Shira

Bellydance Plus! Photo Gallery

Faye Lange

Faye Lange embraces a made-in-American style of belly dance known as Tribal style.

Green & Pink

Faye assembled this costume through purchasing several pieces individually that appealed to her, without thinking in terms of using them together. Later, the inspiration came to create an ensemble using them. The pink veil and the mesh-midriff unitard both came from the Bellydance Shoppe web site. The green top and the satin harem pants are items she found on eBay, being sold by vendors from India. The jewelry items were all pieces that she already had in her collection, and hte pink hip scarf was something she found on eBay, via a vendor in Hong Kong.
In this photo, Faye is wearing the veil wrapped around her body. She might tuck the veil around her like this for the first part of her routine, until she is ready to use it. When Faye purchased the green satin top from an eBay vendor in India, she knew she was taking a risk because it was advertised as "one size fits all (or most)". To her relief, it did fit her. She likes this top because of its flowing sleeves, which she feels are almost like two little veils attached to her arms. Though admittedly they sometimes get in the way, such as when she is raising her arms above her head.
When Faye purchased this peacock shawl, it took her some time to decide between this one with its pink background or another with a teal background. Her mother helped her convert the shawl into a hip scarf by adding tasseled tie ends. The modification was done in a way that still allows it to be worn as a shawl. The black skirt came from a large discount retailer, and was not specially designed to be used for dance. Faye has worn it to many classes, and even a few performances. Although she has a made-for-dance skirt that moves better, this one is satisfactory.
As of the time Faye submitted her photos for this photo gallery, she had not yet done a performance wearing this particular costume. However, she is working on a routine that involves using large pink dance fans, and she is thinking that this costume might be the perfect one to wear for that routine. Click on any of the four photos of this costume to see them in more detail.

The Tweaked Costume

Throughout the section for this costume, click on any of the photos to see more detail.

For this costume, Faye uses a core set of basic pieces over and over, then changes out the bra, top, belt, and jewelry in different combinations to create different looks.

The costume was created in Faye's early days of performing. The skirt was quite inexpensive, about $20. It performs well, and its affordable price made it attractive to her student-dancer budget.

Faye found the project of making the bra to be exciting. She started with a basic lingerie bra, and decorated it using a kuchi belt. When she finished it, she felt as though she truly had a finished costume. Since then, she has added kauri shells to embellish it further.

Faye purchased the dark blue sleeved top from an eBay seller in India. The items themselves didn't cost much, but the shipping costs added up to a surprisingly large amount. The sleeves have strips of sheer chiffon fabric that drape when Faye holds her arms up, a detail she particularly likes.

The veil headpiece was made from a piece of silk Faye found in a fabric store. When she saw it on the bolt she believed it would float well as a veil; however, it proved to be too heavy to float. Faye's mother now uses it as a scarf.

The belt and jewelry were items that Faye had collected. Thanks to the jingles on the bra and belt, the costume jingles loudly when Faye dances in it.

Faye brought an entirely different look to the basic black skirt, blue sleeve-drape top, jewelry, and belt shown above through using some different costume pieces.

Her purple mesh shirt came from a mainstream clothing retailer. Her mother embellished a lingerie bra for her using kuchi jewelry, fringes, and various trims.

Her hair falls were made by another dancer named Arraya. These gave her the idea for the color scheme of teal, purple, and pink. The giant hair flower came from a craft store already mounted on a barrette, and she has used it many times.

Faye gave her black skirt an entirely different look through layering over it a yarn overskirt that she and her mother made. The yarn overskirt proved to be quite the project. It contains nearly three full skeins of yarn. Faye calls it "the yak belt". Although it is very heavy and warm, it moves quite well, particularly with fast dance moves and music. Faye cut the yarn, and her mother sewed the pieces to the belt base. There are little medallions on the belt which came from a craft store. They are tied onto the belt itself, but done in a way that is removable. They could be placed in the hair or used to accessorize another garment. There are also strands of yarn with kauri shells attached to them.

