editor: BYRON BECK contributors: MARK BAUMGARTEN, KIM COLTON, ELIZABETH DYE, KATRINA RAMSER art direction: ANNE REESER, JASON LANDIS style direction: ELIZABETH DYE photography: MARK KOHLMAN production assistant: ALEX VALDIVIESO stylist: GALEN AMUSSEN production: AMY RYAN, THOMAS COBB, FRANK ZURBANO, SAMANTHA GARDNER, TOM HUMPHREY, KENDON GRAY, SARAH BODEN copy editors: IAN GILLINGHAM, MARGARET SEILER special thanks to: RANDY CAPRON, BIRTHDAY BOY FRANK, ADAM AND ALL THE GOOD FOLKS AT DANTE'S

ALMOST A ROCK STAR

BY BYRON BECK - bbeck@wweek.com,

The Flying Garter Girls were the ultimate groupies with style.

Back when music mattered, around 1972, a diverse coterie of Portland gal pals formed an elite club whose mission was to meet the legendary pioneers of classic rock and roll.

Because they flew all over the country in the company of rock stars, they became known as the Flying Garter Girls. Other cities had similar loosely knit bands of women, but these gals were the stuff of legend. They loved music--and the men who made it--but they loved fashion, too. They dressed to look decked-out rather than skanked-out, and their style got these pretty, young things invited backstage at all the big shows, at venues like the Memorial Coliseum and the Paramount, to see the likes of Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Queen.

They lived through that time, but the funny thing is, they've never told their story. That is, until now.

With help from the one of the music world's most elusive living legends (the famous groupie who was the subject of Cameron Crowe's 2000 gem Almost Famous), I was able to track down a few Garter Girls and one of the only Flying Garter boys. We talked about their lives, their loves and what they wore to get themselves noticed. Here's an exclusive peek into the fashion of their backstage lives.

Camille Seamster, a.k.a. "THE REAL CAMILLE"

She was one of the first Garter Girls, and she considers herself the most brutally honest of the group. "That's why they call me 'The Real Camille,'" she says. She was also one of its most fashionable. "The best part was getting dressed," she says. "We'd spend all day pampering ourselves. Before we left the house we'd always make sure to have something on that was see-through, lacy, feathery or furry." Her favorite rock stars include Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger. "I have a lip fetish," she admits. A hairstylist by trade, Seamster, now 48, owns and operates For Heads Only, a Southeast Portland salon.

Zorn Matson, a.k.a. "A FLYING GARTER BOY"

Although Matson didn't fancy rock stars, he was smitten with the Flying Garter Girls. "I was their mascot," says the 48-year-old commercial photographer, remembering the days when he wore his curly blond hair long and always dressed up. The first night he met the lady groupies, for example, Matson was wearing 7-inch lime-green platform shoes. "They were really comfortable," he says. Does he missed the old days? "Fuck, yeah. I hung out with all these insanely beautiful young groupies, who all went on to become successful, beautiful, cool women. It was fucking brilliant."

Sandra (last name withheld), a.k.a. "SEXY SANDI"

In 1974, this 5-foot, 3-inch beauty made sure to wear 8-inch platform shoes and "lots and lots of glitter." "Sexy Sandi" used to dress in glam-rock style, complementing her naturally curly hair with fishnet stockings, low-rise miniskirts, midriff-baring shirts and chunky jewelry. For Sandi, those years were about meeting the rock stars she calls "the guys" and spending time with them. About her style? "I always made sure to wear shiny, red lipstick," says Sandi, who is now a 48-year-old retail manager.

Samantha Buel, a.k.a. "TRIXIEDOLL"

TrixieDoll officially missed the Garter Girl era, as she was about a year old when the famous groupies were following the music and flying all over the world. TrixieDoll joined the scene 16 years later, emerging as Portland's premier groupie in the next generation. She went backstage for the first time in 1988 at a Skid Row concert. "I'm a stripper, and my friend gives good head," was the lie she told the road manager. Even though she had never stripped, that didn't stop TrixieDoll. She always made sure to dress the part. "We'd dress as elaborately and sexy as possible," says Buel, now a 33-year-old aesthetician. "We'd wear Lipservice clothes from [now-defunct] Rock 'N' Roll Fashions, studded bras from [also defunct] Big Bang, and we never went anywhere without our cropped motorcycle jackets."