Studio owners and choreographers, do you keep tight control of your costume creation for all your competitive dance lines?  Do you spend way too much time worrying about designing, working with your studio seamstresses, buying fabric, overseeing the fitting of costumes, worrying about delivery deadlines and so on and so forth?

Many studios still hold everything close, causing more stress about costuming than with choreography and working with the dancers themselves.  Why?  

Maybe it is time for a change!

Why do you choose to spend so many hours fretting over costume issues?  Is it because of money issues?  Do you feel that your dancers cannot afford full-price costuming, created by a professional costume design company?  Do you not trust a professional costume design company to work with your studio and create stunning, creative and affordable costumes?  Do you not have a local professional costume design company that you feel has the talent and expertise that is up to your standards?

Let me make my case for working with Satin Stitches.

As I have stated before, I LOVE watching "Dancing With the Stars!"  I have been on vacation this last week, seeing the sights in Montreal, Halifax and Quebec in our northern neighbor, Canada, with my husband.  I was delighted to be able to catch this week's episode, and thankfully not in French, as I do enjoy the judges and hosts comments.  I wrote most of this blog last week.  My observations can be applied to any of the episodes.

Glitz galore!  It is so much fun to see how the professionals costume the amateurs, along with their partners, on each new week of "Dancing With the Stars."  The costume shop for this television show has only one week to conceptualize and then create all the costumes for the dancers.  Last week, there were ten couples, which means that twenty costumes were needed. Additionally, I understand that the wardrobe is also found or made for all the judges and hosts and any guest performers that may need them.  All these rhinestones, feathers and spandex EVERY WEEK!  We have deadlines nearly every week at Satin Stitches, but they are not all seen by millions on national television.

I love that the costume designers tailor each costume to the stars personality or style, for many different looks during the approximately 60 to 90 minutes of the show.  I also love that the designers have the challenge of working with all different body types and shapes, not just the cliche dancer's body.  Anyone can design for the Posh Spice of the world.  It takes much more talent to design costumes that flatter less-than-perfect bodies.

But, do I like all of the designs?  No.

Whenever competitive dance studios are responsible for costuming, the inevitable question that comes up is How do we make our boy dancers look masculine?  In my blog from last week, I talked about high school show choir and how much fun it is to costume these talented amateur singer-dancers. We also occasionally have the opportunity to work with male figure skaters and ballroom dancers, and entertainers such as Elvis impersonators, magicians and wrestlers!

As a mother of two boys who grew up around the costume business, if they had been involved in dance, I would not have wanted them to look feminine either.  In fact, when my son accompanied me on one of my many treks to a local fabric store, he asked me if I would make him a pair of basketball shorts out of a very flashy silver lame, that he saw in the store, his request made me a bit nervous.  At the very least, it certainly raised my eyebrows.  But my son is built like a front lineman, so I figured that, well, if he really wants to make a statement on the basketball court, I was just the mom to make that happen!

After all, it was me who asked this same little boy, before he had any concept of boy or girl colors, what color fuzzy, footed pajamas he wanted, and promptly bought him the hot pink and red ones, which he requested!  When you are a masculine looking boy or man, you can carry off the nontraditional colors or styles and still look masculine.  My son has always looked like the football front lineman that he then became, in high school.  He looks masculine in everything.  Boys also need a heavy dose of attitude and swagger to wear anything, and still look masculine.

But the right clothes will help or hinder.  The color, the cut, the fit, the workmanship, the fabric and the details will make or break a masculine boys dance costume.

I LOVE musical theater!  I love watching talented young men and women singing and dancing their hearts out.  Where can you find this interesting blend of music and choreography?  Possibly right in your local high school.  I am sure the popularity of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL on the Disney channel will only increase the popularity of high school show choirs, where all the talented girls showcase their skills, but also, boys are enlisted to join the ranks.  Of course all the high school music geeks join, and in the most competitive organizations, this activity is also popular with the high school jocks.

Being from the Midwest, and in the costume business, I am well acquainted with the high school and collegiate phenomenon of SHOW CHOIR.  Last weekend, I traveled to a national high school show choir competition in Orlando, Florida. FAME Events is one of a handful of companies that stage these competitions.  Satin Stitches has been sponsoring this organization for several years, including setting up our booth which showcases our custom work, annually, at a national venue.

Dance teachers and choreographers, this is an additional venue where you can share your expertise!

Color is an incredible thing.  Color can create a mood for your dance performance.  Colors have meanings.  There is a psychology to color.  Did you know that years ago, red was a much stronger color and was assigned to boys, while blue was considered a more feminine color?  This has reversed in todays color world.  This is just one example of how colors take on meaning.

Back at art school, I wrote a paper on color, for my fashion design class.  Unfortunately it was before computers were everywhere, yes, I am that OLD, and my paper was handwritten. I did not make a copy of it.  I received a high grade, but my professor LOST it.  It was the one paper I had written, for ANY high school or college classes, that I would have definitely wanted to preserve.  But no.  I really regret not making a copy, as it was lost forever.  But I did learn a lot.  I learned a tremendous amount about the history of our relationship to color, how color influenced our moods and how we feel, in the presence of various colors.

There might not be crying in baseball, but there is definitely crying in fashion!  There were some tears, some stomping of feet, some jubilation, and some dismay during the finale of Project Runway, this last week.

Did all you dancing fashionistas watch?  I love this show, if only to see what the designers come up with for all the challenges, always thinking of course, what I might have done, if I were in their fashionable shoes each week.

As a fashion designer who works in the field of dance costume design, I always look at all fashions as inspiration for dance costumes.  Are there some details that will translate well, for projects that I am currently working on, or will I just need to store that special detail idea for some future use?

If your studio never reuses costumes, do not bother to read this.  I am sure that you just keep your fingers crossed, that your recital costumes make it through all your shows, or your competition costumes make it through your entire season.

BUT, if you think you might be able to reuse your costumes, for a future season, here are some very useful tips for keeping your costumes in tip-top shape.

Many state high school dance teams are winding down your competition seasons, while dance studios are going strong.  But all seasons will eventually come to an end. So read this now, and save it to read again later, before you close out your year.

For the future, you can stretch your dancers costume budget by planning ahead, and purchase costumes that may cost initially more than throw-away costumes, but when you use them for two or even more years-they will be much less expensive in the long run.