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The months of planning that go into Tess Daly's 'Strictly Come Dancing' wardrobe
This weekend sees the return of Strictly Come Dancing, at 9pm tonight on BBC One Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will introduce the series which will run up until Christmas. The wardrobe department is tasked with creating hundreds of sparkling costumes for the dancers and celebrities, but just because Tess and Claudia aren't wearing Tango-ready costumes, doesn't mean planning their outfits isn't an equally strategic operation.
Here Tess Daly's stylist James Yardley explains the months of preparation that goes into getting dressed for Strictly Come Dancing...
This season Tess is heading in a new style direction
This is the first series of Strictly which Yardley has worked on, and he wanted to take Tess Daly in a different direction, avoiding looks that sparkle as much as the glitter ball trophy. "I noticed in the years before she’s worn a lot of sequins, feathers, draping, that don’t tend to age a woman, but can age a woman in different parts of their life," says Yardley. "Tess is 47 but she doesn’t look 47, she is so young looking and I wanted to make sure her styling matched her youth. I wanted to have that Tom Ford at Gucci look, with strong shapes, no more draping and not too much embellishment. I have left a lot of the sequins to the dancers."
They start planning the looks as early as May
"I started putting things together after the BAFTAs in May so it began very early," says Yardley of finding Tess's 30 looks. "Some are custom made and bespoke and some I buy off-the-rack and tailor, so I started thinking about how I wanted her to look very early. I then started officially just after the promo shoot in August with a fitting when I got 22 outfits out of the 30 done." Although all this planning means most outfits are decided far in advance, Yardley leaves a little room for last-minute changes and swaps. "There are new things dropping all the time, so it’s good to leave a few nights' outfits slots empty, so I can buy things leading up to the final."
Jennifer Lopez is Tess' inspiration for Strictly
"I have a very thorough idea of what I want her to look like from the start to the finish of the series," explains Yardley. "There’s references of people who are a similar age to her, mainly Jennifer Lopez. In particular J-LO whole aesthetic from hair to styling to make-up is something that translates well onto Tess. People probably wouldn’t think it would but she’s a really strong reference to put on her and a strong way of channeling her style."
Claudia and Tess' outfits are carefully co-ordinated
Claudia and Tess' stylists meet up weeks before filming to plot out what they will both wear for the entire series. "Myself and Claudia’s stylist sat down when we both had done our fittings and went through as far as we could, as far as to 14 shows, and tried to match them together," explains Yardley. "We have an idea of what Tess and Claudia will both wear on the same show. They both can’t wear the same designer, they can’t wear the same colour - they favour colour on Strictly so I took that one on because I know Tess likes colour."
He adds: "We look at different weeks, and put them together one by one. When you sit down and look at it all it’s 30 gowns in total. Some that you see on the first meeting might not make it to week 7, but it’s good to have an idea of where you are going with the styling to show the producers. They spend the most time on screen so it’s important they look true to the brand."
The brands we can expect to see Tess wearing
"I do love mixing my designers with mid to high end brands, when it comes to Strictly there is an expectation on her as a presenter and how she should look and what she should wear," explains Yardley. "Some of the brands we're working with include Halston, for the cuts because of her height, and Roland Mouret and Antonio Berardi."
The pressure to find the final dress
The Strictly Come Dancing final might be over Christmas, but Tess has already started planning her gown for the series climax, as this is arguably the trickiest night to dress for. "You want to go all out and do an amazingly insane gorgeous dress that’s going to knock everyone’s socks off, but it has to be cohesive and work with Claudia," explains Yardley. "In Tess’ case you have to be able to run around in it because it’s live TV and Tess does so much running around, so the heels can’t be too high, it can’t be too narrow on the ankles, it needs to have a split and movability."
Here is everything you need to know about this year's series...