Cute Suit Riot

He Goes:

Back again! We hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year. I spent an entire week not dancing, and now that I've come back to lindy it feels like I've forgotten half of what I know. Fortunately it's possible to distract onlookers from your feet with garish colours and stripes and patterns.


I have a bit of an old nerd's relationship with clothes. I've always been somewhat suspicious of any endeavour that requires special clothing - the only jobs I'd consider dressing up for would be astronaut or dragon-slayer - and layered on top of that I am both lazy and insecure. Laziness prompts me to just throw something comfortable on and have done with it, and insecurity points out that I'm not going to look great whatever I wear, so why bother even trying?

But there's no getting around it - it does look good when you see a swankily-dressed couple dancing. During my dance marathon I saw a couple who were both wearing sharp suits and hats, and when they danced together - good grief, they did hardly anything in the way of moves, but their footwork was crisp and they were dapper as anything! The floor at Mouthful O' Jam is fast already, but with these two on it dripping cool everywhere it must have been like a skating rink.

Back in Dublin, before I started swing dancing, one of our ballroom friends told us that she used her vintage dresses as a partner filter - when she wore it, she said, the better leads would ask her to dance more often than if she went dancing in civvie clothes. I suppose the issue here is looking like you take dancing seriously. It can be misleading - I've danced with follows in full-on vintage dress who aren't particularly good dancers, and of course everyone's familiar with the experience of watching someone rock up in jeans, T-shirt, and trainers who then turns out to be absolutely amazing. But there's enough overlap between the vintage dressers and the swing dancers that someone turning up to a swing social in 40's gear will probably be at least familiar with the basics.

Outside of the issue of looking the part, though, there's also the utility of dance clothes. People didn't start dressing the way they did for dancing /entirely/ due to fashion, and that's what finally started to tip me over the edge into dressing up for dancing.

I think it's safe to say that I am a sweater. I used to watch people dressed up in vintage-style three-piece suits and hats and wonder how it was that they didn't evaporate the minute they started dancing. I wore a T-shirt and trousers and by the time a lesson was half-way done my shirt started to resemble a dishrag at the end of a particularly vigorous washing-up session. I began to take a spare shirt, but even that - well, the problem with changing into a spare shirt is that you're still too warm. Unless you go topless and stand out in the cold for a few minutes your second shirt gets soaked through with sweat about one dance after you've put it on. If I was to stay dry throughout a whole night I'd need a T-shirt dispenser in the men's toilets.

Then I figured it out, the reason why people could get away with wearing so much clothing without heat stroke. First off, they weren't dancing as much as I was. They were doing some socialising, they were perhaps skipping some of the real high-speed numbers. But the clothes were also helping - the extra layers made you warmer, okay, but they also soaked up some of the sweat before it could get to the top layer. So I started wearing vests under light top-shirts, and - well, it worked (to some extent - I didn't buy my shirts from a wizard).

Everything I wear now, pretty much, I pick on the basis of utility. Shoes? Dance shoes do let you get away with some cooler moves. Braces? They remove the restriction around the waist and allow for freedom of movement and a tiny bit more airflow (there's also a secondary benefit in ballroom, in that you have no belt buckle to press uncomfortably into your follow's stomach). Tie bar? Keep that unruly tie under control in fast spins. Shirt Suspenders? You want your cuffs a little shy of your hands, right?

Waistcoat?

...ok, so perhaps the waistcoat is just for making me look just a little bit better.

Well played, clothes, well played.

At least the queen of belles isn't tempted to look at her feet.

She Goes:

When you put your work clothes on, it helps you change your frame of mind into work mode. When you get all dressed up for a night out it helps you get in the party mood. Why would it be any different for dancing?

Like Keith, (or anyone who has trouble tearing themselves away from the dance floor) I'm a bit of a sweater. I bring a complete change of clothes, and one if not two choices of dance shoe, plus some sort of small snack for those mid-swing energy dips. (I was a girl guide- the motto was be prepared; this is why I can't seem to go anywhere without at least two bags!)

Having a swing wardrobe (which is actually becoming just my wardrobe because I ask myself if a) it's suitable for work or b) can I dance in it) helps me get in the zone.

I've got my casual dance stuff, and my dressier stuff, and a few pieces that can be dressed up or down. (The guys are probably drifting off at this point while the ladies are nodding)

I love watching people dressed up to super fly levels cut a fine figure in the dance floor. I long to be that sharp. Crisp makeup, perfect hair, beautifully pressed vintage threads, neat shoes....

... But it's not me! I'm the one with messy hair, pink face, fanning herself frantically. I asked one follow, who I consider to be particularly well presented at all times, how she does it. (The continually looking sharp) her response was that she dances less and socialises more. I understand... But again, not me. She's been dancing for much longer so I suppose her relationship with dancing has evolved more than mine. I choose dancing. I'll stand about and look pretty some other time. And by that, I mean never.

When I do get the gladrags on, however, I don't necessarily notice a difference in who asks me, like Keith mentioned (because I'm in demand regardless, arf arf), but I do notice a difference in the moves I'm lead into.

I recently went to a killer christmas party, to which I wore a rather pretty dress with a full skirt, complete with petticoat.

I got spun a lot! And by a lot, I mean a flippin' lot! Which I found quite gratifying. I know my lead liked it. And it created a breeze much needed in a hot hall!...However as I was rocking so much fabric it did mean that during the faster songs sometimes a hand accidentally strayed up my skirt. No, not like that. My petticoat was dancing on a 2 beat delay!

When I'm in a pencil skirt, which is my general preference, I tend to shimmy and wiggle more. Since I've started dancing in heels that wiggling has increased 10-fold at least.

Why do I prefer a pencil skirt? Well, for a few reasons. Generally from observations I've made, gaggles of ladies in full skirts more often than not don't dance. (I'm referring to those hen parties that randomly show up on some social swing nights) Add to that the delay they dance with, plus the space the skirt can take up on a crowded dance floor... And pencil skirts take up less space in an already bulging bag...That's why. Pretty though. Perhaps I'll come back to the full skirt in summer.

Perhaps.