Anyone have a dress from RainbowSHIU?

M

Marzbar71

New Member
I found them online and was wondering what your experience with them was.

I'm trying to save up for a custom dress from a fantastic place here locally but I thought this might be a short-term solution while I save. I especially liked their 2-way options.

Can you change colors from what is shown on their site? I saw that you take measurements and send them in - were you dresses well-fitting?

I just found these forums and I'm excited to join the community!
 
Welcome to Dance Forums! There have been many threads about this dressmaker. You can use the "search" function here to search for them and get all sorts of information and suggestions. A few people here have ordered dresses from Rainboshui, with varying degrees of satisfaction.
 
WELCOME to DF.

(the RainbowShui may be a good temporary option, or you could get a nice practice set to use temporarily for comps depending on level)
 
Welcome to DF!

Yes, early on in my dance career I had a couple of dresses made by rainbowshui. Yes, you can customize them (or at least you could back then) color and size-wise. It's definitely a shorter term solution though - they are not great dresses, just OK. I think there are better used dresses out there that are a bit more expensive but a better quality even if they've been worn a few times, IMO. And you can do research and get your dress custom-made for less money than you'd think. PM me if you want ideas.
 
I don't own any Rainbow Shui dresses myself, but other ladies in my studio do. Yes, you can choose the colour you want (or design modification), and the ladies in my studio have had good experiences buying from her. That being said, I feel that you get what you pay for. The RS dresses are less expensive and sometimes don't have the same movement on the floor that other designers have.

My preference is to pay a little more and buy a 2nd hand dress of better quality. Better quality designs and fabrics will compliment your movement on the floor. If you're patient and shop around a bit, you can probably find a nice dress with Swarovski crystals on it for a couple hundred dollars more than a RS dress.

If you decide to purchase an RS dress, I'd suggest a design that is classic/elegant. The ladies at my studio who purchased more flamboyant designs were not as happy with the final costume as the ones who kept it simple. If you're feeling adventurous, you can buy Swarovski crystals in bulk and stone the dress yourself.

My $0.02.
 
Hi there,

I am just starting to compete myself and decided to get a dress from Rainbow for now. I'll get a better one when I'm at a higher level. I actually JUST got a the confirmation e-mail telling me that my dress is ready. I saw the picture and I'm very happy with it. My experience until now has been great. Rainbow gets back to you in seconds (literally) unless it's night time there (at that time, you'll get an e-mail saying "we are sleeping" lol). She is also open to answering any questions. I chose a design they had in their latin rhinestone dresses category but changed it up quite a bit. I just sketched what I wanted. Since I can sketch, I had the ability to do that but if you cannot, you can look through her dresses (even the plain ones) to see if there's smth close to what you are trying to ask for. She was very nice about the changes and even recommended a few options for the type of sleeves I was considering but never pressured me into choosing what she recommended. Since my family is from Hong Kong, she was also extremely accomodating in letting them pick up the item instead of me paying for the hefty expedited shipping costs. Also, she made the dress for me in record time since I needed it so quickly!

I should get the dress by the end of the week so I'll keep you posted on how it fit etc.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the replies. I'll read over all those threads and learn how the search function works!

etp - yep, I'm saving up for one of you mom's dresses! Someday.....
 
I had one that was already made and was being sold on eBay. After a couple of email exchanges with Rainbow, I got the dress. Yes, communication was very smooth.

It was good enough for me at the time. One drawback was that the particular dress had cheap Korean rhinestones that don't sparkle at all, so removed them and replaced with Swarovski stones.

One good thing about RS dresses is a resale. Since the original price is low, it's easier to sell. I wore it three times and when I put it on sale at my studio it got sold very quickly.
 
I've done business with RS in the past, and likely will again. She's very inexpensive, which for me, as a beginner who may never do more than one comp, is a tremendous advantage. You do get what you pay for: the seams are not finished like a high-dollar dress, the fabrics aren't top shelf, I've had to move bra cups, no big deal. Some of her colors are just great. A piece of advice: don't do the Korean stones. A friend got a dress with them, and they shed like crazy.

