Keeping costume in place

[RoaringSkates]

Those who watched the dance at Nationals know about Melissa Gregory's difficulty keeping her costume up. I felt so bad for her.

I wondered if anyone here had similar problems keeping their costume in place, and what strategies are used to keep the costume from shifting during the competition.

In theater, many actresses use toupee tape to keep their scanty costumes on during performance. It allows you to move without the costume slipping, and it works even if you sweat.

I've heard of women in beauty pagents using hairspray (Aqua Net, to be precise) to keep their swimsuits from riding up.

[luna_skater]

Double-sided carpet tape is what my synchro team used to use to keep dresses in place.

[jenlyon60]

It's also very important (and I learned this the hard way) to wear the costume at at least one practice doing the entire program or dance, before the competition.

This helps ensure you know HOW the costume is going to behave. Does it pull differently than you expected? Do the trunks ride up into wedgy-land (and if you can't do anything about that...please wear flesh-tone undies or go without..)? Does the bodice slide down? Do the straps stay on the shoulders? If you've got a chest, does the dress (and associated unders) provide adequate support AND do you have to worry about the bra straps showing (another UGH...it's not that difficult to cut up a bra and sew it into the front of a dress)?

In my case, I had worn the dress before, for a Tango. But not for competing an American Waltz. I got out there, and we started the warm-up run-through of the AW, and the skirt of the dress swung so much as I did the intro-3 and first back swing, that it distracted me. And it still distracted me a bit in the actual dance. But...my coach and I both remembered it to the degree that when I told him I was getting a new competition dress made, he made me swear I would wear it at a practice session well before the first test or competition.

[skaternum]

I couldn't believe a skater who's been on the scene that long would have such a problem. Everybody knows the rules: skate in the costume at least once before the event; don't cut the bodice too low or too narrow (be conservative); use double sided tape; use flesh-colored opaque fabric to fill in if you really want it cut low or narrow.

I had a dress once that was a "crop" style. The velvet bodice was cut straight across right above the breasts, then same-colored illusion made the sleeves and rest of the top. I tried out spirals and jumps, etc. at home and found out the velvet part crept a *little* too low. So I had an extra strip of fabric sewn in above the velvet. A little pre-planning saved me a lot of shame!

I'm pretty conservative with my dresses, though, so I rarely have this problem. I always wear long sleeves and non-fussy necklines.

[RoaringSkates]

I'm with you. To prevent undies from showing, back in gymnastics we (ahem) didn't wear them. The same goes for skating, in my opinion. If they must be worn, a flesh colored dance body suit or brief would be better.

Unfortunately for Missy, I believe she'd worn the costume before and didn't have this problem. I think either the fabric or the straps must have stretched out a bit, and suddenly, during the warm up - !

Since skating costumes at the elite level have been getting skimpier, I've been wondering for a while how they stay in place.

[dbny]

Originally posted by RoaringSkates
Since skating costumes at the elite level have been getting skimpier, I've been wondering for a while how they stay in place.

Costumes at the elite level have gotten just plain ridiculous, IMO, and I find little sympathy for the problems of keeping them in place. I have seen a few skating dresses listed on ebay with the come on of "this dress won gold." I have the feeling that some skaters actually think a flashy, bizarre, skimpy etc dress will count as much as their skating. To put the lie to that one, just take a look back at S&P's Oly lp. I think the one reason so many of the dance costumes have gotten so crazy is that the dancers themselves have no clue what they are supposed to be doing out there: dancing on ice to the music. If you don't understand the relationship of your dance to your music, you have little chance of understanding what your costume should be. End of rant.

[skaternum]

Originally posted by dbny
Costumes at the elite level have gotten just plain ridiculous, IMO, and I find little sympathy for the problems of keeping them in place.

Preach it, sister!! ITA. I often use pictures of elite skaters as my desktop wallpaper and screensaver, but I'm too ashamed to use pictures of ice dancers. First of all, I'd probably get sued for sexual harrassment. Second of all, the Taste Police would probably give me a citation. Some of those ensembles are preposterous!

At a Nationals-watching party last weekend, one of the attendees commented that So-and-So must want to be a plumber because of the amount of butt crack showing. That dress was open all the way down to China. (Not to mention dripping with glittery crap. Ooh, and the hair. Gawd!) And they wonder why people don't consider ice dancing a sport!?