Anne as Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the mythological Olympian Goddess of  love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. When Anne and I began work on her ballgown for the USA Dance Amateur National Competition this spring, Aphrodite became our muse.   

After several years of stepping away from competition to earn a college degree while working full-time, and struggling with back injuries, Anne (and her husband and partner Tom, who also wears Made for Movement) were ready to return to the National arena.

Anne wanted an attention-getting, classical, and sexy look.  She tried on a few gowns and fell in love with one with a deep keyhole front.  We had done a similar (but smaller) keyhole in a gown several years ago which was a success, so with that as a starting point we set out to create a Greek Goddess look for her.  We wanted to include white draping and golden jewelry like that worn by the ancient Greeks.  Unlike Greek clothing, our draping needed control in the interest of not adding mass. The golden details were both perfect with her blonde hair and peachy skin, plus a subtle reminder of their quest for competitive gold.

 Anne and Tom's goal for this National competiton was to "make the podium."   Just like in the olympic games, the top three couples in each championship event take stands to receive medals for photos, and they vowed to be on one of the three podiums.
 
No color is as visible on the floor as white, and it is often a championship gown color as well.  In addition to the gold, we chose a range of cool cabochons in turquoise, sapphire, emerald and peridot green to serve as our precious gem representatives. These colors were derived from the Greek jewelry I used as resource material.  The jewelry was mostly collar, cuff, and breastplate shapes, and very geometric in character.  I wanted the jewelry to be a part of the gown itself to allow for large shapes that would move neatly with Anne without flopping about.
We ran into a bit of trouble with the Anne's keyhole.  Before one of our fittings I reviewed the USA Amateur Dance competitive costume regulations, a very large and complex document that seems ever-changing. I developed a concern that Anne's keyhole might be more revealing of "imtimate areas" than was allowed.  I asked her to get approval for the keyhole and took a few snapshots at our fitting.  Sure enough, the USA Dance costume regulations staff determined that Anne's keyhole would be outside allowed limits.  So we filled the keyhole with a large decorative white mesh, backed with nude mesh, and embelllished with stones.  Ordinarily, nude fabrics are frowned upon by the USA Dance costume regulators, but Anne got approval, in the form of an e-mail, for this solution and carries it in her dance bag at all times.  The impression is still sexy, although not what Anne had hoped for, but I was glad to be able to avoid a last-moment disqualification for her, which can and does happen.

All of the jewelry research I did led me in the direction of geometric layouts, and I used those ideas in the collar and both the front and back keyhole treatments, as well as in the cuffs and earrings.  I loved the great matte shine of this gold lycra and think it looks almost like burnished metal and works really well in the cuffs and belt.  That belt is really not represented very well on my little half body form, but on Anne, it stretches to a sleek and beautiful fit.  With layout help and prompting from me, Anne kept the cost of her gown reasonable by applying her own Swarovski flatbacks and acrylic cabochons and did a great job of it.

We also found a great piece of metallic gold crinoline to stiffen and finish the skirt hem that really adds a lovely finishing flash of precious metal.

I am so happy to report the Anne and Tom achieved thier goal, placing third in Senior II Championship Smooth, and I look forward to seeing those podium shots!  Congratulations to both Annd and Tom on a successful return to USA Dance Nationals!  Made for Movement was glad to be along for the ride.

Patty's Quest for Emerald

Sometimes, a color is all important.  Patty came to my studio in search of the perfect emerald green for a new Rhythm gown.  Ballroom fabric suppliers provide a beautiful vibrantly pure (and sometimes neon) array of colors in a variety of fabrics, but greens for the last several years have been more on the yellow side of the color wheel than on the blue.  And Patty's dream color was on the blue side.  She had seen Oscar gowns in this magical but elusive color and nothing else would work. I think she was especially interested because her red hair is a new adventure for this octogenarian(!), and she really wanted to feature and flatter her spicy auburn.  Doesn't she look fantastic?


Her friend Randee came to her design meeting and helped work out our design.  Digging through my sources and scraps, we found a piece of silk in the perfect color to order for the skirt, and a scrap of satin lycra in my studio for a sash, but the stretch lace she wanted for her bodice did not exist in that particular emerald color.

So, off to superb dyer Marliss at Iris Color Studio I went, with a sample of white lace in the pattern Patty had chosen, to see if it could be made the perfect color.  Marliss did MANY tests.  The netting and portions of the flowers were nylon and other parts of the flowers were rayon, and the two fibers require different dyes.  Marliss struggled to get a deep, rich, vibrant enough color in either fiber.

Marliss's first samples, close, but not achieving the dream.

 When she mentioned the greatest challenge was getting the green to be both blue and vibrant enough, I mentioned the lace also came in bright, pure turquoise.  She was thrilled with the turquoise sample I took her and assured me that we could go ahead with the gown and she could get the color, particularly since the colored version of the lace was all nylon.

