Dance Costume: Last Unicorn

 The production of this costume has been as elusive as a unicorn. In part because I've put some kind of extra pressure on myself to have a certain look for my dance. So, hopefully, writing this will help me nail down some of my indecision. (Spoilers: It does!)

Source Inspiration

The theme of the dance is Night at the Movies, and I picked "The Last Unicorn". I will be dancing a rumba to the opening theme. I knew I was going to be "the unicorn" and my partner will be another character. (I'm hoping the red bull.) 

Design Considerations

In any costume design there's both a practical and aesthetic consideration. 

Dance Costume Considerations

Because I will be dancing with a partner, I need to make sure that my garment is out of our feet's way, I can move my arms and legs freely, and I don't have any costume malfunctions. So the major points of consideration are: 

- hem length: I want to avoid catching the hem on my heel or have my partner trod upon a hem and bring down the whole thing. 

- Secure pieces: Things stay on my body and do not fall off when I twirl, dip, or anything like that. Part of that means everything fits without too much fiddling. 

- Flowing movement: In ballroom dance, having extra flutter to the costume helps make small movements seem bigger. Drama matters! 

- Compliments my figure: I need to look good doing it too. 

Aesthetic Considerations

The other half of costume design is purely artistic and meant to portray a certain look, evoke a feeling or convey a concept. For the unicorn I wanted to emphasis the idea of a mystical creature from the forest. In the song the unicorn is described as old and worn as well as sparkling and laughing. And of course I harken back to the source of inspiration the 1982 animated film. 

The unicorn is a creature that is both a part of nature yet set apart. So the costume will be: 

- Shimmery

- Ethereal 

- Flowy 

It will also include lots of motifs of: 

- Butterflies

- Primrose Flowers

- Gems/Stars/"Sparkles"

My Design Stumbling Blocks

Don't get me wrong but I am so thrilled to be working on this costume. However, it's already caused a bit of stress in my life. My previous post about my anxious priorities details this more but that "stress" has made it difficult to see the costume from a big picture point of view and making me second guess my design sensibilities. 

Now I was basing this off my Ren Faire Unicorn costume which was in turn based on a belly dance garment. I have cut out pattern pieces for a blousy, short dress covered by a Ghawazee coat. 

This pattern is only for the coat and belts.

 The Coat is going to be the central point from which I make my design. It includes the flowiness I want and can include the shimmer, butterflies, primroses and sparkles easily. 

However, I was stuck on a few things: 

• Overwhelmed by too many design ideas
• Picking a color scheme
• What kind of under skirt to wear

A lot of things just fell into place and made sense as I thought of making a dance outfit. It's part of the choreography that I will have a veil that covers my horn for part of the dance. Also a unicorn horn is a must. (I already have one!...two actually but one is neon pink and doesn't work with the look.) So that's set. I found a crochet pattern for a halter top that will work perfectly with the coat. 

Skirt and Too Many Ideas

I was in a manic state researching how to make parts of this costume. Pinterest lead me down an endless rabbit hole of ideas. However, I really got stuck on belly dancing costumes since a lot of my Pins were starting to come from one site: https://www.sparklybelly.com/.

I would look at her tutorials, then suddenly start thinking "what kind of skirt should I wear with the coat?" The ruffle skirts were amazing and carried a lot of variety. Then again, perhaps I should keep the skirt simple, a circle skirt will suffice. Perhaps I could have a slit in it to show off more leg! I don't think a mermaid skirt would look good on me...it only emphasizes my large hips which I don't want to do. Then again, what other kinds of skirts are there for dance that I could look at? 

The colors!

In addition to trying to figure out how to piece things together I was fretting about what color to use and what kind of fabric. Part of me wanted to make this unicorn a creature of my own interpretation of Unicorn, so it would be more warm colors of spring or a color scheme based on a particular flower. Yet none of them "felt right". But using the color scheme from the movie felt blasé. 

When I did end up deciding to go with the movie colors...I was still stuck trying to figure out how to pair the colors and where the colors would go on the costume. 

I was stuck, stressed, frustrated and I just wanted answers so I could move forward. 

Accurate depiction of my brain not working. 

Getting Unstuck

The truth is I could not get myself out of this mess. I was in too deep and drowning. So while I was exploring the Sparkly Belly site, I signed up for the free Belly Dance Email course. The first email invited students to reach out to Mao with any particular questions they had about a costume. And for once, I stepped out of my introvert shell and sent her some questions I had about making costumes for a dance performance and how she picked colors and décor for her costumes.

