Costume Care Practices from Style Pro Rebecca Girard



Rebecca Girard

One of the toughest jobs a coach is faced with is how to maintain costumes so they look brand new, even two or three years after they are purchased. Teaching team members to care for costumes consistently from game to game and year to year is equally as challenging. As the former Director of the Detroit Pistons Dance Team- Automotion, and various other pro teams, I’ve learned a few important lessons and tips along the way. If followed properly, they will certainly extend the life of all your beautiful costumes!  

 

Below are some great tips to share with your teammates and you can certainly add your own expertise to help maintain the life of your costumes. Also included is a list of the recommended supplies. 

Be sure to keep the Costume Care Cards enclosed in all the AKD/Go Wild! Wear packages and also refer to our website for updates!

 

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Mesh-zip laundry bags
• Towels
• Tissue Paper
• Tooth brush
• Dreft or other baby detergent
• Acetone Nail Polish Remover (for boot use only)
• Cotton Balls

STORAGE

·    Store each costume item in a mesh-zip (breathable) laundry bag. (Bags can be purchased at a dollar store)

·    Wrap costumes that have crystals in tissue paper.

·    NEVER leave your costumes, poms or boots in your car!

• If garment (sequin area) should become dampened by water or perspiration: do not place garment in an airtight bag or plastic bag. 
• Air out costumes and poms after every performance.
• Roll sequins and poms in a towel to remove any oils, etc.
• Do not allow perfume, deodorant, hair sprays, or tanning sprays to come in contact with sequins or whites.
• Always put your warm up jacket or towel around you when spraying hairspray, perfume, tanning spray, deodorant, etc.   

WASHING

• Wash costumes immediately following every performance.  Rinse out with cold water so that stains and dirt do not set. 
• Never leave costumes unattended while washing or left soaking.
• Never let anyone else wash your costumes!
• Spot cleaning should always be your first choice in taking care of soiled costumes for perspiration problems and/or until you can wash thoroughly.
• Use a toothbrush to spot clean, especially around the patches/logos.
• Turn sequins inside out to preserve colors.
• After washing garments, roll in a towel then hang to dry. Some sequin outfits may need to dry flat, be sure to lay on a towel.      

BOOTS
 

• Use a small amount of pure acetone nail polish remover on a cotton pad to rub off scuff marks. (Test spots first.)
• Zip boots and store in cloth bag when not being worn.

Thanks for all the great tips, Rebecca! To learn more about all of our style pros visit the Go Wild! Wear page.

 

Angela King Designs, Inc.

Did You Know... Growing Trends in Swimwear

Did you know that Angela King Designs creates swimwear? With a customer base rooted in professional cheerleading and dance, many wonder... why swimwear?

Nearly all NBA and NFL cheerleading squads create a team swimwear or uniform calendar. As the chosen costume designer for many elite performance teams in professional sports, AKD has oftentimes extended its brand to create custom swimwear for these calendars. The AKD brand has been worn in calendars of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders, the Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders and the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders, to name a few. Custom swimwear has creatively featured the team logos, and even airbrush creations.   

Since the creation of the Go Wild! Wear collection in 2009, many individual performers are selecting to shop AKD online for audition performance wear. But what about the need for swimsuits? In recent years, there has been a growing trend of the audition "pageant" - a final show of team candidates, many times walking the runway in - you guessed it - swimwear!   

Go Wild! Wear now features a special swimwear collection designed for the Miss United States Pageant. The 2012 national board wanted to offer a preferred resource for swimwear that was classy and glamorous. The pageant wanted a variety of color options, the ability to adjust the fit, and of course - a little sparkle! One-piece and bikini styles were created to feature rhinestone accents.

The swimwear was worn on stage at nationals by several contestants including Miss Arkansas Lauren Parker, Miss Connecticut Ashley Leach, Miss Guam Megan Betteridge and Miss Junior Teen California Samantha Figueroa.

The Miss United States Swimwear Collection is available for anyone interested in looking glamorous on the runway, at a photo shoot, in the pages of the team calendar, or worn the traditional way - lounging poolside. Angela King Designs continues to offer custom swimwear for organizations and teams.  

Shop Go Wild! Wear Swimwear

Spotlight on Model Search Top 10 Winner Alanna of the San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancers

In March 2012, Angela King Designs named the National Top 10 winners of its first Sports Model Search. Over 200 applicants submitted photos, applications and videos to be considered for prizes and glory within the cheerleading and dance industry. One member of the Top 10 was Alanna, a 2011-2012 San Antonio Spurs "Silver Dancer." Let's take a closer look at Alanna's year since becoming a model search finalist!

Since AKD is based near San Antonio, Texas, we invited Alanna to take part in our exclusive Style Pro Annual Fashion Show to reveal new products to our Go Wild! Wear sales reps. Alanna showed off her personality and beauty walking the runway in AKD, and she even appears in some of our online catalog photos!

There has been much more going on in Alanna's career, and she was gracious enough to send us an email catching us up.

"This past year has been a year for the books. I convinced myself I could be in three places at once, and believe it or not, I sometimes did it! Since competing for Angela King Designs Sports Model Search, I've finished... and began new chapters in this nutty adventure of life! For instance, I completed my first and only year on the San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancers. Making it all the way to the NBA Semifinals, we ended the year knowing we did the best we could by keeping our fans excited and cheering on our beloved Spurs. Maybe next time guys.

"I also gave up my crown as The Queen 2012 (La Reina) for Fiesta San Antonio. Fiesta took place during the beginning of playoffs so I was one busy gal. Did I mention I have a day job during all of this? I couldn't ask for a better job than working for NBC San Antonio as the Entertainment Reporter for the San Antonio Living show. 

