Costumes: How to Buy Them Without Breaking the Bank

Every week, I get requests on my FB page or messages to my Youtube channel asking questions such as, "How many costumes do you have?" and "These look expensive. How do you afford them?"

I have watched many belly dancers go through countless costumes over the years. Some are great purchases; others, not so much. How do you purchase good costumes without taking out a small business loan? Here are my ten tips to purchasing quality costumes and starting a belly dance costume brokerage.

You can find this exact post on my hiring website, DreamYogaAndDance.com.

How to Purchase and Maintain Quality Costumes (without breaking the bank)

I now own 14 costumes, which I cycle through on a regular basis. I started out with two costumes in 2002. One was a poor purchase, and is useless (beading fell apart, backing of belt also ripped). The other got a lot of mileage, and has since been resold at the top of the market. Here's how you can own quality costumes and get your money back.

1. Find a costume maker you love. Some suggestions:

Dahlal.com

Bellacostumes.com


2. Participate in a swap board or consignment group

Bhuz.com

The Belly dance costume recycle project (Facebook)

Belly dance Costume SWAP (Facebook)

3. Know what colors you want, what style looks good and moves well with you, and don't buy anything less than that (or you might regret the spendy purchase). Additonal tip: if you dance with a troupe, you might want to think about colors, shapes, and designs where others can purchase similar costumes to match.

4. Keep your costumes in excellent condition, doing repairs and replacing bead loss immediately. This will help when you are ready to re-sell your costumes to purchase your next costume. Store them in separate boxes after airing them out after a performance. Do not smoke or eat in your costumes, and do not wear your costumes longer than you need to (i.e. change into street clothes after a performance).

5. Dance at least ten times for pay in each costume, and keep track of how much money you made. Some costumes are "money" costumes, attracting more tips and better pay. You might wish to keep this costume longer, even if it isn't your personal favorite. Sell the costume after the 10th time you've used it in your same town.

NOTE: Here's the kicker: if you aren't being paid for performances, you should pace your costume purchases and quality to the pace of your ability to pay for them. If you simply buy costumes because you really want them, make sure you have the income to cover these purchases. Otherwise, consider doing a "costume brokerage" systems, buying and reselling approximately two costumes a year, and purchase costumes that you believe will have a high resell value.

6. Purchase costumes in bright colors with interesting details. These will not only gain you great attention while you dance, they'll be popular when you're ready to sell it.

7. If you know a professional dancer who is close in size to you, offer to purchase costumes from her for below-new prices, or get on her email list when she places them on sale. My favorite: Sandra of raks-sharki.com

8. Don't buy costumes if they are:
a. full of small problems you wish you could fix, but know you won't
b. ill-fitting, too large or too small, or requiring massive amounts of alterations (adding more cost)
c. in drab colors that don't suit your complexion
d. trendy, unless you can truly pull it off AND you believe you can resell it later

8. Don't make emotional decisions about costume purchases. Get a trusted friend's opinion if you are unsure about a purchase. When it comes time to sell, don't hesitate if you find a buyer.

9. If you do a lot of performance where you are the solo entertainment for the event, consider buying costumes that are easy for you to dress yourself. If they have unreachable clasps, requires a lot of pinning, or have details that need a second pair of hands, save those costume purchases for when you are doing stage shows (people in the dressing room can help you).

10. Consider buying conservative fitting skirts with slits that can be shortened or closed, and those with beading sewn directly to the skirt (instead of a separate belt). Costumes showing too much of the thigh are pretty for pictures, but not always practical (and sometimes unappreciated) in some settings.

Have costume purchase tips you'd like to add? Please send them offline to info@hipsforhire.com