Costume Tips & Tricks

[ahmad]

Pug Tieing Front Turla

 

[Avneeto]

The pantiliner idea is pretty good. Think we'll have to try that at our next gig
And I don't know if this has been said, but for the pieces of your outfit that don't have a lot of work on them, ie chaadre and salwars, can def get dry cleaned. Its what I did with GMU's vardiya before Burgh

 

[Neha]

def watch out for pantiliner idea for girls to avoid pitstains - i did raas at one point and one girl on our team put them in to avoid pitstains and one ended up falling out on stage... needless to say quite awkward when everyone saw a random liner lying on stage... if u put liners safety pin them to the suit on the inside bc sweat kills the adhesive... also drycleaning our girls vardiyan worked really well too - they looked clean and smelled FRESH

a few tips for girls:
- if ur suits have zippers in the back - put a safety pin at the top under the zipper to prevent the zipper from sliding down.

- wear a tanktop underneath your suit - just in case your kurta goes up a little during a jump - u can also pin your suit down in the front (if you do this make sure to use small pins to pin the kurta to the inner gathers of the salwar and do a baitka to make sure u havent constricted urself and when you get up make sure ur kurta still looks normal and not bunched up).

- girls with silky hair put hairspray in your hair bc even when you cross the bobby pins - sometimes the chunni slips - as a precaution on our team this year we put a small safety pin at the top of each girls head in the worst case scenario that the bobby pins fail lol

- if your suit is too big for you - pin it in the back and pin the suit at the shoulder to your bra/tanktop straps

 

[Kirn;]

we didnt do parandhi's this past year because none of our girls knew how to braid them in and we tried the whole fake hair thing for girls with short hair and it just didnt work out so great...

Our last performance we had to wear parandhi's since there was a part in our dance where we had to spin them, and although one of the girls had shoulder length hair with lots of layers we couldn't quite get the parandhi to stay in her hair so she did a bun and just pinned the parandhi underneath her chunni, to the side .. you could never tell it wasn't attached! so you girls can always just pin them if you wanted to wear them

 

[Kirn;]

a question for the girls

make-up; do you have it the same? how "bright/standing out" is the eyeshadow? does everyone do their own or one person?
does it even make a difference if it is on or not?

I know it seems like no one will be able to see your make-up from stage, but honestly make-up makes a difference.. although you might not be able to see details it highlights features. Like a few of the other posts said, it obviously looks good for pictures and videos that may be up close, or closer than the crowd anyways .. also if you go on stage without make up you're gonna look really pale with all those lights on you! People are seeing you from far away so you want to look as visible as possible ..your lips always need colour, or else you look expression less from a distance. I dance ballet and hiphop and we go as far as red lipstick, but with bright coloured suits in bhangra that could look silly so just do a nice coloured gloss, fake lashes if possible, definitely foundation and blush! shimmer always looks nice with lighting .. and if your doing bronzer do it on your whole face, not just cheekbones or you will look hollowed out!

 

[kinnell]

def watch out for pantiliner idea for girls to avoid pitstains - i did raas at one point and one girl on our team put them in to avoid pitstains and one ended up falling out on stage... needless to say quite awkward when everyone saw a random liner lying on stage...

HAHAHAH That's hilarious (and really really awkward at the same time!

I dance ballet and hiphop

+1 to more ballet/hiphop dancers in the circuit!

 

[sgrewal30]

Ok this thing is about 6 pages so because I don't wanna go through ALL the pages

DOES ANYONE HAVE TIPS FOR PINNING SALWARS?? The part around our ankles is already closed up really well but there is just SOOO much fabric. Does anyone know how you can in your salwar really well so that when you do your batkas or anything else you dont get your feet caught?? plz and thank u

 

[Neha]

we safety pin the part around our ankles by folding the extra cloth over and then pinning it - works really well. ive heard some people use rubber bands? but i dont mess with that bc i dont want my circulation getting cut off but it def works for some people.

 

[sgrewal30]

we safety pin the part around our ankles by folding the extra cloth over and then pinning it - works really well. ive heard some people use rubber bands? but i dont mess with that bc i dont want my circulation getting cut off but it def works for some people.

Yeah we do that too. I never heard of rubber bands though! lol
We had them made so the ankle part is tight but the extra capra in the back near our knees gets caught in our heels.

 

[Kirn;]

I dance ballet and hiphop

+1 to more ballet/hiphop dancers in the circuit!

 

[dheerja]

Ok this thing is about 6 pages so because I don't wanna go through ALL the pages

DOES ANYONE HAVE TIPS FOR PINNING SALWARS?? The part around our ankles is already closed up really well but there is just SOOO much fabric. Does anyone know how you can in your salwar really well so that when you do your batkas or anything else you dont get your feet caught?? plz and thank u

So our salwars came out way too baggy when we got them from the tailor in India. So instead of getting them re-tailored we turned them inside out and temporarily safety pinned the folds to make them less baggy. As long as you follow the same line it does wonders.