"The show is my main focus now that I've finished my other duties. As the entertainment reporter, I get to interview some interesting people. Recently I interviewed comedian Chris Tucker, San Antonio Spur Tony Parker and country music star Carrie Underwood. My ultimate goal is to become a national TV personality. Dream big or you will never know your potential! In the meantime feel free to tune in at 10:00 a.m. on Channel 4 WOAI!"

Thanks, Alanna! Watch for the official registration of the next AKD Sports Model Search to begin in January 2013! It could be you!

Salute to Our Military This Veteran's Day

Angela King Designs and Go Wild! Wear would like to say Happy Veteran's Day!

We are proud to outfit many professional, semi-professional and collegiate performance teams who support our military through game day performance, USO tours and local base visits.

The AKD Go Wild! Wear "Patriot Collection" provides a percentage of sales to The Wounded Warrior Project to support our veteran soldiers. The collection features military influence in a variety of camo fabrics as well as a large assortment of red, white and blue costumes.

This season, we added the camo boot cuff which has created a quick costume change for teams without a large expense. View the boot cuffs here!

Patriot Collection costumes are available for teams within about four weeks, as well as individual order. Oftentimes teams create their own custom costumes, a service we proudly offer with many years of experience. Just contact AKD with your costuming needs.

We also give a special thank you to our Style Pro Sandy Charboneau! Outside of her work with AKD Go Wild! Wear, Sandy has dedicated her career to entertaining the troops.

As a former cheerleader and director for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders, Sandy developed a passion for entertaining U.S. military bases located around the world. In 2010, Sandy formed Pro Tour Productions, offering entertainment tours featuring a variety of NFL cheerleaders, NBA dancers, professional athletes, musicians, comedians and other performance groups.

Earlier this fall, Sandy toured Djibouti, Kuwait and Bahrain. Here's a photo of her players and cheerleaders (wearing AKD custom dresses) alongside our national heroes.

 
Thank you to all who serve our nation at home and abroad. We are proud that Angela King Designs and Go Wild! Wear is MADE IN THE USA and always will be.

Spotlight on Model Search National Top 10 Winner Kari of the Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleaders

In March 2012, Angela King Designs named the National Top 10 winners of its first Sports Model Search. Over 200 applicants submitted photos, applications and videos to be considered for prizes and glory within the cheerleading and dance industry. One member of the Top 10 was Kari K., an alumna Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleader. Kari cheered on the NFL sidelines for four seasons, appearing in swimsuit calendars, on television and radio. But there is much more to this top ranking sports model!

 

In recent months Kari added the title of "Coach" to her resume. In summer 2012, she returned to her alma mater at the University of Central Missouri to direct the "Mulekickers" dance team. In addition to leading this talented group of collegiate performers, Kari enjoys running races with her husband, with whom she just celebrated a one-year anniversary.

Since cheering three seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and appearing on ABC's The Bachelor Season 13, Kari has discovered her natural talent in runway fashion, print and commercial modeling. The AKD Sports Model Search photo submissions were just a small taste of Kari's work.

 

Recently, she has appeared in many fitness and bridal advertisements. She enjoys modeling in charitable runway shows including "Martinis Women & Shoes" to support Heartland Women's Leadership Council.

 

It's clear why Kari was selected for the model search and that she will continue to find success. "It was an honor to represent such a well established brand in cheerleading, dance and fitness - three things I love!" said Kari of her final rankings in the 2012 AKD Sports Model Search.

Watch for the official registration of the next AKD Sports Model Search to begin in January 2013! It could be you!

Spotlight on AKD Junior Designer Julia - Age 10

About the AKD Junior Designer Program: Our intentions in creating the AKD Role Models "Junior Designer" program are to promote design and creativity in our society's youth. We want to reach out to young designers and help them to realize their goals of becoming future fashion leaders. We hope that these Junior Designers will influence more children and teens to become young leaders and encourage them to follow their designing dreams.  

Blog #1: Following Julia, Age 10, Italy: Our first AKD Junior Designer is Julia, age 10, from Italy. Julia enjoys sports and learning about health and nutrition. She loves cheerleading and gymnastics and is very excited to be one of our designers! Julia will have the opportunity to have a hands on experience in the world of designing by creating her own custom costume and seeing it come to life in the AKD production office! Since she has experience with drawing pictures and sketching her own designs, we feel that this will come very naturally to her.  


Over the course of a two month period ranging from the beginning of November till the end of December, we will be documenting her AKD designing adventure. We will be sending her swatches of fabric, receiving her sketches, making the garment, and finally, sending her the finished product (our favorite part!). We are so excited to be a part of this journey with Julia and we can't wait to see the costume once she finally gets to wear it!

Julia has expressed her enthusiasm about being the first designer for our Role Models program:

"I am excited about being an AKD Junior Designer because it is a great opportunity for me to learn more about becoming a designer. This experience will provide me the chance to see how fashion designers do their job and what steps it takes to make a cheerleading uniform. I think it will be amazing to see how much time and hard work it takes to be a fashion designer, and I hope my imagination and creativity will help me design a beautiful and colorful cheerleading uniform.

I look forward to seeing how the uniform I design comes out and then seeing how it is liked by others. My goal is to learn as much as I can as a Junior Designer and decide if this is the path I should take as an adult."

We are so happy for you, Julia! To learn more about our Junior Designer program, visit the Role Models website and see more about Julia as well as our other designers!

Angela King Designs, Inc.