“I’ll at all times name it ‘The Wonderful Race of Costuming’ as a result of we by no means know what the problem of the week can be,” says costume designer Daniela Gschwendtner, who, with Steven Norman Lee (under), retains sambas glowing and cha-chas stylish on Dancing With the Stars. “Generally those that look actually intricate and troublesome come collectively a lot quicker,” she says. “Generally within the becoming, celebrities don’t really feel snug in one thing.”
Issues should be solved rapidly. The turnaround time from idea to completion is below every week. The designers’ job begins with a day of digital conferences with the present’s inventive producers, throughout which they see visuals of the lighting, units and general imaginative and prescient for every dance. “Concepts come from that,” Lee says. They meet every couple and focus on appears. “We sketch alongside as they are saying issues,” says Gschwendtner, who attracts by hand; Lee makes use of digital instruments. “Choices are made so quick,” she provides. “We could maintain drawings as much as the display screen or textual content them. If one thing’s not proper, we are able to pivot proper then and there.”
The preliminary sketch is taken to the workrooms. A staff of 9 to 11 folks begin creating the feminine appears with Gschwendtner, whereas a smaller tailor’s staff make males’s costumes with Lee, who calls them “superheroes.” Subsequent comes the primary of three fittings. “You get an concept down, however what if the particular person needs the neckline decrease or greater?” Gschwendtner says. The ultimate becoming is the day earlier than the present. Outfits get “rhinestoned” within the final 24 hours.
Steven Norman Lee and Daniela Gschwendtner (Gilbert Flores/Selection by way of Getty Pictures)
Materials should be what the pair name “danceable.” For the boys, “If we have been to buy [for a suit], the pants wouldn’t have sufficient stretch and it will rip within the crotch, the shoulders would rise. We now have to construct each swimsuit to offer them mobility,” Lee says. For the ladies, costumes begin with a stretchy base, which is overlain with “costlier materials that look rather less like dance put on,” Gschwendtner says. “We usually use silk for the skirts as a result of it strikes the very best.”
Used costumes go into storage. They don’t typically get reused for primary dances, however, Lee says, “if we had an enormous opening quantity, we’ve got the pink fits, the pink attire that we might throw on everyone for that. Generally we use [past outfits] for a tour.” Gschwendtner recollects, “We did a Disney opening quantity with [Aladdin‘s] Genie from Broadway, and we had a few of our oldest attire on that and revamped them. I watched it and was like, ‘Rattling, these look so good once more. Simply get extra stones!’”
Regardless of how nice a dressing up, these designers understand it received’t work until the wearer is completely satisfied. “Week 1 is the toughest as a result of we don’t know the celebrities but and we’ve got to watch out,” Gschwendtner says. “We under-design.” Lee continues, “We get soccer gamers, basketball gamers, astronauts, individuals who have by no means worn any sort of costumes earlier than, not to mention carried out on a full stage with tens of millions of viewers. It’s a must to take into account how they really feel and what they’re snug with.”
Within the gallery under, take a look at the designers’ favourite appears.
For a extra prolonged celebration of two decade of Dancing With the Stars, from unique interviews to retrospectives and must-see pictures, decide up a duplicate of TV Information Journal’s Dancing With the Stars twentieth Anniversary particular subject, out there for buy on-line at DWTS.TVGM2025.com and on newsstands August 29.