When it comes to designing great dancewear, there’s no “one size fits all” formula that’s going to work for every single dancer. There are so many body shapes, sizes, and ages to consider that it’s worth thinking about how your costumes will flatter dancers of all types, especially if you’re creating costumes for a school or team.
In this post, we’ll share some design tips that will help you make sure every dancer on your team looks good! Keep reading to learn the three ways we make sure our costumes fit and flatter dancers of all ages, shapes, and sizes.
Tip 1: Conceal Dancers’ Stomachs Using High-Waisted Bottoms
Every team includes some dancers who are self-conscious about certain areas of their body. For example, many dancers feel insecure about showing their bare stomach. That’s why we’re so glad that high-waisted bottoms are coming back in style!
High-waisted bottoms are a design classic that we’ve utilized in a number of our costumes, including the above number that we designed for Classic Image Dance. High-waisted pants and skirts sit just a bit higher on a dancer’s natural waist, subtly covering the areas a dancer might feel uncomfortable showing.
You can see that we also added some bright, visually-exciting flourishes to the bottom of this dancer’s top. These elements draw audiences’ and judges’ attention upward, away from the dancer’s waist and stomach.
Tip 2: Turn Two-piece Designs into One-Pieces with Mesh
Some dancers don’t want to show their stomach at all, which is completely understandable! However, there are certain uniform themes (like the “Bathing Beauties” costume pictured below) that really demand a two-piece design. So what do you do when your theme demands a two-piece costume, but your dancers really don’t want to wear one?
Thankfully, there’s an easy solution – one that won’t compromise your team’s costume design! You can easily turn any two-piece design into a stealth one-piece by adding a mesh midriff between your costume’s top and bottom. The “secret” mesh midriff is a great way to pull off two-piece designs, while still making sure every dancer on your team feels comfortable on-stage.
Tip 3: Keep Bright Colors On Top to Draw Audiences’ Eyes Up
Below, you can see a pom costume we designed for Ponca City High School’s Po High Steppers. The team wanted a uniform that was flashy and cute, but as always, the costume also needed to fit a wide range of dancers. That included dancers of various body shapes, sizes, and ages. All of them needed to look great in whatever costume we designed!
To make sure every High Stepper felt equally confident and beautiful when they stepped on the stage, we used dark colors on the bottom of their costume and included brighter colors up top. Those bright colors drew audiences’ attention upwards, toward the High Steppers’ beautiful faces and expressions, and away from areas they might’ve felt self-conscious about (like their stomach and waist).
If you found those tips useful, be sure to watch the full video above to get an exclusive bonus tip from DA Designs’ own Kaelin Anderson! And if you need help creating a costume that will flatter every dancer on your team, be sure to contact us for help with your next design.