What happens when you are a figure skater who is also a huge Shakespeare fan?
You skate to music from Romeo and Juliet, of course. And no routine is complete without a dress that matches the music!
Sidney, a young skater I met at the Ice Den Chandler in Arizona, fell in love with Romeo and Juliet after reading the play in her English class. Afterwards, she knew she had found the perfect inspiration for a skating routine.
Together, she and her dressmaker, had fun designing this custom Juliet dress.
Designing a dress to fit the routine
If your skate routine uses music from a movie or musical, you have to dress the part. That allows a lot of room for creativity in the design process! But it is also difficult to take a classic, well-known historical costume and adapt it for a figure skating dress.
Fortunately, Sidney’s figure skating coach, Tammy Jimenez, enjoys designing unique dresses that are specific to each of her student’s routines. (Updated February, 2024: Please do not contact Tammy about making you a dress. She no longer sews.)
Lucky are the women Tammy coaches: she never backs down from a dressmaking challenge! Tammy even made a quick change dress for one of her students, to visually express a huge transformation that during the song “I can hear the bells.” used for the routine.
Tammy is no stranger to making figure skating costumes inspired by movie or musical characters.
In addition to making Sydney’s Juliet dress, she also designed and made a Morticia Addams-inspired figure skating dress for a routine using music from The Addams Family.
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Designing a custom Juliet dress
For Sidney's custom Juliet dress, the dressmaker paid a lot of attention to details that would make the dress feel like a Renaissance-era costume.
1. Gold appliqués and rhinestones
The gold appliqués are one of Sydney’s favorite things about her Juliet dress. They are beautifully placed, creating a slimming V shape and eye-catching focal point.
For the rhinestones on Sidney’s Juliet dress, a combination of crystal AB and garnet stones were used.
I especially love the crystals ABs on this figure skating dress, because there is a stark color contrast between the light rhinestones and the burgundy dress. The color contrast makes the rhinestone belt stand out more, with the large jewel in the center as a finishing touch.
Click here to learn more about creating a contrasting dress design.
2. Off the shoulder sleeves
Sidney’s custom figure skating dress has classic off-the-shoulder mesh sleeves, but with a gold braid that matches the gold appliqués.
Sew Like A Pro™ Dressmaker Tip:
In addition to the decorative gold braid, the dressmaker put elastic in the top of the mesh sleeve. Usually, if elastic is installed in a sleeve, it is to help the sleeve hug the arm tighter. However, in this case, the elastic at the top of the sleeve stiffens the mesh and actually helps it stand away from the arm. The rhinestones also help stiffen the top of the sleeve, as well as add some more bling to the dress design.
3. High skirt attachment
Sydney’s skirt attachment is higher than most skate dresses. For the dressmaker told me, the skirt was actually one of the most challenging aspects of the dress, because it is almost as high as an empire waist in the front, but is cut lower in the back. The odd height level, along with the difference between the height of the skirt in the front and in the back, made this a challenging skirt to cut.
The two mesh layers give Sydney’s skate dress a lot of skirt movement, especially because there is a long slit in the top layer.
Check out June's Empire waist ice dance dress for more information about this lovely style of dress. June designed and made this pale blue dress for herself, and wore it at the 2019 U.S. Adult Nationals Figure Skating Championships.
4. Criss cross back design
While the back of this Juliet dress is one piece of lycra, the dressmaker overlaid the lycra with mesh on both sides. This creates a small but interesting contrast, because the center back panel is slightly shiny, while the side panels that are lined with mesh are completely matte.
The illusion of a laced corset back was created to make Sydney’s figure skating costume more of a classic Juliet. The hint of a corset by using a criss cross rhinestone design, which makes the illusion of criss cross straps without the trouble of actual straps.
(Updated February, 2024: Please do not contact Tammy about making you a dress. She no longer sews.)
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