Who dresses these people?

Posted By: Bridget On: October 25, 2007 Comments: ( 2 )

By: Bridget 

I’ve been critical of the Dancing With The Stars costumes on more  than one occasion.  Edyta especially, wears some truly hideous outfits, most of which barely cover her assets. I figured if I was going to criticize them I at least ought to get some facts about the costume design before I blame one more thing on Cameron Mathison.  I did a little research (a very little) and found an article about the costume design for last seasons’ show on ABC.com. I’m working under the assumption that not much has changed since then. 

Here’s the skinny.  Once the dancers get their music on Tuesday they discuss costumes with the designer, for last season it was Kirstin Gallo, costume supervisor and costume designer, Randall Christensen.  They build the costumes over the next couple of days for a fitting on Friday.  Then they add the all important rhinestones, often by hand, on Saturday and have everything ready for dress rehearsal on Sunday.  Let me tell you folks, that is no short order.  A lot of costumes for a lot of different bodies in a very short period of time…I can’t imagine the stress.

The best part of this article was my uncovering the secret to  the glowing, but utterly unnatural skin tone of the dancers and celebs.  That’s not your normal fake tan, they shimmer and shine-often looking a little scary!!  Supposedly EACH performer spends 45 minutes in a “body make-up” session for every show. Then as the aforementioned article states, “The contestants are given a spray tan before a stain is hand-buffed over the top. Mills (make-up artist) and her team then choose from a variety of bronze, gold and pearl lotions. Finally, they are given a sprinkling of glitter to make sure they shimmer and glimmer their way across the stage.”  That’s just craziness!

I guess under the hot lights they need all of that make-up and if say, Edyta, is going to be naked you would need a lot of time to shimmer and glimmer everything except her nipples.  I wish I could be a fly on the wall when she and Mathison tell the costume designers that they must be more tan than last week (impossible) and that she wants to wear a toilet paper square….

On another note, I think the fire Jennie Garth was referring to on Monday was the big one.