Your favorite Latin dress?

[TAK]

I'm looking for my first real (non-practicewear) Latin costume and have now spent hours looking around various vendors' websites, from rainbowshiu to Chrisanne, for inspiration. I think I'm getting a sense of what I want, but I'm curious--what does/did your favorite Latin dress look like? What was great about it?

If you have any costume nightmare stories, or if you have a fashion pet peeve you'd like to share, that would be welcome too. :D Just go ahead and dump all your feelings and thoughts about Latin costume design!

[etp777]

The only thing I've seen recently that really didn't work was one pro at AAC who had pailletes glued onto her dress, not sewn at all. She was shedding them all over the floor, and they didn't move right either. Definitely not something I'd do. Course, I hate the noise pailletes make and would prefer no one used them at all, even though they can look great. :)

Oh, and as we've discussed before, I would be hesitant of a fully fringed dress unless you have a body like a pro. And anyone can call me chauvinistic if they want, but once you start spinning, unless you have a really good body, a fully ffringed dress just tends to look bad, imho.

[danceronice]

Personally? I like fringe. My own dress is a combination of form-fitting upper body and fringe skirt, which adds a lot of movement around my hips. I don't like cowl-fronts, but that's a personal taste thing. REALLY hate the Jetsons-like bubble skirts, but when the wired loops are very, very VERY small they can add a lot of movement as well, so there is an upside.

[and123]

I hate seeing muffin-top, regardless of the style of the dress. I realize you need costumes to be snug, but.... :shock:

[_malakawa_]

this is my favorite dress. shows all my best attributes. :cool:


it takes time to see what fits you, if you don't have experience.

in ballroom i like corsets.

I'll try to put another picture, i don't have it know on this PC.

[dancingirldancing]

Sorry, what is muffin top ?

The only costume I dont like is the goth ones, bikini ones and anything too structured. I like costumes that flows and moves a lot with the body.

With bikini ones, well it just sometimes look out of place. I like a bit of materials flying around. But that is just me :)

[and123]

muffin top:

http://marvinlindsay.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b54369e200e5526ad8298834-320pi

[samina]

the worst is a *standard* dress with muffin top...

[chica latina]

Nice dress Malakawa!!.

I like dresses that are different and unique.

If you have longer skirts or tail in the back, practice in it before hand... since your foot can get stuck easily..:)

[mamboqueen]

Nice dress Malakawa!!.

I like dresses that are different and unique.

If you have longer skirts or tail in the back, practice in it before hand... since your foot can get stuck easily..:)

Actually, I like *your* dress, cl. Do you have any pictures of it fully?

[chica latina]

Actually, I like *your* dress, cl. Do you have any pictures of it fully?

Thank you mamboqueen.

I added it to my photo album, but dont have one that really shows the dress. Need to take it. It has long fringes but strategically positioned to enhance curves and shape. Also the straps in back are fully stoned with same pattern than the front and shorter fringe skirt on the back, so the movement will not look heavy... it has too much detail/stoning work to appreciate in a photo.

[kathyt cupcake]

If you have longer skirts or tail in the back, practice in it before hand... since your foot can get stuck easily..:)

Along these lines, if you decide on having an asymmetrical longer side on the skirt, I would put it on the left instead of the right so that you're less likely to hook it with a heel during jive.

I like some of the fringed dresses without backs-- then you get the hip movement on the bottom without the porcupine look on top.

I also personally prefer dresses without sleeves, it just makes me feel like I'm more free to move (that's more in my head than any kind of physical restriction).

[Standarddancer]

muffin top:

http://marvinlindsay.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b54369e200e5526ad8298834-320pi

this is definitely one of the worst fashion disaster!!! I can't believe people walk out of street like that:( don't they have mirror at home to check themselves out before going out?

thank goddess right now the trend is longer top, so our eyes don't have to suffer to watch more of these:)

[Standarddancer]

the worst is a *standard* dress with muffin top...

how could this happen? standard dress is one piece;)

[Standarddancer]

this is my favorite dress. shows all my best attributes. :cool:


it takes time to see what fits you, if you don't have experience.

in ballroom i like corsets.

I'll try to put another picture, i don't have it know on this PC.

nice dancing pose, but can't see the dress:( do you have clear front view of the dress?

[and123]

how could this happen? standard dress is one piece;)

Cut-outs with bulging flesh.

The only explanation I have for muffin-top is people don't want their low-rise jeans to fall off, so they wear them extra tight. Plumber's crack or muffin top.... which is worse? :rolleyes:

[mamboqueen]

nice visuals....ugh!