 

[sgrewal30]

Ok this thing is about 6 pages so because I don't wanna go through ALL the pages

DOES ANYONE HAVE TIPS FOR PINNING SALWARS?? The part around our ankles is already closed up really well but there is just SOOO much fabric. Does anyone know how you can in your salwar really well so that when you do your batkas or anything else you dont get your feet caught?? plz and thank u

So our salwars came out way too baggy when we got them from the tailor in India. So instead of getting them re-tailored we turned them inside out and temporarily safety pinned the folds to make them less baggy. As long as you follow the same line it does wonders.

thank youuu! I'll try it

 

[Piarpreet Kaur]

Ok dont laugh, but i kept a tikka on with eyelash glue hahahah (this is what a make up artist does when she gotta improvise lol) and even saw the piece to the actual chunni. we were out of pins cos of the chunnis but... it worked for the performance at least. Im just not sure if its gonna be a cheap option cos eyelash glue it kind of costly.

a thing Ive done for weddings and all, I make a little puff on top of head and behind it a tight french braid, then clip the tikka (you only need a clip or two cos it attached to the braid) and then hide with the hair piece at front. Then put chunni normally...

About long skirts for girls i ironed the piece i wanted to take out and saw it. It looked kind of fluffy at the bottom, but we didnt have time to fix it. you can also roll it at the top and pin, i did this with a flamenco skirt hahaha and it was fine cos it was hidden by some hip scarf, but yah if your kutas are long enough and baggy enough...why not?

 

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[masterscorpiorv]

for some reason I read this thread and initially thought it was costume tips and tricks for halloween lol

 

[itsG]

So i just sat here and read through the entire thread and in '08 someone requested that a chadra tying video be put up to help people like me out
After a quick early morning performance I just felt the chadre don't come out perfectly how i want them to and i dont konw what it is about them thats wrong? I know how to tie a chadra and for the team I follow the whole crouch into a jugni while i'm tying it so the folds come out well but i still feel even though they dont show legs its just not how it should really really be. If i dont have them do the jugni while tying it just shows way too much leg.


Searched all over and I could only find one video about tying chadre that too from a very far single angled view so you cant really see what was going on during the process.


So two years later I ask the questkon again : Does someone have a good chadra tying instructional video that you could post up.


Thanks in advance

 

[mk5]

Hey y'all, i'm fairly new to the bhangra scene, but have managed to start up an amateur bhangra team at university....
wanted to ask u guys for some tips on how to make good bhangra mixes for routines etc....like what program do people use..

Also finding it really difficult to mix songs together to flow as one whole mix....any help would be appreciated

For thu guy who asked for tieing a chaadra:
sobTV - Episode 2 - How To Tie A Chaadra

Peace

 

[itsG]

thanks a bunch gotta give it a shot tomorrow or tuesday when i find some time....i usually pin it at the two corners that are left at the bottom basically the widest open it would go without it completely opening
is that where the rest of you guys pin it? or is there a different reference point you use to pin it? just some suggestions you know like what works for you?

 

[Jagga515]

I'm sure we've all had our fair share of paggs getting loose, chunnis falling off, salwar catching on our feet, missing buttons, who knows what other costume malfunctions. Any tips, tricks, pointers for getting ready to perform?

1) What to do w/ a salwar that is way too long for the girl?
2) What to do w/ a chaddar that is too short? [We sewed 4 inches of cotton on top of our boys']
3) Tips to keep paggs secure?
4) Tips for very heavy chunnis?
5) How to keep jewelry, especially tikkas, in place?
6) How to keep a fake gutt/braid secure and in place?
7) Anything else!

yo nigga call me, i got you

 

[Lilly Singh]

Hey sorry I don't if someone mentioned this but a few things:

1) As for the long salwars, one girl on our team has this problem. She's pretty short...bachari =) What she does is gather the length of the salwar from the waist and she uses two huge safety pins on either side to pin it. So she actually pins the waist area. It's been working for her thus far!

2) As for ankles, I think a few girls mentioned this already but we also pin the ankles with safety pins. Crucial to pin the safety pin the right way. If it were to ever pop open you would want the pin to be facing downwards and not upwards ready to stab your foot =) ... I think...I could just be making this up lol...

3) For Pirandis...my hair is super super long...but I still don't actually tie the pirandi...i find it places a lot of restrictions on me...instead we pin them to ourselves as if they were tied and put our hair in a bun...However if you feel cheap and un-majaajan lol...then you can tie the pirandi...go to fabric land or somewhere similiar and grab that black lace ribbon to wrap around your braid so it looks neat.

4) As for paghan...if you've never tried tying one without a banada...I highly suggest it. I used to always prefer bandanas but once I tried tying one without a bandana I found it WAY easier... The banada resists pressure and makes it difficult to tuck the turla in...at least thats what i find.

Question for you: Ladies...has anyone ever seen transparent bobby pins? I feel this would look so much better!