Tutu Etoile Construction Techniques Overview
Tutu Etoile is dedicated to designing and constructing fine quality, custom made to order tutus and tunics for dancers of all ages and company size and in most cases offer a quick delivery time.
All of our costumes are constructed in the U.S.A. with old world craftsmanship. Since we specialize in constructing only dance costumes, we are able to pay close attention to detail insuring that the quality and fit of your costume is impeccable.
We offer professional performance tutus in Classical, Romantic and Bell / Euro styles as well as Classical rehearsal skirts. All costumes including Men's Tunics and Women's Bodices can be built to your specifications. Our decorated classical and contemporary costumes are individually designed so that no two costumes are alike. In addition, our Tutu Bag is a great travel and storage accessory.
Each piece is offered with optional elements to allow you to save money on features that are not necessarily desired by all clients. For example, we have found over the years that not all of our clients prefer boning in their bodices. So rather than including all features, we have simplified our costumes by adding an ala Carte menu called "Options" which is located at the bottom of each costume category page. The decision to break down each feature in our ala Carte "options" menu was made solely to assist in the affordability and customization of your new costume.
Our decorated costumes are bid upon once we have a clear understanding of your needs. Our decorated costumes are typically $200.00 - $500.00 above the base price of the selected undecorated costume. This pricing varies upon the amount of detail in embellishment and whether a headpiece is included. We invite you to compare our quality and prices. You will not be disappointed! Many times, we are told that what our clients received had far exceeded their expectations.
With our vast experience in dance costume design and construction techniques, we are able to construct costumes that fit the requirements of the individual dancer to large companies and welcome your designs and suggestions.
Our tutus are constructed of the highest quality Diamond (A.K.A. Balanchine) net and tulle. We painstakingly stitch together each panel in a layer of net or tulle to insure balance in fit, durability and structure of your tutu. Our hand taking techniques used in our Classical and Bell tutus rival that of other companies that offer this service. We have been trained in Russian and English construction techniques and can offer all classical tutus in either method. Our tutu clients such as Sarah Webb (Principal with Houston Ballet) and Wendy Whelan (Principal dancer with New York City Ballet) returned to us in 2011 to order new rehearsal tutus after their past Tutu Etoile tutus finally gave out after 10 years of fervent use.
Bodices can either be sold individually or with a skirt. The stabilizing fabric used to line our Bodices is Coutil. This is a herringbone weave fabric that is commonly used in the construction of corsets and assists in preventing stretching. Although other fabric contents in Coutil are offered, we specifically use 100% cotton coutil. Another feature for stabilizing our Bodices is the use of steel spiral boning. We offer Steel Spiral Boning as an Ala Carte Option.
We boast the largest selection of men's tunics in the U.S. These tunics are lined with 100% Cotton Twill in the body and most styles of sleeves in our Ala Carte menu. All of our structured sleeves are stitched to a Lycra facing for mobility. We developed a Lycra sleeve facing rather than attaching a sleeve to a full under body garment to aide in breathability. Our clients are quoted to say that our tunics are very light in weight and have great ease of movement. And, many of our clients have requests to rent their Tutu Etoile tunics to other companies.
We invite you to commission us to build your next repertoire of costumes. You will be very satisfied!!!