[TAK]

The only thing I've seen recently that really didn't work was one pro at AAC who had pailletes glued onto her dress, not sewn at all. She was shedding them all over the floor, and they didn't move right either. Definitely not something I'd do.

Paillettes...glued? I can't even see how that would work.

At a recent competition, a follower with a beaded fringed costume (pretty good-size beads) would send beads flying everywhere whenever she spun...we were sitting in the front row and one of them hit my partner right in the eye. Not a problem for the dancer in question, perhaps, but I guess I wouldn't want to do that for the sake of the audience!

Once you start spinning, unless you have a really good body, a fully ffringed dress just tends to look bad, imho.

Is that because the fringe sticks out and makes you look bigger...? My coach actually recommended fringe, and I'm average weight. Also, my current dress is clingy all over and thus shows a bit of stomach as soon as I stop sucking it in, so I was thinking a costume with a little more action above the skirt might be a good idea. Would it in fact make things worse?

[etp777]

Yeah, depending on how the fringe is cut length wise, shape of you, dress, etc, fringe can, as said by someone else "make curvy people look extra curvy". But it really depends on the person,a nd while I give business advice to mom's dress business, I don't do dress design. ;) So others here can probably answer better.

As to the paillettes, it really didn't work, so nothing to imagine. :) I can't quite figure out what was done, but near as I could tell, they were used almost like giant sequins, and just glued flat to the dress. Whatever, it didn't seem to have any movement, and it kept shedding them, so was bad idea all around.

[mamboqueen]

I really think it depends more on the body shape than size. I have seen full figured gals in fringe dresses that I thought looked very nice.

What I personally think doesn't look great is someone with a straight figure (no waist) with fringe all over. Sometimes having the back cut low or the sides cut out, or graduated fringe levels, can make the difference.

I think we have a few threads on fringe dresses showing some examples *whistles for TC*.

Okay; found one so as not to be totally lazy:

http://dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=21174&highlight=fringe+dress

[TAK]

Malakawa, it's hard to see much of your dress in that picture, but you look great! :)

CL, sounds like an intricate dress! Where is your "strategically positioned" fringe? I'm very curious about that because I've noticed it's easy for a dress with long fringes to look, as you said, heavy...for example, many of rainbowshiu's designs look incredibly heavy to me.

[TAK]

Along these lines, if you decide on having an asymmetrical longer side on the skirt, I would put it on the left instead of the right so that you're less likely to hook it with a heel during jive.

Yeah, how do you avoid this if you're wearing a dress? My syllabus costume was two pieces and my coach told me to tuck the longest part of the skirt into the waistband for jive. But you can't do that if there's no waistband! Is there anything to be done with a longer skirt during jive?

[mamboqueen]

can you tie it up?

[_malakawa_]

Nice dress Malakawa!!.

I like dresses that are different and unique.

If you have longer skirts or tail in the back, practice in it before hand... since your foot can get stuck easily..:)

thanks.

i had a dress with a tail. and couple of times i got stuck.

those are my favorite dresses.

[_malakawa_]

this is definitely one of the worst fashion disaster!!! I can't believe people walk out of street like that:( don't they have mirror at home to check themselves out before going out?

thank goddess right now the trend is longer top, so our eyes don't have to suffer to watch more of these:)

:confused: no comment.

Originally Posted by TAK Malakawa, it's hard to see much of your dress in that picture, but you look great! :smile:



i put pictures.

[chica latina]

CL, sounds like an intricate dress! Where is your "strategically positioned" fringe?

It's from a very good designer (so it probably took a lot of thinking and experience)... but I would say

Low back, and left 4-5 in of dress before attaching the fringe and (so hips dont look wider)
IN the front started just below bust line and had them in an angle (V shape). Also he didn't put too many in the waist area so when you stand waist still looks narrower. and he cut the ones in the side shorter than the ones in the front... hard to explain.

I've tried other fringed dresses that made me look very wide and this one did not.

[kathyt cupcake]

Yeah, how do you avoid this if you're wearing a dress? My syllabus costume was two pieces and my coach told me to tuck the longest part of the skirt into the waistband for jive. But you can't do that if there's no waistband! Is there anything to be done with a longer skirt during jive?

Depending on the style if you had a tail you could tie it in a knot or I've seen some ppl basically hang onto part of their skirt (say those wired ribbon ones) for a lot of their routine. I think designwise though it's a flaw to have too much material to get hooked on. Or you could have the skirt/tail be made up of those shreds of material rather than continuous fabric.

One random comment on paillettes-- I remember one girl's costume was all orange paillettes and every so often we'd hear this jingling kind of like loose change sound and then she'd walk by. I don't remember how she looked on the floor, but I remember that was a noisy costume.