Debbie was kind enough to tell me about a place in Millersville Md, but it's over an hour drive and I HATE to drive. :-) Does anyone know of a shop in the Northern Virginia area that has a decent selection of adult skating dresses? I know you can get dresses online but I haven't a clue how I'll look in dresses or what size I'd wear ( I wear 3 different sizes in regular clothes depending how they're cut) so I'd rather try them on in person.

Thanks.

Jackie

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

From what I've seen, from some of the brand name companies, many of the dresses run really small. For example, an adult large is often really a modified child large . If you are hard to fit anyway, it's best to be able to try them on (or go custom).

There isn't really any place in NoVa that carries a fair amount of in-stock Adult Large or Adult XL dresses. A GK XL fits about a ladies 10-12 I find, occasionally a Ladies 14. Capezio fits smaller than GK I think.

And if you've got a "womanly" figure (aka you wear more than a "B" cup) most stock skatewear does not fit well at all. Been there, done that.

I find that a Del Arbour Ladies 12-14 fits as good as any.. yes I have to call them to place the order, but the fit is good, and the variety is good.

You can always try finding a good fitting comfortable leotard and wearing a wrap skirt. You can find dance wrap skirts at most dancewear stores, and usually the Danskin outlet in Leesburg carries wrap skirts of several lengths.

Well, I don't know about other dress companies, but I've bought some things from GK. Most of their dresses generally run a little small. However, the dresses they make that are designed for older/bigger skaters are generally true to size. For example, I bought a dress at the Millersville shop that was an Adult Small, and it was part of a group of velvet dresses that seemed to be made for adults - the smallest size available was a Child Large. The store didn't have another dress that I was interested in so I ordered it from the GK catalog. I thought, "The other dress fits me fine in Adult Small, so that must be my size in GK dresses." Wrong. This dress was waaay too small across the stomach area (I'm not a big person - 5'0", 98 lbs - but I do have a little extra, um, flab, around my stomach) and the rear end.

I was perplexed, given that both dresses were by the same company and both were velvet, etc. But then, I looked at the catalog more closely and realized that the second dress comes in all children and adult sizes. It also had a shorter, more standard looking skirt than the first (the first dress had a longer skirt, what they call "georgette-style"). I concluded that the second dress is essentially a kid's dress that happens to made in bigger sizes, hence the proportions were a bit smaller. I mailed it back to GK and asked to exchange it for a Medium. And the dress fits just fine. GK, btw, does not charge for shipping on exchanges, although it did cost me to send it back to GK.

My conclusion is, that if the dress seems made for adults given the range of sizes available (and sometimes, although not always, you can tell by looking at the model wearing the dress in the catalog), it is probably true to size (I wear a size 2 petite or 4 petite in real clothes), but if it's more of a kid's dress made bigger, you should probably order up a size.

The only things I've ordered from Capezio are leggings and a stretchy, long-sleeved top. I wear both in Adult Medium (and if I saw these leggings in a store, I'd swear they were XS).

Hope this helps.

I know it's been said here before, but it does bear repeating: large sizes tend to be made for taller skaters, rather than rounder skaters. This is especially true of Capezio. I have a GK velvet long sleeved dress that is an adult large and fits me beautifully, except that the arms are 6 inches too long. No one really notices that the shoulders are too wide, as the stretchiness of the fabric covers that up. I also found that Major Motion (Motionwear) and Bal Togs are cut fuller in the larger sizes.

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I'm pretty large, but I have a lovely dress made by that Canadian company whose name escapes me (pause to go and look it up) - Twizzle designs. That, in a size LG, fits beautifully, or did last year (I haven't worn it yet this). I tried putting in a photo, but it was too large.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

How about a link to it, Annabel? I like some of the Twizzle dresses a lot.

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Jenly- yes womanly or curvy is an accurate way to describe me. I'm 5"1 and about 120-125 but I have a lot going on for a shorty:-) I saw some Del Arbor dresses online that I liked. I figured I'd have to buy a L or XL and then just take it to a seamstress, I have a good one by me at work. Annabelle, I also saw one at Twizzle designs.

Do y'all wear body leotards under your dresses to give them a smoother look?

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

I do occasionally, mostly for test or competition. What I've found works best for my test/comp dresses is to have a bra sewn in... either as part of the initial construction, or retro-fitted.

You may have seen this photo of it before. I don't know if it still fits me, though; I feel fatter this year, although I'm not sure whether I actually am.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Gorgeous! You look great in it too. Thought you were losing weight?

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I go up and down..... I still feel fat; if you go to Bill Papineau's site and click on "Grenoble 2003" you will see a very recent photo of me.....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

As coincidence would have it I was at Reston on Sunday for freestyle session and out of curiosity went into see if they had any skirts or dresses that I could try on as a point of reference. They were having a SALE!! :-) I actually bought a leotard and a wrap skirt (but you can see through to my leotard, is that a faux pas?) and a slip on skirt with attached panties. The slip on skirt is a tad big but it's not falling off and I like the square cut skirt with slits on the side. As I suspected I wear a L or LX top and medium/small bottom. :-) Still everything I got was 50% off so I only spent 30 dollars and got an idea (as far as Mondor is concerned) what size I wear. I will have to have whatever dress I get altered but atleast now I know where to start. It cracks me up that in street clothes I'm a 4/6/8 petite (depending on the item and cut) but I wear an XL in skating tops!!

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter