Robe Rehearsal

The blisters and calluses on Andrew Justin’s gnarled hands are testament to a journey--the path he has taken en route to the upcoming Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans.

For a year, the 55-year-old retired medical technician from South-Central Los Angeles has toiled, sewing thousands of beads, crystals, mirrors, African ivory and satin to his Mardi Gras costume.

“It is like an addiction. You just have to do it,” Justin said Sunday as he prepared to don the product of his painstaking labor for a formal dress rehearsal--albeit in his backyard.

Mardi Gras Indians have been a fixture in New Orleans’ annual carnival celebrations for nearly a century, but Justin, founder and “big chief” of the Los Angeles-based Wild Treme Mardi Gras Indian tribe, brought a bit of carnival culture to Southern California.

The tribe is preparing to go to New Orleans later this month, for the Mardi Gras celebrations that culminate Feb. 24. Mardi Gras, which means “fat Tuesday,” is a time of merrymaking on the day before Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. On Sunday, in Justin’s backyard, he and his tribe offered a preview to family and friends.

In full regalia, the big chief and his entourage chanted songs and battle cries rich with history.

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Barred from traditional Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, African Americans from the city’s ghettos formed Mardi Gras “tribes” nearly a century ago as a tribute to Native Americans who helped slaves escape the plantations.

Mardi Gras was a day of settling scores between rival tribes from different sections of the city.

The clashes between the tribes involved a complex set of dances that lasted hours and featured outlandish boasts by each chief.

“I’m the big chief, I’m so cold. I can walk through the water, make the cold water shiver,” Justin said Sunday as an example of one of his own chants.

Justin, a native of New Orleans who moved to Los Angeles about 20 years ago, said the clashes between tribes are different now.

“It’s more about being pretty,” Justin said.

Justin’s 120-pound costume, for instance, boasts 1,400 yards of lime green satin ribbons, thousands of stones and beads, plumes and feathers galore, mirrors, even arctic fox skin. It cost about $11,000, Justin said.

“I am very flamboyant,” Justin said.

In the spirit of the gala in New Orleans to come, he noted that there are other Los Angeles-based tribes. “Still,” he said with a smile, “I am the prettiest.”