I also recommend taking your measurements very carefully and sending RS a slightly smaller batch of measurements. The first dress I got from her fits too loosely. Also, I ordered 4 practice skirts from her, and when they came, they were ALL 2" too big in the waist, not a random goof but a serious mistake. I returned them; she made me 4 new ones at her expense, but I paid shipping. She's very accommodating about design/color/trim changes, and she's very fast.

I have no issues with how her dresses move on the floor; you need to be a more advanced dancer than I for dress movement to be sufficiently important to spend beaucoup bucks on a dress. And for the price of an off-the-rack item at Camille La Vie, you get something made to measure, in the fabrics that make sense for dance.

FWIW, If I ever grow up and get to be serious about competing, I'll do something more/better. But as a beginner, RS works for me.
 
I ordered a Smooth dress from Rainbowshui a few years ago- it fit perfectly, and moved great. I never ordered a Latin from her though b/c I think that exact fit is a bit more important when you are getting something "skimpier." But completely satified with the smooth dress.
 
One thing I learned is to look for the color of dress you want on her website to make sure the lycra, chiffon, satin, organza, or mesh really match, and then show her the picture of the color you want. This may mean looking through hundreds of pictures. I just save the colors by bookmarking to look back at later. She has some pretty lace appliques she uses but they are sewn on in a very shoddy way. Be prepared to re- sew and glue them down. The same for feathers. I do not like her stoning and especially not Korean stones so would do that myself with real Swarovski if you can afford it. Czech stones would be my second choice. The hooks for the straps are sometimes sewn on incorrectly or pull off. Easy to re- sew and glue the threads. You can mix and match bodice and skirt from any dresses and even raise or lower the back etc. I find showing her a picture from her website of each change is an effective way to explain the changes. You can ask for the skirt in lycra instead of chiffon or satin or vice- versa. I would recommend you take your measurements tightly as she tends to make the dresses larger considering the stretch of the fabric. Overall, I find that she is very honest and eager to please. The basic dress is well made. She has it ready when she says. I am about to order some more currently for myself and other ladies at our studio. Hope this is helpful to you.
 
I have never ordered from her--and I'll tell you why, as a student on a budget looking for my first open-level Standard dress, I'm not considering her.

I was thinking about ordering from her until I looked through the photos from her customers. There is just something about her dresses that looks indelicate to me. Maybe it's that she tends to err on the larger side of the fit, or maybe it's the quality of the fabrics. Actually some of her Standard/Smooth dresses do look pretty successful, but I am really not impressed by the Latin/Rhythm dresses. It looks to me as though most of the Latin/Rhythm ladies in her photos are dwarfed by their dresses somehow. Again, I don't know whether this is a design issue or a fabric issue, but either way it does seem like a case of getting what you pay for.

I don't know what your level is, but for me, I am hoping to get to prechamp amateur Standard in whatever dress I buy now, and I know I want to feel great about my dress and not know that it looks cheap next to the high-end dresses on the floor. In Latin I have competed in both an inexpensive dress I felt so-so about and a beautiful, high-quality, much more expensive dress I really loved, and it makes such a difference to know I have "the look" and to get lots of compliments on my dress. I think it was worth the expense.

So I suppose it depends what level you are at and how important all this is to you. My $.02! But definitely make sure you look at the photos from customers so you can get an idea of how the dress will look on you.
 
When I started I also used RainbowShiu dresses. I was quite satisfied with the smooth/standard dresses however, I tend to lean towards classic lines in my dresses and darker royal colors. My dresses re-sold quickly to other beginners and make great studio show dresses. I never had a problem with the "fly" "float of my dress skirt and such. The agency worked well with me on the two dresses I had ordered. Just be sure of what you want, double check your measurements. The beginning students now wearing my past dresses look lovely dancing in them. (-:
 
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