HELP! I have been dancing for about 2 years and am finally thinking about investing in a starter smooth ballroom gown for showcases and fairly low key competitions. I've been looking around at some sites, including this one, for ideas but am fairly discouraged by the prices and selection. Without wanting to offend anyone, I find the prices outrageous and the many of the dresses depressingly garish. Can anyone share some suggestions on either a good site to check out, designer to contact or other good advice to get me started. Thanks very much!!

Thanks for all the tips.

If you are in the same boat as me, check out Laura's website. She has some wonderful advice about sewing your own gown and also how to apply stones.

A couple more things...dig through the internet sites of various smooth professionals. Ladies are almost always selling their pro gowns, and I have found them to generally be reasonable on price since they are actually trying to get rid of them and make room for new ones all the time. These dresses might be a little high cost for you...but you might be surprised. Plus, you are guaranteed to get a quality gown!

Last...Chrissanne sells "practice gowns" very reasonably in a variety of colors. These well made gowns come absolutely plain and have very basic, classic cuts. Add your own stones and have a great novice/bronze gown.

Alene's gem tack is my favorite glue. It is "tackier" (thicker) and tends not to leach into fabric as much as some other brands. Also, it is dissolved completely by dry cleaning, so if you get sick of the dress but want to salvage your stones you can just dry clean it in a mesh bag. Voila, hundreds of stones clean and ready to reuse.


ChampionDancesport KC

That's right twinkltoz, there is a lot of labor that people don't realize. It generally takes me about 8-15 hours to make a dress, depending on if I've sewn for the person before and depending on how complex it is. And that doesn't include the time to glue on all the rhinestones. Plus there's the time for fabric shopping and fittings. The fabrics that most "name" dress designers use cost $20-$30 per yard, and you need 6-10 yards or more per dress. And then there's rhinestones: even a starter dress would have at least 10 gross on it (more like 20 gross), which is another $7.50 per gross plus probably two hours of labor to stick them on (figure 5 gross per hour). Add in notions (thread, elastic, interfacing, drafting materials, hooks and eyes) and wear-and-tear on the sewing machine and the materials costs add up too.

People are very used to buying clothes made in third-world countries where the labor component of the price is extremely small. Of course a piece of clothing made somewhere that you only have to pay the workers $1/day is going to cost a lot less than if it's made in a place where you have to pay the workers $40/day minimum. Wedding dress seamstresses bill at $35/hour and more.

That said, I do think some people over-price their used dresses. My rule of thumb is that I take 10% off every time I wear the dress. I generally sell my dresses after I've worn them four or five times. Lonnie, who runs a ballroom consignment store, has said that you can't get emotionally attached to a dress when you go to price it for resale: it's just fabric in the end, so give it a price it will actually sell for. Personally, I would never spend much more than 50% of the new price for a used dress, unless it's a special circumstance where it was only worn once. And I don't mean once in a 5-round event, but for like one or two rounds and that was it.

I have several dreses for sale in your price range, but unfortunately they are sized 12-14 and so are way too big for you. It's quite difficult to alter a dress from a 12-14 down to about an 8, so I'm not even going to tempt you with my offerings.

Have you tried the for sale section on the website dancesportuk.com - many dresses are at or below $500 and are quite tasteful!

Definately try Ebay. Search for "ballroom dress" and set it up to email you the new listings.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by championdancesportKC:
A best bet for first time dancers...buy a dress "off the rack" and alter it yourself or have it altered."

I've found some great simple dresses at www.coldwatercreek.com Check out item ZR2-9523 (on sale!), or A01945.
For example, I got a black dress with an 8 panel skirt--I added blue and silver beads to the neckline and at points on the skirt--looked great!

Re: putting on stones. What's the best glue and method to use?

A best bet for first time dancers...buy a dress "off the rack" and alter it yourself or have it altered. Go to a comp or two and look at the basic makeup of a smooth gown. For novice to lower bronze levels you can use dresses purchased at Dillard's, Cache, Lord and Taylor etc. Try to get something in a stretch material...the toughest is to get enough skirt. Don't worry, you can always "cut in" some material to the skirt seams, but don't even try to match the existing fabric, go for a complimentary fabric.

Rhinestones can be had at a wide range of prices. There's a great store in LA which is well stocked. Learn how to apply your own stones. It's easy and cuts labor cuts significantly. Get a lot of small stones rather than a few big (30ss or bigger).

Good luck!!

M

I am in Nova Scotia Canada
and I am trying to sell some Ballroom Dance Dresses and possibly a tail
suit.

The dresses are all very well made...

You can have a look at the pictures and descriptions at
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/michelle000/dancedresses/gowns.htm

If you are interested we would sell all dresses together or separately.

Thanks
Michelle Saulnier

Update - I successfully purchased a gown from e-bay and would definitely recommend looking at that option. I found that a lot of good designers sell new, good quality gowns on e-bay for ridiculously low prices. My dress arrived without a hitch and fit perfectly! One other nice thing about e-bay because of the feedback and paypal features you know you are dealing with and it takes out the risk of transacting over the net with a stranger. Thanks again for all the suggestions.