What to look for when buying an Irish Dance Dress (What’s hot and what’s NOT for 2009)
If you’re looking to buy your first real Irish dance dress the most important thing to know is that, just like regular everyday clothing, styles change. You want to find something in a style that is modern. An Irish dance costume that you will be able to wear for a long time and not get strange looks from the other girls because your dress is ’so two years ago…’
I’d like to note that I am making this blog in January of 2009, so If it’s like 2011 or later while you’re reading this, I’m sure it is not longer accurate.:) In my experience a dress style has a life of about 2 years if you buy it just as the style is taking off.
Now you’re probably thinking (if you’re new to the Irish dress buying world), ‘What a load of bull! Any dress will work as long as it’s to feis competition regulations!’ That is true, but only to a point. The problem is, if you have a 1998 style dress and are competing with girls who are wearing 2009 style dresses, to the judges, and everyone else in the Irish dance world, you look like someone wearing stretchy bell-bottoms in 1989 (just asking for ridicule and even a beating).
Really the biggest issue is that the judges don’t take a dancer as seriously if they aren’t dressed to compete. Ya you can get an old style dress cheaper, but that just shows how little you care about your presentation to them. No not every judge is sure to react that way, but is it worth the risk? Besides, I’ve never seen a first place winner in championship wearing a dress that was out of style.
So all that being said, and now that I have you all wondering whats in right now and what’s not, let me give you a few recommendations to get you started. Again, these tips are for January 2009. This is what’s hot and what’s not in Irish dance competition dresses right now.
Hot: Tutu underneath skirt with split stiff panels (click to see example)
Not so hot: Entirely stiff skirts are going out.
Hot: Loose or flying panels (click to see example)
Not so hot: Lots of applica covering the dress was huge 2 years ago, but now, not so much (click to see example)
Hot: Soft capes (click to see example)
Not so hot: Stiff capes are still ok if done the right way, but the stiff diagonally hung style is very old (click to see example)
Hot: Centered split line on bodice creating a resemblance to a corset (click to see example)
Not so hot: Crazy miss-matched colors did have their time, but I’m glad to see that trend going fast
Hot: New puffed lacy soft skirts with loose panels (click to see example)
Not so hot: Old soft velvet skirt style (click to see example)
Also keep in mind that certain colors just don’t look good with certain complexions. For example I always look dreadful in lavender and since my hair is light, I like to make sure I have black around the shoulders to compliment my hair.
Some designers can always be depended on to keep up with the styles for you. In my years of searching for great dresses, these designers always had something that caught my eye, and would no doubt catch and please the judges’ eyes too.:)
Gavin Doherty (visit site)
Elevation Design (visit site)
Aunt Stacy’s Dressmaking (visit site)
Kilkenny Creations (visit site)
Paul Keith (visit site)
Before making a purchase, I recommend going to a feis or two and checking out what you see the other dancers wearing. Guaranteed you won’t like everything you see, but when you do see features you like, make a note of it. Every dress is unique and yours should be just right for you!
I hope these tips help you in your quest to find that perfect dress!
Flickr header photos by Christina Hanson, forevercloversddn, and FlungingPictures.
Quoting from above: “An Irish dance costume that you will be able to wear for a long time and not get strange looks from the other girls because your dress is ’so two years ago…”
Just a few observations! ‘Two years’ is a long time ago? Since when?? My daughter got her first and only solo dress when she was 13. She is now 20 (and luckily the same size!)and it is still in almost mint condition and she wears it to perform here in Ireland from time to time…two years ago is certainly a long time for growing Irish dancers. You cannot pretend something fits if it does not fit…But imposing ’style’ on dancers and their weary mothers seems a bit Paris Hilton, does it not??
Ionesco wrote a famous play called Rhinoceros about mass conformity…everybody becomes a rhino with the exception of one lone man…Berenger. I did the sound for a production at Notre Dame in the 1970’s and had a great time watching from backstage as the actors started making rhino noises when they began to conform…
Anyway, interesting article about Irish dance fashion. But please have some pity!! It is one thing to see a drab, limp, totally over-the-hill dress…but even then, I would hate to think the dancer who cannot afford to buy a more glamorous dress is being punished because she is not wearing the latest fashion. My daughter used to take off her own solo dress at feiseanna and loan it to dancers at the same feis if they wanted to look sharper!!
A final observation: Some of the elderly male adjudicators look like they would not in a million years notice what a dancer was wearing–if we can judge them by their rumpled suits and shirts!!
