One day a man came to my front door to ask me if I could make a gown for him. He was a drag queen, on weekends. His regular seamstress could not figure out the instructions to the difficult Vogue pattern. Someone at the fabric store sent him to me. He was told that I could get it. I took on the challenge. He went into the changing room and put on his padded hips and boobs. I took measurements. We made a deal. $200 to make the gown.
I studied the pattern. It was like a Rubik's Cube. It was not easy, but I figured it out in an hour or so. I made the gown then called him up to say I was done. He needed to come back in for a fitting. I was quite proud of myself for figuring out this complicated pattern. He tried it on and it needed a little tweak.
I tweaked it .
Then called him back to try on the finished gown and pay me. He failed to return. No email, phone call or text got him to respond to me.
A year went by. He owed me $200.
An old friend of mine got let go from his job at the car lot and he showed up at my front door. He walked in and said he wanted something to do, was there anything that I needed done? I knew he could sell ice cubes to Eskimos, so I thought for a minute and asked him if he could collect on this past due payment on the gown.
He asked me a few questions on who, what, where, when and how. I gave him the information. He called the department store where he was a manager and asked to speak to him. They said he was not available and could they take a message. He said yes, he had won a 60" flat screen and wanted to know where they could deliver it.
He called right back to the number provided. My number.
I answered the phone and he said was someone looking for him, something about a new TV. I handed the phone to Jimmy.
Jimmy proceeded to ask him if he hired a seamstress named Jana to make him a gown. Yep. Was he happy with the said gown. Yep. Is there a reason that he had not come to pick it up and pay her? Well, he just had not gotten around to it. Jimmy asked him if he could be here in just under an hour with the $200 cash. He said no way, he was in Dearborn and could not get there that fast. He said it would be a few days. Jimmy was determined to get this cleared up that day. So, he said that he was OK with that and clarified that he was indeed the store manager of a Kohls and was still in the closet. Yep. He said keep an eye out because he was going to deliver the gown to him at Kohls, while wearing it.
The dude was at my front door in just under an hour with payment. It kinda surprised me. I had been trying for a year and all it took was to "out" him. Jimmy knew what buttons to push.
He did however ask him if he would consider taking a check and wait a day or so before cashing it. Jimmy said no. He was going right to Super Liquor to cash it, as soon as he left. He said it was his problem if it bounced.
Then he asked him if I would consider ever sewing for him again. The answer was NO.
A few years later he was part of the Drag show at the old B-1 bar. I went in to take photos of them. I had no money on me. Maybe just enough for a beer. I sat on a bar stool trying to take photos of the entertainers. None of them would sit still long enough for me to take a decent shot. An old guy sitting next to me admitted to me that he was a cross dresser and saw the frustration that my camera and I were having. He kept handing me dollar bills to tip the dancers so they would stand still for a second. I was handing them cash and they still would not stop moving.
On the mid show break I went up to one entertainer that was sitting at the bar and took a real close shot of his facial make up. He covered his face and said, "Don't take any photos of me." I asked him why. He said that so and so in the dressing room had told him that I had tried to ruin his career over the non payment of a gown and he did not want to give me any good photos.
I told him that he had only heard one side of the story and maybe he should hear both sides. He listened for a minute. No one was ever going to "out" anyone. There was just a threat made, to collect a debt faster. It worked and I never should have had to go there in the first place.
If the man would have respected me and my talent and paid me for the work done, there would never have been a problem.
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