When Arlene King walked into The Parade Company’s offices back in the early 1980s, she was just looking to apply for a part-time seamstress job a friend told her was available.
She’s not part-time any more.
More than four decades later King, who grew up on Detroit’s northwest side and graduated from Chadsey High School, is the Costume Director for The Parade Company, in charge of creating, sewing, repairing, cleaning and otherwise coordinating the hundreds of individualized costumes worn by those marching in America’s Thanksgiving Parade.
And after working with her four-person team and scores of volunteers for so long, King wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love the energy that’s here, the people that are here,” said King whose daughter, ironically, now works with her part-time. “We have a great team. We all work together. It makes you feel really nice when you see the kids, even the adults, you see the smiles on their face and see them just being happy. It’s just great.”
While she started in a part-time position, the job for which she’s currently responsible couldn’t possibly be done on a part-time basis. King is responsible for making sure the inventory of costumes for everyone who marches in the parade are clean, repaired and maintained.
And that’s a lot of costumes, considering she and her team have to outfit everyone walking with a float in the parade, along with the 200 or so members of the Distinguished Clown Corps, the 40-year-old band of parade ambassadors who walk the parade, passing out beads and smiles to the million or so people lining the route.
The 2024 parade, she points out, will have six new floats, each with somewhere between 25-40 marchers accompanying it. They don’t have to construct all of the costumes, but they have to make sure they’re ready.
“We cut them out … the majority of the floats have at least 20 to 25, maybe 40 costumes around the float,” King explained. “So we usually make them. Some we may purchase then add to them, but the majority we make from start to finish.”
King, who with her husband, Richard, has three children, six grandchildren and one great-grandson, talked with Corp! Magazine about the parade and her career:
Corp! Magazine: So, do you have to hand-make all those costumes?
Arlene King: We may not make all of them, but we’rne going to make sure they have 200 costumes. We may add to the costume. We may purchase something and then add to it, change it around. Plus we do the Distinguished Clowns. We have different groups when it comes to Distinguished Clowns. We have a first year, fifth year, 10 year, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35. And this year we have at least 40 new clowns.
Corp!: How does that process work?
King: We start from measurement. We measure them. They choose their fabric, their hats, their collars, and they’re all one-of-a-kind. You never see the same costume.
Corp!: When do you get started?
King: The team usually comes in starting in August, and they come in and help out. And then we have tons of volunteers who come in and help us, too. We have to make sure every float has a marcher around the float. So we make sure that we have the right costume, the right look.
Corp!: And who decides what the right look is?
King: The team — Jessica, Carol, Ann and Sarah – and Tony (Michaels, CEO of The Parade Company, and we have an artist who does the artwork. Then we have a meeting and then we decide what look we want to go around that float.
Corp!: And what might influence that decision? How do you go about deciding what look?
King: Well, it depends on the characters on the float. Say they have elves or Christmas trees or something like that, I would try to stay with the theme of the float.
The majority of everybody in the parade has some type of costume they want. It may be just a jacket or a costume or a fleece jacket or something. But we try to stay coordinated, have a certain look. We don’t want just anybody coming in with blue jeans on. No one can wear blue jeans, no blue jean jackets, no caps with logos on. We try to have a theme and a really neat look.
Corp!: What keeps you doing this for 41 years? You must love it.
King: I love the energy that’s here, the people who are here. We have a good, great team. We all work together. It’s just great. And it makes you feel really nice when you see the kids, even the adults, you see the smiles on their face and just being happy.
Corp!: What is your responsibility on parade day? Do you walk the parade?
King: Oh no, I stay inside. I have to make sure that the people in the parade have their costume on right, that they don’t have anything hanging out like a jacket or the wrong layers up under there. We have a certain look that we try to keep and we make sure that they have the right things on. I’m there at 4:30 in the morning and we leave about p.m. That’s my day. After that, I go home and I may take a nap (laughs).
Corp!: When do you get started on all these costumes? What’s the process and how long does it take you?
King: We start right after the parade. We start washing the costumes, doing inventory. It takes me until April to completely repair and clean the costumes, because we go through custom cases. Once we do the inventory, we start maybe in June, and then we start looking at the artwork and see what we’re going to do for that parade and get the list of the sponsorships and start on our clowns.
Corp!: Do you have to measure everybody who wears these costumes or are they sort of one size fits all?
King: Well, they’re basically oversized costumes, so they can do layers. But we do measure. We want that look because some people may wear a jacket up under, you still want that nice look, but mostly everybody has to come in for a fitting. We usually start our fittings in September and it goes up until a couple of days before the parade.
Corp!: How did you get this job?
King: One of my neighbors was telling me they were looking for a seamstress. And I came in for a part-time job. My kids were in high school and my youngest was 8. And I wanted a part-time job. My husband was in the service. I came in and filled out the application and she hired me on the spot. And then after that I was hired full time. And I’ve been here ever since.
Corp!: Did you have a seamstress background when they hired you?
King: I went to Chadsey High School, and I took trade sewing there. I don’t have a degree or anything like that. I’m self-taught.
Corp!: Did you think when they hired you 41 years ago, 41 years later, you’d still be here?
King: No, because when I started, I was supposed to be part-time. I was supposed to be working Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And then I … started working full time. But when I just started, I wanted to work part-time. I wanted to be home with the kids. But then I got hired and I liked the job. They hired me full-time maybe three years later.
Corp!: What do you like best about the job? What keeps you coming back for 41 years?
King: The people I work with. And I like the Distinguished Clowns. I like doing their costumes because each one is different and I just enjoy talking to them when they’re trying to pick up their fabric. I really like it here.
