When the decision was made for RDH to make the new Rex Ball costume for the 2018 season our first stop was the library at the Historic New Orleans Collection to look through their archives for inspiration, followed by lunch at Antoine’s so we could peruse their photographs as well. (We have the best jobs!) With the year's celebration of the New Orleans Tricentennial, we wanted to honor Rex's long and storied history in the city. We were inspired by elements from various items such as 1971 Queen Pauline McIlhenny Simmons’ dress, a motif from the 1911 royal mantles, and the ducal from 1886. With this imagery in mind we came up with a wonderful new design for the appliqués and rhinestones that incorporated these ideas and played off the idea of the symmetry of the Rex butterfly as well.

We searched high and low, from New York to Los Angeles, for the perfect shade of gold fabric and eventually ended up custom dyeing a piece of metallic gold lame for the costume’s base. In the end the new King’s costume is adorned with approximately 26,000 Swarovski crystal rhinestones and over 50 yards of golden metallic cording, all hand-sewn in our New Orleans studio. Hail Rex!