I’m please to announce that Andelee, over on the website has just published my article “Need an Instant Costume? Just Add Assiut!” featuring model Nicole Simone shot by photog Alisha Westerfeld. The article is about styling an assiut robe with a few tips that apply to dancers of any size, from size 2 to 22.
Andelee’s mission is to gather together informative articles, tips, hints and advice for us plus size belly dance. When Alisha and I were shooting photos for the book The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut there were many photos that we would have loved to use, but simply ran out of space. Why not take some of these wonderful photos and share them with the world and create some great content for a sister website!
Award winning plus-sized model, Nicole Simone who you can follow on Instagram here, or visit on FaceBook here, is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Her satiny skin, clear blue eyes, wicked curves, and mega-watt star power on stage, make her a force to be reckoned with!
And guess what? If you go and check out this article, you get to see some of Alisha’s photos in COLOR! Cloth of Egypt was published in black and white because so much of the assiut was black and white to begin with, and b/w printing saves the reader money. I promise that in the fullness of time, we will release another full-color book.
But in the meantime, enjoy!
Yours in Dance And Costuming,
~ Davina
July 14, 2015
I enjoy working with modern assiut and I often use my sewing machine for seams and hems. Many dancers like to open the side seams of their assiut garments from hem to hip for maximum freedom of movement. Most ready-made assiut robes, however, arrive stitched closed to the hem. Although assiut doesn’t fray, a clean smooth well stitched hem will hang and move better.
3 – Use your iron – Using your chalk line as a guide, fold and press your new hem in to place.
4 – Pin parallel to the hem – After your fabric has cooled off pin your new hem into place. I like to
6 – Sew slowly – Always go nice and slow so you can control the shape of the seam and pull your pins out as you sew. To remove your pins easily, simply use your thumb to capture the heads of the pin and as the machine pulls the fabric through, your thumb will pull the pin out of the cloth. This technique works best when using big-headed pins with brightly colored heads.
Love assiut robes, but aren’t sure how to style them? How they should fit? What type of belt would look best? Here is a collection of videos direct from the source, Egypt. These dancers illustrate different approaches to head, hip and jewelry embellishments. In all cases, the performers accent their hips with belt and usually either partially or fully cover their hair. Just remember, when you buy a new modern assiut robe, it will come in a very boxy square cut. As these dancers clearly illustrate, the preferred Egyptian fit is tailored to a slightly loose but body-skimming cut.
The super-glamourous author/dancer Princess Farhana featured me in a write up about “The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut!” entitled “
about the Costume: The turquoise and blue rhinestone costume was fun to design and build, and I wanted to take a few moments to discuss this particular bra. The base was purchased at Target for under $20. I bought the two colored assiut panels direct from Egypt from a vendor on eBay, total cost with shipping was $100. The blue bi-cone Swarovski crystals were purchased from Rhinestone Guy. The tummy drape is two necklaces from Shiny Sparkly Things. Other materials that went into this bra includes: thread, hooks and eyes, grosgrain ribbon and buckram interfacing. The total for materials and supplies of the bra and belt are approximately, $140. Not bad for such a bright and blingy costume.