One of my personal friends and local dancers was gifted a custom hair accessory by her partner (how nice!). We talked about how large she wanted it, and if she wanted any colours, etc. Since she wanted to have a piece to wear with both her latin and standard gowns (which were different colours) we decided to try a new idea: have a colour section of the hair accessory that could be interchangeable.
I tried a few solutions on an experimental piece – velcro, snaps, and nothing (weaving the separate pieces together) to see what would both be most convenient and produce a nice result aesthetically as well. She wanted to leave the hair piece on her head and change out the coloured sections and seemed inclined towards Velcro… so I went with velcro. Velcro isn’t my ideal choice, since it can get bulky easily… and my other concern is that velcro is also strong and even if you want to leave the base accessory pinned in your hair while you colour-change, disconnecting the top piece might tug so hard that she will have to re-attach the entire thing anyway. She has a competition this weekend so we’ll give it a go, and possibly have to switch it after depending on how she feels the velcro works. At least she’ll have lots of time between rounds 😉
I drew up two ideas for her: one that was more flowery “round” shape, and something that was longer and a little larger. Her one dress closely matched Light Turquoise, Blue Zircon and Aquamarine, while her other dress was purples (Purple Velvet, Heliotrope, and Light Amethyst). Her purple gown also has a decorative element involving gold circles so I wanted to get that in too.
She decided on “Variation 1” since she felt like it was a more versatile shape for her.
The finished result was a lot of fun – this is the first piece like this we’ve created and it could possibly blossom into a new product line, since the idea is fantastic. We just need to work out the velcro/snap/nothing issue, so Cindy essentially is now also our beta tester for the design.
I included a full Crystal-AB part as well, just in case she ends up with another gown at some point.
Ballroom hair accessory with interchangeable colours
Since the design concept produced a more three-dimensional outcome anyway, I incorporated some non-flatback stones (usually called “fancy” or “pointed-back”) to play up the texture. Those types of stones are extremely beautiful and the brilliance and sparkle are totally gorgeous. It was such a fun project and I look forward to where this idea may take us later 🙂