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Buy Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins' book, Thoughts.

Julieanne Mijares: It’s been really difficult. I haven’t been able to do things that way in a long time. I haven’t been able to spend time with new artists or actors or anyone. I’ve had to just say no, because I’ve been so busy.

And now, to answer your question, it’s always a high pressure situation, where okay, I can’t think of anything. But then, all of a sudden, it just comes to me, and in my mind I’m thinking, I hope this will be good enough. I hope it’ll be better than the last thing. And you try and outdo yourself every time.

FF: I find when I go jogging, a lot of ideas come to me. Sometimes even when I’m doing a mundane task. Do the ideas come at any particular time? Or can they come any time?

Julieanne Mijares: Very often, I’ll be trying to go to bed to get some sleep, and I’ll be laying there and thinking and thinking. But then, some ideas will come. And I’m just literally losing sleep trying to think of something. I’ve gotten used to about five or six hours of sleep every night.

But other times I could be sitting in the car, daydreaming, trying to think of something, or it could be any place. But very often it’ll be at night, when I’m really, really by myself, trying to focus, or make myself focus.

FF: And then, keep telling me the timeline, back when you had hip hop artists calling you, various other singers, actors, and tell me how this continued along the timeline.

Julieanne Mijares: OK, the timeline. Oh! Patrice Rushen (an R&B artist, composer and music director --Gina) was the girl that I was trying to think of before. She was one of the first people. I think I did an album cover for her. And then Johnny Gill really pushed me. And then I worked with a lot of groups you wouldn’t know: new artists and people like that.

I did a lot of videos and photo shoots. And then I had the pleasure of working with Janet Jackson. After that, my workload increased a lot.

FF: And at what point did you meet TLC?


Julianne, rear, with T-Boz and Left-Eye
at the 1996 American Music Awards.

Julieanne Mijares: That was a couple of years later. A girl named Jessica Harmon at the time, Davenport is her name now, was their road manager. And she had been telling them about me. She wanted to get us together. And that’s how it happened.

We had a meeting, and a guy named Bille Woodruff, who’s now a big director, used to be the video commissioner at LaFace (TLC’s record label –Gina) at the time.


Julieanne and Dear Lie director Bille Woodruff
discuss the scene about to be shot.

So he and Jessica put together a meeting, and it was absolutely the best meeting, and the best chemistry. The chemistry between us was immediate. Here were these three gorgeous miniature girls!

I saw pictures of them, and they were in huge triple extra large men’s T-shirts, spray-painted with bright stripes, shorts that went down to their ankles, and combat boots -- all these wild things! And they were so creative. They had done all that themselves.

It was all their vision; all the earlier pictures and videos. They were so creative and so open-minded about everything. And they did not want to look like anyone else.

FF: So that was just perfect.

Julieanne Mijares: It was an open door to just anything and everything.

FF: And what was the first thing you did for them?

Julieanne Mijares: I think the first thing I did was the fifty most beautiful people with T-Boz for People magazine. I think the first video was Waterfalls. And then after that everything. The most beautiful people with Chilli. She got it the next year. And then all the videos, and everything after that. The press, the television shows, the award shows ...

FF: I’m looking at a picture right now that you sent me. It’s a beautiful picture of T-Boz in a black crocheted outfit; it almost looks like a spider web. It has sort of a bikini top, but it’s entirely woven ...


T-Boz on the set of Touch Myself.

Julieanne Mijares: It’s a jump suit. It goes all the way down to the floor. and I wish I had the full length...

FF: And that was for what?

Julieanne Mijares: That was from a video she did. It was a solo song called Touch Myself. There was another outfit in that video with a really long, long train.


T-Boz on the set of Touch Myself.

That was one of my proudest moments. I really, really enjoyed doing the clothing in that video. I felt so inspired, and she wore everything, and loved it.

FF: It’s fantastic.

Julieanne Mijares: Thank you. I appreciate that.


Above and below, Julieanne's Daybook
from the Touch Myself video shoot. Julieanne is in
the pictures above -- with T-Boz first, then seated
center next to T-Boz.

FF: And what gave you the idea for those two outfits?

Julieanne Mijares: The director of that video was Bille Woodruff, and he called me and said Julie, I would really like to see Tionne in a sexy type of look. You know, TLC usually wear pretty baggy bottoms and smaller tops. Billy told me he was going to have very graphic backdrops, almost Seventies retro: black and white blocks, black and white diamonds; a variety of black and white backdrops that Tionne was going to be in front of. And as soon as he said that, that’s what popped in my mind.

FF: I want to ask you also, just to jump around a little bit, about the beautiful, almost indigenous-looking costumes you’ve done for the new TLC video, Dear Lie. They look like they’re made out of suede. Are they?


TLC on the set of Dear Lie.

Next, a look behind the scenes of the costumes and making of TLC's video, Dear Lie, and the stunning futuristic costumes created for No Scrubs....