But I had to convince Patty that Marliss would come through.  Patty mentioned that having a  gown custom-made is a scary thing for her.  Trying to calm her fears, I suggested that even buying dancing lessons was potentially scary.  Teachers can demonstrate what steps and styling go with an Associate Bronze syllabus, and you can see how the dance looks on the teachers.  But what will you look like, doing those things?  You just have to trust the professionals to do their job, with your best interest at heart.  The same is true with custom dance wear design, but the difference is, when you are finished with the process, you have a valuable, re-sellable product.  What you learn in a dance lesson program is with you for your life and beneficial in a multitude of ways, but you cannot recoup any of the money you have spent, whereas, most gowns are good for a minimum of 75% of what you paid for them when you are ready for a new one, and that is a better value than buying a new car.  Fortunately, Patty gave me the go-ahead!

The turquoise lace Marliss over-dyed, and the final, perfect result.

Marliss came through brilliantly, and we cut, basted, assembled and fit Patty's gown.  I am especially proud of the lovely cuff detail on the sleeve.

Cuff Detail

I am also proud of the beautiful pattern match I achieved at the center back of the gown.  Lace yardage motifs can be very different sizes depending on where the pattern occurs on the piece, and blocking two pieces to exactly match each other is a tricky proposition.  Adding a zipper into the mix increases the challenge, but this worked out beautifully!

I am also happy with the beautiful edge I created with the lace selvedge.  And the rhinestone pattern works nicely with the lace pattern to emphasize shapes and edges, as well as providing all-over sparkle, while still allowing the vibrant emerald color to shine through.

I'll add one final shot of Patty dancing from the Dancer's Studio Showcase event last night.  I was not able to attend, but Patty had many family members and friends there to cheer her on and kindly shared these images with me.  Congratulations, Patty on your beautiful new gown, and on your performance!  I look forward to our next collaboration.

Jane's Purple Volcano

Sometimes my clients want to change the image they present on the competition floor, and Jane was ready for a change.  Here's her first rhythm gown, which I thought looked very nice on her, and obviously had good movement as well.  It was not a Made for Movement gown, although I did adjust the fit for her.  I think it is playful and fun, and a bright, vibrant and visible color, all good things on the floor.  I also thought the bare chest and shoulders were flattering.

But Jane wanted a change.  Something more "grown-up" looking, and more understated and elegant.  So we set to work on a design that would flatter her body, and create the impression of elegance and maturity.  We started with a deeper richer color, and a more complex grouping of lines and shapes.  We softened the skirt, removed some weight, and used a more transparent fabric to feature her pretty legs, although we wanted to maintain good potential for movement in the skirt so used a similar volume of fabric. 

We also moved the focus from the center of her body to one side and  provided a vertical division.  We achieved this division in two ways.  We used opaque draped dance crepe on one side of the gown and sheer stretch mesh on the other side, as well as using different embellishment on each side.  We also found a bronze scrollwork applique we thought might provide a hint of vintage antique aesthetic to use a a base for our rhinestone decoration.

Decorating this gown was fun.  We chose a Swarovski effect crystal called Volcano for the scrollwork details and the sheer mesh portion of the gown.  Effect crystals are a different color viewed from a different angle.  Volcano viewed directly from the front is a pinky purple, but as you move to the side for an oblique view, it turns a green gold.  One stone, multiple colors.  This too added a mysterious complexity to the gown.  You can see the effect at work by looking at the bust area of the gown in this photo.  As we view the crystal headon at the bust point, the purple color blends into purple mesh, providing just sparkle.  Beneath the bust, where you view the stone at an angle, you can see the vibrant gold color of the effect, and as your eye traces the curves, you can see the transition from purple to pink to deep, bronzy gold. We used Amethyst crystals on the opposite draped crepe side, which are simply purple from all angles, providing lots of sparkle, but less color drama.  All of the scrollwork is embellished with larger Volcano crystals, and even some big sew-on jewels for added punch.  We did the embellishment work in stages, allowing Jane to decide how much sparkle she wanted to see and consequently, allowing her to choose the final cost of her gown.  Jane chose plentiful rhinestone embellishment, and was pleased with her decision.  We did not stone the skirt, wanting to keep the focus on the pretty shape of the handkerchief hem, and allow our eyes to see though the fabric to her shapely legs.  I like the assymetrical balance of this gown.

Since we were not revealing as much skin at the top of the gown, we opened one sleeve with a keyhole and embellished it with our scrollwork applique. 

We also opened a keyhole at the back of the gown.

And here is a shot of those lovely legs in their new skirt.

We do not yet have competition photos to post, but I have seen Jane's video from Wisconsin State, and both she and her new gown look wonderful. and move beautifully!  I think we achieved Jane's elegant new look successfully.

We are in the process of creating a new ballgown as well, and I am enjoying working with Jane again!  When we are finished, I look forward to sharing our work with you.