is why Monique has a “build it to last” aesthetic and values craftsmanship as much as design. 

 

 The Queen"s Needle is fascinated by structure, and continues to incorporate that in her costumes. Monique understands the importance of a garment that fits, no matter how wild, huge, or crazy! 

 

Ms. Monique loves a challenge. She"s been sewing since anyone would let her on a sewing machine, and began her theatrical costume apprenticeship at the tender age of 14. 

 

She is the co-founder of Dark Garden Corsetry, which began in San Francisco in the early 1990s, and diligently spent time unlocking the secrets of historically accurate Corsetry, creating patterns from existing vintage examples and refining them to create a variety of modern silhouettes. She understands the subtle placement of length and width to create a “made-to-measure” fit for something as exacting as a corset, so imagine what she can do for your costume.

 

Monique furthered her “alternative fashion” education by working for a latex clothing company, and then became the Costume Director for “Beach Blanket Babylon,, SanFrancisco s longest running musical review cabaret. Think large, over-the-top sequined and super fun structural costumes. The show made the Guinness Book of World Records for Worlds Biggest Onstage Hat” 

 

Monique is equally at home doing detailed, historically accurate, film quality costuming and over-the-top, oversized costumes. Her approach is from her artistic eye and artistic training, rather than just technical skills on a sewing machine.

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She loves to inspire others to sew. Teaching is also one of her passions.

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Reach out to the Queens Needle for all your costume needs, and let Monique bring your costume fantasies to life!