To my delight, I got a response that basically reminded me of big picture things and how to better make these decisions. 

1. I never thought to look up if there was a standard for ballroom dance dresses. I mean, ballroom dance is competitive which means there are guidelines! The general consensus for dress length was to be at or just above the ankle bone. And when I looked at rumba dances that's when I finally noticed that no one had a skirt below the ankle. I had been making the mistake of long hems for awhile now! 
   
   

   

   What the hem SHOULD do. 

2. Mao suggested that I make sketches and see what colors I liked. I had sketches already but I didn't do a color test. I prefer to use Photoshop for these kinds of things:
   

   
   

   I can't pick colors! So indecisive! 

   With this side by side, I did at first just end up with more questions than answers. However, this was the way to move forward. Although, I didn't land on an answer right away after making the image above. I still didn't feel confident that it looked good.
3. Then there was the advice to look for inspiration for colors and fabric on Pinterest. And that's how I finally decided to search for "color pairings with Lavender" (Lavender was the ONLY color choice I had.) This gave me a the colors to try in my test as well as some better references for outfits. 
   

I neglected to do the basics and jumped into details too quickly, which is how I got so stuck in the first place. Just getting the reminder to visualize with sketches helped. Also, being patient would have been a good idea. However, I was feeling very emotional this week because of plumbing issues, dealing with tax related stuff, and trying to keep up with all the activities I'm doing. 

The Current Plan

After several days of fretting, researching in circles, and wrestling with indecision, I finally made some choices and have started construction. 

In the end, I decided that I would borrow heavily from the film and stick with the purple, pink and white colors: 

Basically this

Sometimes, it's better to be humble and accept that the colors are basically pulled from the film. But dammit if it isn't a beautiful color scheme. I prefer to be original, but the performance is meant to be based on the film so whatever. The design is still original at least even if the colors aren't my own scheme. 

Costume Parts

- Hater Top (Crochet!): I found a pattern that has a primrose motif on the chest. The bra portion will be in a white cotton yarn that has some iridescent strands in it. Basically it sparkles.  

- Ghawazee Coat: This will be made from a light purple Taffeta (I need a bit of stretch). It will be trimmed with silver and white floral patterned trim likely in a lace with rhinestones.  

- Armbands: So I cut out the pattern pieces for the sleeveless coat because that was my original Ren Faire unicorn design. However, I felt that the Last Unicorn would be better with the ruffle sleeves. But, uh-oh...I threw out the pattern pieces I wasn't using! So I only have the pieces for the sleeveless coat. Which means I'm following the tutorial on how to make a double armband and will likely make the sleeve from Chiffon and stretch lace. 

- Belt: I feel like the back of the tail will have long fringes to suggest a tail. The front of the belt will be from some kind of floral lace. 

- Skirt: Actually, ended up getting last minute inspired and deciding that I don't want to make a skirt. Again, saw something on Sparkly Belly and was like: THAT'S PERFECT! Instead, I am making a pair of Ruffled Pants out of stretch velvet (or spandex) and the ruffle out of stretch lace. I've cut out the paper pattern for this too! 

Accessories

- Headdress with Horn and veil: I have the horn, but it doesn't have a headdress anymore. This means I'll have to concoct one of my own and make sure to attach a veil likely of chiffon, organza, or pearl organza. I'm still doing a bit of design research on this but it'll likely include a floral pattern.

- Jewelry: Honestly, I don't wear a lot of jewelry but I found some butterfly ear cuffs and figured that fits the theme perfectly since in the film it was the Butterfly singing in her ear that prompted her adventure. 

- Dancing Shoes (Minimal 2" heel): I've got two pairs of black dancing shoes. One is for practice so I think I'm going to splurge and get a new pair in either a neutral color, white or silver and then decorate with rhinestones. I may make them look a bit like hooves if I'm feeling up to it. 

- Shaper Wear: In part to protect my modesty and to really make sure I look my best, I got a compression tank top. 

Next Steps

For me, I need to wind down and relax! Being so tense did not help me in my design process and really just blinded me to obvious solutions. I've started crocheting the top so I feel like I'm making some progress, but I will also be thinking of back up plans just in case. (I could repurpose parts of my princess Zelda costume. I'd need to super hem things but it's the right colors!) 

The performance is not until June so...yeah. I do need to chill out. 

Zenitsu is my spirit animal at times like these.