Brenna Briggs
Brenna Briggs
January 24, 2009
Thank you so much for your reply. It’s very good for dress buyers to hear this side as well. However, being a dancer who was wearing an out of style dress for a couple years, I have first hand experience of the sort of cold looks teenagers will give each other.
Yes, worrying about style may sound ‘Paris Hilton’, but not going with the style can be hard on self-esteem since the dancers who are stylish don’t always treat you with the respect you deserve. Ya it sucks, but it makes fieseanna not so fun for a dancer who isn’t prepared for those dirty looks.
If your daughter, or you are confident and could care less about fitting in, the more power to you! I did it myself for a while. But it made me an outsider. Girls can be cruel. Most especially as teenagers. I won’t even bring up my high school years. bleck…
In my own opinion, honesty I would LOOOOOVE to toss the silly dresses and wigs and just compete in shorts and t-shirts. Wouldn’t that be heaven??
shellysowl
January 26, 2009
You are absolutely right about ‘mean girls.’ They are everywhere. I used to pretend that I ‘forgot’ to wear regular clothes to high school when we had a ‘no uniform day’ because I really did not have anything in my wardrobe which could, in someone’s wildest imagination, be considered cool. Or even o.k. It was an all-girls school as well so everybody was checked out on those days. And I am so old, this was the pre-jeans when everybody looked the same era. The girls wore circle pins on their Villager ensembles.
But back to Irish dance costumes. They are works of art to a certain extent and I do not question their importance—but….the prices are ‘max out the credit card’ prices. I DO realize how much work goes into them and how talented and deserving their creators are. I do not begrudge them their well-deserved fees. And if you can re-sell a dress and get back some of your investment to use for a new one–good. But if they are so quickly out-dated? How is one supposed to keep up?
An uplifiting story: When we moved to Ireland five years ago we were and still are sweating blood with the dollar/euro exchange debacle. My then 15-year-old DD danced here as well for a brief time. Her team was picked to go to the Connaught Oireachtas. I completely panicked because she did not have a school dress and there was no way (this is before my Liffey Rivers books income had started in 2004) I could justify spending what would be a small fortune on a dress. I was thinking about asking the teacher if there might be one we could borrow from someone–and she said: “Oh-I am borrowing ALL the dresses from a friend who has a school in County Meath. We will just use hers so none of us has to bother. We don’t have many students who actually own a school dress here.” And the costumes all showed up and everybody found one that more-or-less fit–and doubled up on them too and my daughter’s team got a gold medal!! I am going to have that teacher canonized someday!!
So I guess the point I am making, is that, costumes should make the rounds more charitably…and if a ‘diva’ gives someone a snoot attitude, the dancer who has been snooted at should growl at that diva. Like a dog when someone gets too near its dog dish as it is eating….
Thanks for some things to think about….you are very interesting!
Brenna Briggs
January 26, 2009
That’s fantastic that the teacher was able to work out a borrowing system like that. Tina, the head at our school isn’t so lucky. There isn’t anyway for her to provide dresses to us for free, even if they are used. We all have to fend for ourselves.
It is possible that the styles change drastically fast here in the US while elsewhere it is much more relaxed. That would be nice. And if many dancers are in the same situation as you, than this blog can be like flipping through an Irish dance Vogue magazine that informs dancers of ‘the latest thing’.
But if the culture is anything like it is where I am (western US), this blog can give some tips on which kind of dress to buy to give yourself that extra edge at a feis.
shellysowl
January 26, 2009
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Some of these idea’s are OK but i dont believe all of them and i believe that it depends entirally on the dress. some of the things you say or old fashion i still think look great! my dress is multi colored(Rainbow) which is one of your dont’s and i love it becuase of the colors it makes it more unique. also i like traditional dresses. thats what irish dancing is all about and thought some ideas may be new and nice tradition will always live on. plus i just want to add on a last note that i does NOT matter if your dress is in stlye or not! irish dancing is about the dancing and how much you love it and are deticated to it not if you dress is in style or not. on a passing not i would just like to say i think the article is great and some of the HOT dreses are pretty and new and intersting but i also think the “old fashion” ones are just as beautiful and will never go “out” of fashion or style
Lizzybelle
May 27, 2009
[...] You’ll want to check out the post while you listen to view examples of what we’re discussing: What to look for when buying an Irish dance dress [...]
World Irish Dancer Podcast | Episode 18 « ShellyHathaway.com
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