Ha, he would look like an angel (well almost) tell him not to worry, my DH has a bald patch also, in fact when I loose him in the supermarket I just look for a familiar bald patch as they are all slightly different.

And very lovely they are too.

OH YEA! Could never afford such luxuries as a kid and probably would have been to self-conscious to be too dressed up but boy did that change in my "old age"! I consider competition to be a performance and I wouldn't dream of skating a new program in a dress that has been seen before.

I know I am extravagant but Nationals is the high point of the year for me and each year has been a new program (or, for this year, TWO new programs). I have my dresses (or costumes) custom made specifically to suit each program and try to keep them (and the program) under wraps until Nationals. After that, the program and the dress will likely show up at local competitions.

One day, when I have a closet full of beautiful skating costumes I may consider reusing a dress. In the mean time, I am enjoying debuting a new creation each time, and no, I am NOT considering a Peacock costume! LOL!

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Yes i think its over the top

Most skaters do only one dress per season. And one dress per routine/season. Sometimes that routine lasts longer than one season. And on top of that I have had beautiful custom made dresses for my dd and they havent been over 75.00 And they are covered in sparkles. I would research ebay a little more. You can find such great deals and then possibly even buy something and then use a premade dress and alter it a bit or spice it up to have its own unique flare.

That is the general consensus (and I make sure I keep each program for two years and skate 5 competitions a year just to amortize the exhorbitant cost of the dress). However, you are the only one who knows your budget, so if you can afford it and if the dressmaking part is as fun as the skating, then why the heck not?

On the other hand, if you love making dresses but can't really afford it, have you considered making dresses for other skaters instead, for money?

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I had my Yanni dress for over FOUR years. Then again, I haven't skated that program a lot (like once a year!!!) not to mention that there was a 2-3 year period I didn't compete at all and by the time I got back into competing with the Yanni program again that primary coach had to change the ENTIRE choreography to fit "my newly acquired power and flow."

The only reason I changed my FS program was b/c my Yanni program was on cassette and USFSA said that from 2007 on, Sectionals and Nationals will only accept CD's. (Talk about ancient, huh?) I still don't think I've competed enough of my Yanni program to offset the cost of the dress!!!

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Well, i'm the cheapskate in the group, using LOTS of creativity...

But, this was my year to splurge; i ordered one Cinderella type dress for "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" - i just did it on a whim, hoping it wasn't too corny, and got HUGE compliments! Yeah!

And i wanted a deep red dress, and first, bought the fabric, and then had someone make it. It probably cost upward of $200, but i figured after 10 years of skating, it was my treat.

I am always looking for unique ideas, from the internet to the thrift store... i recently picked up a great seafoamy green evening gown covered with sequins (it really is fabric that looks like sequins). It is a halter top and i'm going to get it cut off short and maybe do a fun Artistic one to it "These Boots are Made for Walkin'" -perhaps....

I get my inspiration from dresses, music, thrift store.....
And i never get bored! That way most of my money goes for skating, which is expensive enough. I grew up with very little, and so i guess for me, i want my money to go to my skates (too expensive already!) and lessons!

Hey, if you have the money, go for it. I know some moms who buy several new custom made dresses for their kids per year to the tune of $500-$600 each, and then sell them on ebay once the season is done. And keep in mind that these kids are all pre-juv & lower in skating level (!).

One thing I find is that the dress doesn't have to be "new" every year (or every competition) in order to pack a "WOW" factor. Example: I got a plain off-the-rack GK Elite dress last year for $70 and added 750 swarovski crystals to it last season. I got so many compliments on it (from judges, other coaches, other skaters, parents) that I am happy to wear it again for the 2nd season this year. My coach even picked my new music around this dress because she wants me to continue wearing it! So even though people have seen it before, they still tell me "that dress is perfect for you!"

I skate at a rink with many Ice dancing National Champs, and even THEY don't change their outfits for every competition. Why should we be expected to? Once a year is enough.

Well, the dancers definitely don't- between FD, OD, and 2-4 CDs, they can need as many as six costumes some years! Maybe the Viennese Waltz dress would get worn again the next year for the Golden Waltz or something, but I trained with several national-level junior and senior dance teams and they rarely wore the same dress more than one year. The guys did sometime reuse outfits with minor changes.

