Back from LA

Last weekend we went to Los Angeles for the Embassy Ball competition. Of course, being in LA I had to check out their fashion district where, as I heard, 100s of fabric stores are concentrated in a relatively small space and the fabrics are so cheap that it's impossible not to buy a lot. Well, the concentration of the stores is true, but the prices are low if you're coming from somewhere you don't have 2 discount fabric stores 5 min walk from your house. But if you're coming from NY fashion district, then the prices are great.

First of all, the amount of stores is just crazy. We spent several hours just going from one to another. In the process, we slowly learned that many stores sell the same fabrics and it's very hard to find good quality stuff. I guess if you live in LA, you just find favorite stores and go there, but we didn't have this knowledge. Better quality stores are more expensive though. I particularly liked the store I got some chiffon and a fabric very similar to Chrisanne's dance crepe. Interestingly, the "dance crepe" fabric was produced in the US and was obviously much cheaper than Chrisanne.

Second, the prices are not stable there and you have to haggle. From conversations with a store owner, the economy is really bad and the stores are not doing very well. So the first price they ask is a bit higher than I would expect. Being trained by my local discount stores, I just could not justify most purchases since I could get the same fabrics for same or lower price at home. The only stores that were absolutely amazing are the everything for $1 per yard. Here I bought about 20 yards of organza! This is just perfect.

Overall, some fabrics for dance costumes were relatively hard to find. Non of the store owners I talked to had every seen satin chiffon. They kept pointing at the lining, which is not the same and does not drape as well. It was also hard to find good light satin. Sportswear lycra was somewhat missing as well. Horsehair braid was not available in any trim stores.

What was easy to find were organza, chiffon, lycra for practice wear, stretch net.

So, my overall haul was: white stretch net, white chiffon, white organza, hot pink organza and black "dance crepe". You can see where it's all going, it looks like I'm going to make white ballroom dress next.

As for made by EL stuff to show... I did make my own hair for this competition, but I forgot to take a photo of that. I also don't see the official photographs from the event, so I'm going to post a picture of my hair I did for Blackpool this year. Sorry about the blurriness. I took it in the dark room with my shaky hands using my iPhone.



EL