Thought Provoking Belly Dance Costumes: the good, the bad and the hideous

[Tourbeau]

‘"Costume, Tattoo, or Skin Condition?’ I vaguely remember the leg coverings like that but not in detail, was it very thinly decorated, so you couldn’t see what pattern it actually was?

These are a few of the current generation of the style. I remember many of the early ones being red, which meant that if you were watching a decorated leg poking in and out of the skirt, you'd be like, "Are those scabs? No, wait, they're sequins. Definitely sequins, because you probably wouldn't skin your leg in the same pattern as the bra."

If you search that store for "Venus Collection," you can see a few more variations. It looks like many of them now integrate the design all the way from the bra to the ankle. Pro: A long, continuous motif means you realize sooner that the leg markings are part of the costume design. Con: Now it looks like you wrapped a slightly-too-small-but-floor-length sheet of spandex over a decorated catsuit.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=16585
https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=19022
https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=11470

 

[Tourbeau]

While I was looking for those, I also came across these beauties...

Do you worry about sideboob? Then here are a pair of related costumes so you'll know the audience is definitely seeing full coverage on the sides. They might be confused about what is going on in the front from a distance, though. I dunno, folks. The last time I saw two sisters this scary, they were standing in the hallway of the Overlook Hotel.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22442
https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22439


Can you help me? I'd like a costume that looks like I'm wearing an ill-fitting, nine-year-old girl's string bikini on the top, and a skirt I could barely afford to decorate on the bottom.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22974


I don't have time to make a normal costume!!! I'm just going to glue some stuff on my undies and hope nobody notices this isn't even actually a skirt.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22369

 

[Tourbeau]

Popping bopping body gymnastics trying to pass for dance get tedious pretty quick.

If you (any "you") want to pop and lock and you don't want to go over to the tribal side because you're into "authenticity," then just dance to mahraganat. As long as your "cake" isn't "wearing a two-piece belly dance costume," you can have your cake with mahraganat and eat it, too, since most Egyptians don't belly dance to this music anyway.

 

[Amulya]

That was Helen Vlahos and she's still around. But she also could dance like nobody's business.

She’s the dancer I described? the video was from a TV show?
Shes still dancing? Hope so.

There was also a dancer who could let a man stand on her stomach, that was scary! My belly muscles are the strongest ones I have but I would never dare to risk that party trick!

 

[Amulya]

While I was looking for those, I also came across these beauties...

Do you worry about sideboob? Then here are a pair of related costumes so you'll know the audience is definitely seeing full coverage on the sides. They might be confused about what is going on in the front from a distance, though. I dunno, folks. The last time I saw two sisters this scary, they were standing in the hallway of the Overlook Hotel.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22442
https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22439


Can you help me? I'd like a costume that looks like I'm wearing an ill-fitting, nine-year-old girl's string bikini on the top, and a skirt I could barely afford to decorate on the bottom.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22974


I don't have time to make a normal costume!!! I'm just going to glue some stuff on my undies and hope nobody notices this isn't even actually a skirt.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22369

That last one! The skirt is a crotch-waterfall!

That shop has so many unfortunate designs but they must be selling, they have been around for so long!

 

[Amulya]

If you (any "you") want to pop and lock and you don't want to go over to the tribal side because you're into "authenticity," then just dance to mahraganat. As long as your "cake" isn't "wearing a two-piece belly dance costume," you can have your cake with mahraganat and eat it, too, since most Egyptians don't belly dance to this music anyway.

i have been out of the belly dance loop for a decade so I had to look that music up and no, that is not danceable. At all! What could you do with that? Nothing

 

[Greek Bonfire]

I actually have a coin that she flipped on her Belly like that. In with my "first tip" framed dollar. And yea, can she dance! When you can dance like she does, you can do parlor tricks all you want! I've taken workshops from her too.

That's because tricks are additional form of entertainment she offers AFTER she dances like the pro she is.

