On Feb. 13, 1946, in a bungalow nestled in the Parkview neighborhood, a woman long accustomed to the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter lay dying. Julia Segui Alabau’s name was synonymous with New Orleans Carnival. Though she spent the last years of her life in her granddaughter’s home on Wilson Drive, for generations of New Orleanians, Julia would forever be associated with her famous costume shop at 318 Bourbon St.
Born in 1855 to José Segui and Anna Slattery, Julia was raised on Spain Street in the Marigny and attended the school run by Annunciation Catholic Church. Her parents were of Spanish and Irish origin, but Julia’s upbringing was quintessentially Creole. After her father’s death, Julia had to earn her own living. She took sewing lessons from Miss Brown on Canal Street, then worked as a seamstress.
At 17, Julia married François Atruz, a chef at the old St. Charles Hotel. The couple briefly lived in St. Louis, where Julia gave birth to her son, Joseph, and daughter, Rosalie. Widowed in her late 20s, Julia returned to work, becoming a seamstress at Joseph Alabau’s costume shop in the French Quarter. She and Alabau fell in love and married. Julia’s children, mother and siblings all lived with the Alabaus in the home above the Bourbon Street store.
“Women are just as able as men and can manage shops just as successfully”
Julia Segui Alabau
Julia designed and sewed costumes from every historical era and countless literary works. Because of her, Carnival kings and queens wore regal robes, and regular folk walked the streets on Mardi Gras Day transformed into Hamlets, Othellos, Macbeths, courtiers, jesters, clowns, knights and animals of all kinds. The Alabaus provided costumes for all the New Orleans courts and for Carnival balls. Mobile and Pascagoula Mardi Gras organizations also sought Julia’s services. In 1920, the Picayune asked her to comment on the season’s latest styles. “The girls are simply crazy about any costume with trousers, and if they can smoke cigarettes with it so much the better,” Julia said. The Roaring Twenties were in full swing in New Orleans, and Julia was happy to furnish costumes in keeping with flapper style.
Julia was widowed again in 1899. Instead of selling the business, she chose to become sole proprietor, a role she comfortably assumed. It appears she had been even more active in the business than her husband, assuming a leadership position in the enterprise as early as 1884, several years before she married Alabau. The New Orleans Business and Professional Women’s Club honored Julia in 1933 during National Business Women’s Week as a “feminine pioneer in the business world.” The organization believed she deserved recognition for owning and operating her own establishment longer than any other woman still in business in New Orleans. The Picayune covered the event and featured a picture of 78-year-old Julia in her shop, holding the crown of a Carnival king.
“There is no secret to success in business,” Julia said. “I sit at home and wait for the business to come to me. Sometimes it is good and sometimes bad but we always manage. Women are just as able as men and can manage shops just as successfully.”
The New Orleans Item highlighted Julia and her shop on the anniversary of her 50th year in business. Julia was not as optimistic as she had been the previous year. The Great Depression had a significant impact on New Orleans. Fewer people were participating in Carnival, and many revelers chose to make their costumes at home to cut costs. “New Orleans used to be the Carnival city all the year around,” Julia said. “People used to come into my shop every day looking for bright fol-de-rol for some occasion or other, but nowadays only schools and small organizations want to dress up.” She looked back on the past with fondness, saying, “I knew every year far in advance just who Rex was going to be, and I have fitted all the fine gentlemen who used to ride so proudly on the Mardi Gras floats.” Julia lamented that unless “the good old days” returned, she would likely be forced to close.
When Julia’s lease at 318 Bourbon St. expired in 1941, the owners refused to renew it. The country was on the brink of war, property was more expensive and scarce, and her business was far from booming. She had buried both of her children decades earlier, and her two granddaughters were not interested in taking over. Julia chose to retire after 57 years in the costume industry. The Alabaus had for a time done business in the 200 block of Bourbon Street but ultimately operated out of 318 Bourbon St. Julia had been a fixture in the shop window; passersby would see her sitting in a cane chair, sewing sequins on shields or gilding helmets. The shop where Julia’s creations had been sold for almost 50 years was later razed in the late 1960s to make way for the Royal Sonesta Hotel.
News of Julia’s death ran in every newspaper in the city, along with her obituary. Her funeral took place at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, followed by interment in St. Patrick Cemetery No. 3. She was survived by two granddaughters and three great-grandchildren. The Item noted that the “passing of Mrs. Julia Alabau” was “the end of an era.” Julia had seen her last Mardi Gras in 1941, the year she closed the shop and retired, only she had not known it. Because of World War II, Mardi Gras was canceled from 1942 to 1945. Had Julia lived only a few more weeks, she would have been able to witness the return of Carnival in the Crescent City on March 5, 1946.
Katy Morlas Shannon is a historian, genealogist and author.
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