I need to get a new dress for current testing and such, so I went to the consignment shop, where usually there are some really nice dresses always available.
I walk in, its all childrens sizes. So I decided to go online and look. Why is every decent looking dress so expensive?

Any dress below $100 looks like a piece of junk from the 1980's or whenever.
I did find some i liked:


http://www.shareneskatewear.com/shop/current/ -very cute, i love almost all the dresses but its ridiculous how much they cost. especially with a reasonable amount of beading for a competiton.


http://www.sekuskatewear.com/dresses.html- these are simple and elegant but have some really cool colors, plus some pros wear their practice wear so it must be high quality.

My budget is around $150, but all the decent dresses cost double that if you get even some beading. Se_Ku is a little cheaper, but their dresses are really a little too simple for a competiton and I could only wear them for testing and would have to get a separate competiton dress.


Where does everyone get their dresses, in the past i've always gotten lucky at the consignment shop.

Anything you get heavily decorated is going to be expensive - you may want to buy a simple dress that you like and do the stoning yourself, or maybe one of the skating moms at your rink could do it at a reasonable price.

Have you been to the Skateweb site? This page contains links to just about every skating apparel company out there: http://frogsonice.com/skateweb/business.shtml

I got my current comp dress from Del Arbour - it was a semi-custom (my choice of color and fabric based on a set pattern) - and it was $140. But no decorations - I stoned it myself. Their stock and custom dresses are reasonably priced but anything with decorations is going to cost more. GK has some nice dresses and some have stones included - they are usually in the $100-$150 range (the ones w/o stoning are cheaper). Pros Edge Sports and Skatebuys (under the General heading on the page above) have a large selection of dresses from several manufacturers.

For discounted items, try Figure Skater's Resource and Dance Factory Outlet (a Capezio outlet), both under the Clothing heading - however, their selection and size availability is sometimes limited.

__________________
Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Yes, semi-custom is a good way to go. If I were able to find a dress that matched my program music, I would buy it from somewhere like Sharene, then glue more crystals onto it. My last dress was a semi-custom Watercolours dress that I ordered through River's Edge Dancewear (www.riversedgedancewear.com). You can put any skirt on any leotard and dye the watercolours skirt any combination of colors you want and it's surprisingly reasonable. Then you just add the crystals yourself.

Take a look at the current styles offered by GK Elite, then call or email the Down East/GK Outlet to see if they have what you like (or anything similar) in your size. I've also asked them for particular styles, such as long sleeved velvet, and have been very happy with the results. They charge actual shipping cost and have discounts of 30% to 70%.

__________________

Have you tried Ebay?
I bought my last competition dress off Ebay from a seamstress in Hong Kong. She mainly does dance dresses but usually has some that will work for skating as well:

http://stores.ebay.com/RAINBOWSHIU-d...rs-SUPER-Store

Here's a photo of it:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/canyon...&.dnm=2527.jpg

With shipping the dress cost me $120... not bad, I'd say!

Try http://imperialsportswear.com They have some really nice dresses, especially for testing.

__________________
- Ashley

You could try ebay stores called

KB Skatewear
Or Designed by Cassie Lou

__________________
Luckey

http://www.customskatewear.com/about.html


She is great !! She is making us a copy of a Tannia Bass dress that goes for 500.00 for alot less and its sized just for my skater.Sends mock up designs, fabric swatches , does research ect.

Hi

Im in the Uk so I dont know if things are different or not but do you have to wear dresses for testing? I know so far I have looked on line in many places and there seems to be very very limited choice for skate wear in the UK. There are a couple of web sites that offer skate dresses but even the most basic of dress is very rediculously priced. I looked at a basic one piece plain dress and it was over £70 which in my book is rather stupid. Ebay UK only seems to ever have skate dresses for the young child or a small teenagr, nothing for us average sized fully grown women.

I really want a skate dress but the prices of them are putting me off. If I have to wear one for the basic testing then it looks like I will have to save up and buy one. I do have a just above the knee black dress, very easy to move in and basically looks the same as a skate dress. The only difference is that its a little bit longer and doesnt have leotard pants in it. However this can easily be rectified by wearing a little pair of black shorts underneath. Im hoping I can get away with wearing that.

Andrea xx

Ebay is GREAT for all kinds of skating apparel. Go to Sporting Goods-Ice Skating-Apparel. Or, try this link

http://sporting-goods.listings.ebay....istingItemList

There is certainly by far more skating apparel on the American ebay than there is on the Uk version. Maybe I will have to join the USA ebay in order to get skate wear.

Another option I've done frequently is to get a leotard that I like and have a skirt added. Be sure to get the leotard slightly larger to allow for any needed seams. I also buy white ones and paint them, or dye them to the desired color. It's relatively inexpensive, and I get what I want.

__________________
Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Another reason why skating dresses are so expensive is that the companies that make them are quite small. Skating is like 5% of the big named businesses. Capezio is actually getting out of the skating industry. Mondor has a very small line this year. GK Elite specializes in gymnastics.

There is a lot of labor that goes into making a skating dress and skaters love sparkly or other kinds of specialized (read upgraded) fabric. Dresses with stones require hours of hand labor by someone who has a clue of what they are doing.

I understand that the prices can be off putting. However, you have to think of the folks sewing and decorating the dresses and how long it takes for them to do it. Throw in there costs for fabric, stones, industrial sewing and fabric cutting machines -- you are going to get an expensive article of clothing. I'd also like to throw in that most of the dresses you get in the U.S. are American or Canadian made (not factory made in unsafe conditions in a poor country).

Sorry for the rant but I am a dress buyer for a skating company and I deal with this problem all the time. There are a lot of really great dresses that I have to pass on because I know my customers will look at the price tag and put the dress right back on the rack.

What is the average/range of markup on skating dresses, in your experience?

__________________

Manufacturer suggested retail is usually keystone (50%) but for higher ticket dresses it can be less. Some vendors have minimum advertised price levels as well that you are not supposed to go under.

well I was wondering. i like many of the dance dresses more than the skating dresses by design, but they all have long dancer skirts. Do you think if I took a long dress to a tailor they could make it short like a regular skating dress?

I think it would depend on the skirt style. Flatter skirts would probably be fine. If the skirt is fuller, where would those ripples end up? The tailor may have to take it apart and remove some skirt fabric to make it less flouncey -- that is depending on how much skirt you would want. It may not be as simple as cutting and re-hemming.

You could probably have the skirt shortened with no need for hemming if you know someone who can do it using an overlock machine such as a Serger. It's a wonderful contraption that gives a finished edge to especially hard-to-handle fabrics. If you've ever used a wrap skirt made of chiffon or georgette, that's an edge made with an overlocker. Also many knit garments are made with an overlocker--the machine can cut, stitch, and bind the edge all at once!

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org