 

[Tourbeau]

i have been out of the belly dance loop for a decade so I had to look that music up and no, that is not danceable. At all! What could you do with that? Nothing

I don't want to keep going off topic, so here's the short answer: I agree this music doesn't lend itself to any style of traditional belly dancing. It typically fails to provide enough compositional interest to hang a BD performance on, because mahraganat tends to invest value in the lyrics while the music itself is quite repetitive, but young Egyptians don't care what we want, and they enjoy listening and social dancing to this music. Mahraganat is now the dominant musical form in Egypt and it has been aggressively colonizing Egypt's pop-culture landscape over the last decade. I posted some dance videos here earlier this year, which are probably already out of date, because this stuff ages as fast as TikTok trends http://bellydanceforums.net/threads/who.20108/page-4#post-244241

But if you prefer "ageless," here is Helena's channel with all sorts of dance videos, including the quarter rolling on the old TV show "That's Incredible!"
https://youtube.com/user/HelenaVlahosDance/videos

 

[Zorba]

That's because tricks are additional form of entertainment she offers AFTER she dances like the pro she is.

Correct. And you only do one and you only do it ONCE.

As for Tourbeau's latest costume list, here's a new word: "Barfulous"...

 

[Daimona]

While I was looking for those, I also came across these beauties...

Do you worry about sideboob? Then here are a pair of related costumes so you'll know the audience is definitely seeing full coverage on the sides. They might be confused about what is going on in the front from a distance, though. I dunno, folks. The last time I saw two sisters this scary, they were standing in the hallway of the Overlook Hotel.

https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22442
https://www.bellydancestore.biz/gallery.php?catId=1&productId=22439

I showed one of thes pics to my hubby, and my god - his facial expression when seeing them gave me a really good laugh.

 

[Amulya]

Bumped into this one in my Facebook memories, I took this photo at a party in Europe. Look closely and you can see the odd gingerbread men hanging around the belt. Most the the costumes at that party were not so very nice, but this one was just super weird

 

[Harry]

Bumped into this one in my Facebook memories, I took this photo at a party in Europe. Look closely and you can see the odd gingerbread men hanging around the belt. Most the the costumes at that party were not so very nice, but this one was just super weird

So, what sort of party? One of those so-called "inappropriate haflas"?

 

[Shanazel]

Maybe a cookie lover's version of displaying scalps of the conquered? More concerning is if the dancer moves much, there will be a serious crotch shot.

Hiya, Harry!

 

[Tourbeau]

I finally got around to watching this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony yesterday. Is Lenny Kravitz wearing assuit here? (I don't think it's some sort of problem if he is. It's just not the "lewk" I'd have personally styled him in to induct Lionel Richie.)

https://wwd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-2022-red-carpet-11.jpg?w=750

 

[Shanazel]

Cool costume. Alas, I couldn't enlarge it enough to look closely at the fabric.

 

[Tourbeau]

Cool costume. Alas, I couldn't enlarge it enough to look closely at the fabric.

This was the original link https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashio...l-hall-of-fame-induction-ceremony-arrivals-5/

It has an enlarge feature, but when I click on it, it just opens a new window with the photo by itself. On an Android phone, I can unpinch/zoom in a bit more, but it's not perfect resolution. It does look like metal ribbon on mesh as far as I can tell, though.

 

[Shanazel]

I found THIS, saved it, then blew it up as big as I could. Definitely some kind of fine mesh and metal ribbon that appears to go in and out of the fabric- not appliqued or couched. I can't tell if it is assuit or not, but it's a pretty good imitation if it isn't.

 

[Amulya]

So, what sort of party? One of those so-called "inappropriate haflas"?

At a belly dance gala! So expensive and it wasn’t that great, they had maybe one or two well known dancers (can’t remember who) and the rest was was filled with wannabes

 

[Amulya]

I finally got around to watching this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony yesterday. Is Lenny Kravitz wearing assuit here? (I don't think it's some sort of problem if he is. It's just not the "lewk" I'd have personally styled him in to induct Lionel Richie.)

https://wwd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-2022-red-carpet-11.jpg?w=750

yes that is assuit!

 

[Zorba]

Looks like Assuit, and it even appears to have the hand of Assuit - I've worn enough of it to have a good idea. "New-new Assuit" to be sure, but still Assuit.