I comepted in solo dance and I usually got one or two new dresses in the summer, made by Mom, for Lake Placid, depending on how many dances I was doing and what I already had dresses for. I had- still do actually- a Tango dress that I loved and always got compliments on, and I think I wore it for the Paso a couple of times too. I had a Blues dress that I loved and wore several times. I like my Kilian dress enough that I wore it for waltzes a couple of times- I actually only competed the Kilian once.

When I was doing freestyle, though, I got a new program in the spring, the dress was made when school got out, and that was usually my program and dress until the next spring. If I tested in the winter, my coach would recut the music to the right length and I'd test in the same dress, and in the spring we'd pick and cut new music.

__________________
Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

I think the two main questions you need to ask yourself are can you afford to spend so much time and money on dresses, and do you enjoy designing/picking out material/making the dresses? If the answer to both is yes, then I don't see the problem. Totally unnecessary as far as skating needs go, but if making skating dresses is something you enjoy, no reason not to do that as a hobby too and make the most of competitions as an opportunity to wear your creations! Sure, you don't need a new/fancy dress for each competition, but equally most of us don't really need to skate in the first place , it's just something we enjoy doing and decide that the enjoyment we get out of it is worth the cost and time. I suspect the total ice/coaching fees and blade/skate costs over a year make the amount you spend on dresses look quite small by comparison!

I sew and sew for others so this isn't a fair answer to the question, but I make new dresses for myself all the time. I prefer plain sort of costumes however, I use expensive fabrics and they run about $200 -$350 for materials. (lots of powernet ) I'm big, so need more than a teeny metre of fabric.

I do re-use things. Lately I've been wearing an old dance dress that I recut, the top was very bling-y and I altered the skirt to be freeskate length. There's about $150 worth of gems around the neckline alone.

I'd sell my own things, but since they'd end up on people I'd skate against, and that would be weird, I don't recycle.

[QUOTE=doubletoe;356806]On the other hand, if you love making dresses but can't really afford it, have you considered making dresses for other skaters instead, for money? [/QUOTE

Hm, well I have been thinking that my estimate of $300 per dress is probably over the top. When I really think about it, it is probably more like $150. usually costs about $80 -$100 in fabric and the rest is on the trimmings, tights, hair stuff, make up etc that finish off the look

I do enjoy the whole process of the dress concept coming together, researching and finding bits & pieces that are just right. And I enjoy making the dresses.

No, I can't afford such luxuries, but then I can't really afford to skate, let alone the new Jackson Proflex skates I have ordered. I do make greeting cards which I sell on Ebay to raise money for the fabrics and stuff for my dresses though.

I am glad to know there are some others out there who consider their dress an important part of the whole performance.

__________________
Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Since I make dresses, I believe it is *all* about the dress! Heh heh!

Really, it is important as long as it enhances, and does not detract from the skater herself. By itself, in the eyes of a judge, the dress shouldn't be important at all. But if a dress is appropriate and subtly adds to the feeling of the performance, that is it's importance to the skater. When my dd puts on her FS dress, which was made specifically for this piece of music, she "puts on" her program in her mind. There is a feeling that dress helps her convey, it is specific to that dress. Another dress might not do it for her. I believe this feeling helps her skate her program the way is is meant to be skated. Her dress is indeed a part of the performance in that respect.

I have watched girls and wondered how their mom and/or coach ever got the idea that *that* dress fit *that* music. They just didn't mesh, and in my mind, detracted from the performance. I watched some of the video from Junior Worlds, and there was one girl in a HORRID bright eyesore that kept me looking at what she was wearing instead of what she was doing. I just didn't fit. That dress was NOT adding to her performance, at least in my mind.

I wouldn't change my dd's FS dress for every competition, because as I said, it was made for that piece of music, and another wouldn't do it for her...but, I have made her new "all purpose" dresses to wear for other events such as compulsories, spins, interpretive, whatever. Not a new one for every competition, but maybe every other! But I have scads of fabric laying around, and it usually doesn't cost a bunch. Last new one I made for her cost almost nothing because I already had the stuff left over from other dresses. I do it because I can, I love to, and she loves a new dress.

__________________
BuggieMom
><>
Some people are like a Slinky...not really good for anything,
but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs....

Well I guess on a female it wouldnt look so bad, but yes it was a little OTT but very funny.