In this variation, Faye wears a gold mesh shirt that she'd obtained many years ago from a regular clothing retailer. She tucks up the black undershirt, to give the appearance of a mesh-midriff unitard.

Faye put a significant effort into bargain-hunting when shopping for the belt of chainette fringe, and eventually settled on one sold by a vendor named Shimmy Shimmy.

The tassel belt is a composite of a ready-made belt purchased on sale at a regular retail shop and pre-made drapery tassels.

This is a different black skirt from the one above. This one was made by Flying Skirts.

The tattoo sleeves were a gift from her parents, who support her very much in her dancing. Faye commented, "Personally speaking I don't like skulls, and dark art, and that's usually what you find on the tattoo sleeves. However, when you search long enough you can find artwork that doesn't feature skulls or other such art. This pair has roses and bluebirds. I have another pair that has fairies. Another thing - I've seen dancers wear just one sleeve on one arm. Personally I think it looks strange because the flesh colored mesh, and your own skin tone are usually quite different. That's only my own thought on the matter though."

This is Faye's third decorated bra. It went together fairly easily. Faye embellished with kauri shells, a kuchi belt, and some beads.

Several of these pieces were worn in the above photos for other variations on this costume, including the black skirt from flying skirts, the jewelry, the belt, and the mesh-midriff unitard.

The chainette fringe was purchased from Shimmy Shimmy.

The interesting story behind this costume is the panel skirt down the front. Faye describes it as follows:

"I made it from several things. Can you guess? Remember the messenger bags that have tribal looking decorations that have been in fashion for the past few years? I cut two decorated messenger bag flaps off of the bags, and sewed them together. It's sort of difficult to explain but I have included a college of pictures that show the process from messenger bags to skirt.

"What I did not expect was that the two flaps would be slightly different sizes from one another. I took some gold braid trim and sewed it down the middle, where I had seamed the two together. That really disguised the slight size differences. I attached ribbon to make it into a belt, and added some coin / kauri shell trim on the bottom."

In this costume, Faye is wearing the same mesh-middle unitard, bra, belt, jewelry, yellow chainette fringe, and black skirt from Flying Skirts as shown in other photos above. The veil is from The Bellydance Shoppe.

The yarn belt is more sparse than the "yak belt" shown in one of the photos above. Faye attached the yarn to black ribbon. The design is symmetrical. The back has yarn hanging down in a section, and the front has a draped look. It needs to be even in order to look right, which posed some challenges to Faye. Aside from that, it went together easily, and Faye pinned some kuchi medallions to the belt for an extra touch. She didn't sew them because she wanted them to be easy to remove in case she wanted to use them with a different costume.

Photo credit: Photo by PCML Photography.

Colorful Skirt

Faye purchased this brightly-colored skirt and top set from an eBay seller in India. The garments were not very expensive, but the shipping costs certainly were!

The chiffon is a bit see-through, so Faye found it necessary to wear the unitard under the top. She chose silver-colored harem pants from any eBay seller to wear underneath.

This is possibly the most colorful costume she owns.

Click on this photo and the ones below to see this costume in more detail.

Faye has posted both this photo and the above photo of this costume on the Internet and received many compliments, particularly for this one.

This photo by PCML Photography shows the back of the costume under different lighting.

Black and Gold

Faye really appreciates how comfortable this ensemble is to wear. Her mother, who is an excellent seamstress, came up with the idea for this black shirt with gold spots and made it for her. Faye wore it with a black bra underneath to give it a mesh effect, but it could look appealing worn over a black tank top.

Faye ordered the hip scarf from Blossom Gifts, and she was quite pleased with the quality of the embroidery. However, it came with a hook and eye closure that was sized for either a child or a very small adult. Instead of using the hooks, Faye added black ribbon ties.

Unfortunately, the hip scarf is not very sturdy. The long strands that hold a coin on the end of them come off too easily. They were attached using flimsy thread. Faye is considering re-sewing them to make them hold up better.