Patti LaBelle eased into the studio for this shoot, quietly at first, with an entourage that seemed more familial than fabulous. Then somebody turned on Beyoncé's "Get Me Bodied," and Patti danced as if no one were watching. Star power is real, and everyone in the room felt it.
ESSENCE: Why wigs?
Patti: Oh, honey, I'm the original drag queen. For all my life I've been wearing crazy hair. People look at me, and they think of hair. They've stopped me in airports—"Girl, I love that hair. When are you going to start a wig line?"
ESSENCE: You approached the company Especially Yours?
Patti: Those folks came to me. They came to me years ago, but I said no-o-o. I wasn't feeling it. And then I realized who I was. I'm the hair queen. I gave them some hair ideas, and so far we're selling out.
ESSENCE: What inspired your cutting-edge designs?
Patti: I showed them old pictures of my hair, and they've captured many of the wigs I wore back in the day, the ones I got so many compliments on. The only things that we didn't do were the crazy updos, the fans.
ESSENCE: What do you love most about the line?
Patti: They're fierce wigs, and they're affordable. That's my main thing. We have a selection of 13 wigs, both human hair and synthetic. I can't do my own hair, so I have to have synthetic wigs because they don't lose their style. When I'm onstage I wear human hair because someone else is styling it.
ESSENCE: What else have you got cooking?
Patti: When I was a kid I used to make my own hot sauce in the garage. I would experiment with ketchup and hot peppers—a lot of different things. About a year ago, my son and his business partner started talking about bottling my hot sauces. We came up with three hot sauces, one relish and one jalapeño sauce. The products are awesome, and they're in all the supermarkets. The line is called The Good Life. Oh, and this fall I've got a DVD and a new cookbook coming out. I've also expanded my work with Especially Yours through my eyelash line, and my clothing collection is available through the Home Shopping Network.
Patti LaBelle's wig line is available through especiallyyours.com.
Prices range from $49 to $159.