Our coach would have me hung, drawn and quartered if ... the dress is visualized by the coach (style, colour, etc); drawn by the dressmaker and then approved; fabric samples sent, reviewed and approved; dress made; approved, or, if not, reapproved; stoned and finished (by me !) and approved or redone based on coach approving or not approving; then, it's used in the program. For coach read choreographer and coach (not always the same person for my kids). I wouldn't WANT to do this over and over - !

then again, said coaches and choreographer are self-admitted control freaks; we're fine with it because, like said before, there are some really strange costuming effects out there ... and they do detract from the final product.

I think there's another question you need to ask yourself: Do you want people (skaters, parents, coaches) talking about you and your kid and how full of yourselves you are to wear a new dress for every competition? Because, trust me, they will talk once they start to notice. As long as you're okay with that, fine. But you're definitely opening yourself up to that sort of thing.

Whoa, there. I believe very strongly that the dress is an important part of the whole performance. That doesn't mean you need a new dress for every performance. The "performance" isn't changing. I.e., the program and music isn't changing. Your costume doesnt' need to change to be an important part of the whole performance.

Most performers and entertainers have costumes matched to the performance. A dancer doesnt' have a new tutu every time she does The Dying Swan. They don't have different costumes for every performance of a play or a musical. The reason is because a meaningful, appropriate costume is selected in each case. Same with skating.

If you just want to make all these dresses that you can't afford, go for it. But it's really more about what you want, not making something that is important for the performance.

Wow- your rink environment must be SO different from mine.

I can't imagine anyone gossiping that a child/parent is "full of themselves" just because they changed dresses.

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Goodness, it's nothing to do with my coach! He's not even there when I compete. The only time he ever saw the outfits we wore for one of our free dances was when we tested it! I do normally have a dress rehearsal for a new dress, or for an artistic outfit, but even then I am the one who decides what I wear, it's not his business.

One thing that does happen a lot at our rink is that one skater, whose mother has bought or made her a lot of dresses in her time, is very generous about lending them for tests and competitions; if you say to someone waiting to test, "Oh, you look lovely in that dress!" the reply is very often, "Thank you; it's one of E's!"

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

Happens at mine lots but, then again, as discussed in another thread - some clubs/rinks have more politics than others, and, sure, I've heard the catty comments many times about expensive dresses, skates, coaching, etc ... it's life. And ... from skaters and parents, both. Even (overheard) by coaches who make snarky comments on the same thing. T'would be nice to be at a rink where such things DON'T happen, however, I haven't found any yet ... and I avoid dressing rooms and grandstands at competitions if I don't have my iPod in my ears to block out the unpleasant/jealous/resentful comments.

BTW: My DD's dresses often also have a second life; she lends them out to other skater's who don't have a generous budget but do love to skate.

I was under the impression that in this case they were...

I guess I'm a bit of a cheapskate in that my poor son went to National championsips in a pair of secondhand trousers that cost me £3!

He loved them though - so much that I tried to get a dressmaker to replicate them but the result was hopeless so he went back to the old pair.

For daughter I made the dress she wore to the championships but it was a shiny metallic patetrned lycra so no bling on top and therefore quite inexpensive.

The first really bling ful dress I made last year for my free dance with a starry theme. One of the skate mothers is a dress maker and she had a new type of metallic transfer fabric so I got to try it out for her on a basic dress I made myself out of wetlook lycra. Once the big stars were on, I added a 'galaxy' of stones of different sizes - the first time I'd ever gone in for bling for myself. I loved the result so am desperately trying to think of new music with a starry theme so I can wear it again.

I've worn the same dress for more than one competition and more than one programme as it seems such a waste otherwise unless you are going to sell them on afterwards and I like to keep mine.

Just realised my next test is likely to be Canasta Tango variation and the Tango dress I have is I feel, a bit OTT for a test so may try and make a simple test dress for that.

I have made several outfits for artistic competitions and pantos that dont get worn so often (though panto is at least 7 performances) and sometimes you can reuse bits for other comps. Best buy in this respect ever, was a furry hat that did duty as an Elvis wig, a cat's head, a rocker in Grease and finally with the addition of some wadding horns as The Beast from Beauty and the Beast. The hat cost me 99p! ($2?)