There is a consensual hallucination in the ballroom community that the straps that show, like Scully's and mine, are actually invisible. It's a Known Thing.
You may also become besties with body tape. Just saying.
Do you order dancewear and shoes from overseas?
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There is a consensual hallucination in the ballroom community that the straps that show, like Scully's and mine, are actually invisible. It's a Known Thing.
You may also become besties with body tape. Just saying.
ProgressNotPerfection
Forum Master
What about the straps that go over the shoulders - are they invisible too, like the horizontal ones across the middle of the back?
But I'm a PURIST, dang it! If my dress has an open back then I want it to be truly an open back! Why can't the universe just fall into line & give me what I demand? I mean, it's bad enough that I have to endure gravity & decrease in skin elasticity, without dress designers making it worse.
(ETA: so...does this mean you DON'T want to get rid of any of your dresses?)
The bodice is the neck-to-hips section. You can choose whatever design you want.
Not all gowns have underskirts, but those that do have a poofy/flippy look to the bottom, and there's an inverted cone thing going on in the silhouette of the skirt. 99.9% of the time, those gowns are worn for International Standard, rather than American Smooth. (the other .1% of the time, someone is wearing a Standard gown in Smooth.)
I think of the skirt you see as Skirt, usually made of a soft, lightweight fabric. Underneath Skirt is Underskirt, usually made of a stiffer, but still lightweight, fabric, with a ruffle or something with huge circumference toward the hem. Both Skirt and Underskirt are finished with Soft Boning/horsehair braid, which is a flat, flexible, ripple-y nylon thing like stretchy, loose-woven tape. Underskirt's ruffle and all that ripple-y soft boning make the hem of Skirt move a lot if all you do is blow on it, never mind do a double reverse spin at speed in Quickstep (you'll understand one day, dear).
The green, maroon, and blue gowns have underskirts; the green underskirt is a different shade of green; maroon gown had a black underskirt; blue gown has a paler blue underskirt. Underskirts show when you're moving along at a reasonable clip, so the color shows, and is a fashion choice. Like so:
The red gown has neither soft boning at the hem, nor an underskirt; it is a Smooth gown. The skirt hangs fairly straight, and doesn't whip out until I make it move. This encourages me to make it move...
goodness, my legs are... solid
I have a useful decollete; might as well use it, so wide V/portrait necklines and bare shoulders. I have heavy arms; sleeves. I have a "spare tire" so I do not wear gowns that are fitted to the hips; might as well dress as the Michelin man. So: full-circle skirts, starting above the hipline, if possible. I am no kid, so no low back for me.
Oh, and hey - if you are "mildly horrified" that you have too many dresses, I'd be delighted to help you out and take one off your hands...how tall are you, exactly? After all, I'm in the market for a smooth dress....
Alas, I am at least six inches shorter than you. But you can get your own made for a Very Reasonable Price, and I encourage you to do that. FWIW, the dress changes EVERYTHING. How you stand. How you walk. How you present yourself. How you dance. Get a new one. And get copious advice before you order it, from people you trust. It cuts down on unpleasant surprises.
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Consensual Ballroom Hallucination covers these straps, too. They simply are not there. Invisible.
glue? whatev.
At present, no. Nor would they fit you. But thanks for the thought,
Seriously, getting one made overseas is not as scary as it sounds. Now that I think about it, that's how I found Dance Forums in the first place: googling "ballroom dress China" and a discussion here showed up.
kckc
Well-Known Member
THIS! Seriously, you will know when you have found The Dress. And you will also know when it is Too Much Dress, as in "no way can I dance up to the level of that dress, that will have to wait 3 more months".
ProgressNotPerfection
Forum Master
THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your detailed assistance!!! As you would expect, I am making lots of notes from these great answers. I am VERY appreciative of the amount of time and effort you guys are all willing to put into answering questions thoroughly and thoughtfully from newbies like me.
And I found DF much the same way j_alexandra did...I kept googling all my various questions, and realized that almost every search led me straight here.
And I found DF much the same way j_alexandra did...I kept googling all my various questions, and realized that almost every search led me straight here.
Ah... my taste overpowers my budget, most of the time. 3 months would have been optimistic, for me. I danced Standard for five years before I bought a designer gown with a designer price tag. I knew I'd have to live up to that gown. Teach was constantly ragging on me about letting the gown dance me, until he wasn't any more. Level: unlocked.<snip> Too Much Dress, as in "no way can I dance up to the level of that dress, that will have to wait 3 more months".
ProgressNotPerfection
Forum Master
My pro likes this red one! Halle-freakin-lujah! He also liked the emerald green and another similar style in deep purple. But he kept coming back to this one & finally concluded that he liked it best. He said “make sure you get the necklace too.” I told him I didn’t know if the jewelry came with the dress. He said it should, since the necklace appears in each photo. (I’ll study their website some more, but I don’t see anything about jewelry yet.)
scullystwin42
Forum Master
Usually if it's shown in the picture, it comes with jewelry. However please note that since he usually makes standard dresses, there might be surprise floats or more layers in the skirt than you want. Pretty easy to remove underskirts and floats though.
From your description of what he wants, it sounded like he'd approve of this one. Yay! You're not stuck with red, btw; they'll make it in any of the colors they have available.
The necklace came with, although I did not request it -- it's a perk, apparently. If you do get the gown in red 27 (that's the color number), and you *don't* receive a necklace, please do me a favor and take mine off my hands. I'll never, ever wear it, and it's taking up storage space. Nothing wrong with it; I just don't like wearing necklaces in ballroom.
When I ordered this one, I specifically ordered without underskirt and floats, and we had a discussion about how many circles made up the skirt (four, btw). Daniel's very responsive about requests.
scullystwin42
Forum Master
He really is, isn't he? I have never been disappointed. Still love my marabo feather smooth dress that he put together from watching a SYTYCD video i sent him.
scullystwin42
Forum Master
Bump. Anyone order from Jeravae? I know she's US-based reseller of several different brands, including Zym, but i'm looking at a couple specific items that aren't zym and wondering if anyone's ordered from her. trying to figure out the quality level. It's for a showdance costume, so doesn't have to be spectacular, but also looking for slightly better than rando ebay manufacturer.
kckc
Well-Known Member
Finally getting back to this, because, lo and behold, I just now had a lesson and DP just happened to have a dress in his car from Jeravae. (Background: she lives here in town now and he often borrows things from her for his DWTS events). She dances/danced at my studio and always had good practice wear on but I haven't seen her in a long time because a) Covid and b) she is majorly pregnant at the moment. Anyway, the dress he showed me seemed to be good quality, and the fringe didn't seem to be cheap stuff that would disintegrate if it got wet. I would definitely get in touch with her about what she has in stock and sizing, which is a crap shoot with any brand. The dress I saw was UDance brand, but I hadn't heard of it before today.
worddancer
Well-Known Member
I love this dress!!! is this your specific dress, is there a link on it from their website?
My smooth dress is actually from them, CleanPrecisePro designed it.
But I'm already over it even though I haven't competed in it because It feels kinda frumpy? I don't know. We'll see when I actually have pics/vids from the comp.
Editted: Ok I think mine is from Latinodancewear. Yours is from Latinodances?