What do you think about www.alwaysunderpay.com ? Their tutus are around $2. I would think that would be a great start for my kids classes.

I sell ther tutus (alwaysunderpay.com) in my studio and for gifts at the recital. They are super cute and the quality is great considering they are so cheap. The petticoats are a little more expensive, but super cute as well.

Revolution: Great for extra dances. Their costumes are reasonably priced, and most of the time, everything you see in the catalog picture is included with the costume. Very fast shipping, and their costumes come with a costume bag. Very convenient.

Costume Gallery: LOVE it! Almost all of my hip hop costumes always come from here. Very nice selection for all body types!

Art Stone: Some of the most beautiful and breathtaking costumes ever. They can get pricey, especially if you want to order accesories, but the costumes we've gotten have been worth the money.

Kelle: Very diva-esque! These are costumes you wear when you have the attitude to pull them off. Beautiful costumes, but I feel that some of them are a little skimpy, so that's not good for some parents and studios who like more modest stage wear. You also have to have the body to wear them.

We have ordered from Costume Gallery for the past 5 years as Art Stone didn't meet our delivery time and Weissmans. Costume Gallery is great. They respond immediately, send out last minute costumes, always return my calls and deliver on time or ahead of time and being in Canada this is an issue with the border. The only issue I have is there isn't enough variation as they do use the same costumes for a few years in some of the styles.

Dear Kilty
Sorry you had a problem in the past, but over the last few years things have changed greatly and mostly for the better.
We now have personal representatives that you can talk to every time you call, production is better than ever and our prices have dropped tremendously, so we think you would be very happy buying costume from us especially since we do have a beautiful selection this year.
We have many happy customers in Canada and we hope you will become one of them.
Sincerely,
Art Stone

No one mentioned this but has anyone used meekelle?! They are beyond amazing. It's almost a "custom catalog" as you can order from any years, change fabric, color, anything, and they charge a minimal fee to "customize!" we used them a TON a few years back and designed all our competition costumes! We took the bodice from one, sleeves from another, all kinds of alterations and colors and it cost $110. With stones. And it was beautiful thick material, and it's the only costume I saved from my dancing days lol

Get in Touch with them. Not sure how they are now, it's been a while, but they were FANTASTIC!! Especially if you compete and don't want the custom costume price

Costume Gallery offers outstanding customer service. You always speak "live" with someone and they always return their calls. If a size isn't right they will exchange it immediately at no extra charge (even when it was our fault). We often have students join in January (we order costumes in Dec) Costume Gallery has consistently helped us add additional costumes at the last minute, even a day before our entire order is shipping. The new costumer orders always make it into the mass delivery which is crucial for us Canadian customers so we don't have to pay broker fees twice. They have always guaranteed that we receive our costumes in time for our competitions which normally begin end of Feb. and they have never once let us down. Costumes also come with many pieces included such as gloves, head pieces, hats etc... I don't think I have ever seen a negative comment towards them.

Revolution has been wonderful to work with in the past couple of years. The costumes are good quality & come with all the accessories shown in the picture. They are also most of the time pretty inexpensive...definitely a good quality considering you get the accessories & they come packaged in garment bags! Customer service is wonderful. I will continue to use this company.

Curtain Call is another favorite. They also come packaged in garment bags and are a great quality. They have value costumes as well as more expensive ones.

Kelle company is one of my favorites for my competition team. Their costumes are more current than most companies and are a good quality. They are a little more expensive but you do get what you pay for. The catalog is usually the last one I get though.

Art Stone is another company I have used often but not as much anymore. I love that they have new designs every year so you're not looking at the same book year to year. They are less expensive but don't come with any accessories. Once you add in the accessories they are not a good value anymore. I haven't used them as much because the quality control was not as good as other companies. For a while some costumes were missing trim or missing pieces when sent to me. This hasn't happened to me in a while. I don't know if they have fixed this problem or I have just been lucky since I haven't ordered as much from them. I really like the styles of the costumes but sometimes the fabric choices are not as high of quality as other companies. I really like their platter tutus and use those often!! I wish they came in garment bags since so many other companies are going to that now. It makes the Art Stone costumes look cheaper when I give them out next to a costume from Curtain Call or Revolution!!

Those are the main companies I use each year.

I know it's been said before but I have to chime in here....I LOVE REVOLUTION!

Our recital is really small this year, so the limited selection was not a problem.

I added to orders three times, and even got an extra accessory package for a costume I ordered last year. It just arrived, and I ordered it on Saturday! I can't get this kind of service from my husband!

The quality is similar to Wolf Fording, without the long, long, wait and the pretentious customer service ("we make it special for you"....yet the sizes are standard?)Revolution's prices are a bit less, too.

Keep On Dancing*

My two favorite companies are Revolution and Costume Gallery. I have nothing but positive comments for both companies. I appreciate the LOW cost. I have ordered from A Wish Come True a few times and while I like the quality of their costumes I usually don't order from them because of cost.

Revolution is a wonderful company! They make pleasing the parents easy with great styles, garment bags & full accessories!!! I also love Curtain Call! Kelle has great competition costumes but I do not use them for recital. Reverence has beautiful competition costumes!!!
Never AGAIN will we use MARCEA!!!! horrible customer service & delivery time! Pretty costumes but not worth it!!

Had you asked me last year I would have raved about how great revolution was but not this year. I've been a fan of Revolution for years and have sold their dancewear and purchased lots of costumes. But, has anyone noticed a pretty big jump in prices this year? They've had the same costumes in there for so many years that I practically have the prices memorized...i definately noticed a big price hike this year. Also, I just processed a return today and they charged me a $5 restocking fee for a size exchange?! since when does revolution do that? AND they made me pay for my return shipping AND the $7 shipping to get my new costumes even though the costume I was returning was damaged!!!
I also don't like the way you can't exchange the dance shoes...like, at all.
AND, this year the sizing on the shoes we were ordering was totally off. After a call to revolution, apparently we are supposed to buy new shoe sizing kits every year!?!?! What a joke!

Last year Weissmans was kind of a nightmare, but they've pulled it together this year and i got the bulk of my stuff from them for recital. It all came early/on time, altho seems to be running smaller than i remember. Happy with their prices and I like how your discount gets applied to any/all additional costume orders you place that same season.

In my opinion, Costume Gallery, Curtain Call & A Wish Come True are really great companies (nice quality, cute designs, great customer service, on time) but would get a lot more of my business if their prices went down. Or even if their discounts for bulk orders were better. Plus I have to pay sales tax on Curtain call orders...i don't think any other catalogs charge sales tax?

Marcea, Meekelle, and Glamour are on my "not unless I'm forced at gunpoint" list. INSANE drama just trying to get my costumes on time. Glamour actually sold me a "MC" size costume and when i received it, they had cut out the tags and repackaged it. It was obviously not the right size & I called them...they finally told me that the costume never came in a MC (even tho the catalog and website said it did, and they confirmed my order), so they had them "altered"...yeah right, they were the same size as the Adult Smalls but without the foam boob cups. It was just shady.

Overall, i'd say Weissmans is my fave this year and they've been pretty consistant over the years, with the exception of last year, when they were so hard to get in touch with.

BOBODANCE, I totally agree with you! I went with almost all Weissmans this year just because the price can't be beat. Although I must say the quality isn't fantastic. They definitely need to do a better job with quality control. But any issue I called with, they resolved immediately at no extra charge to me. Regarding AWCT, Curtain Call and Costume Gallery, their costumes and customer service are great! The quality is so much better than Weissmans. I LOVE AWCT. However, the bulk discount isn't anything great, and that meant a lot to me with Weissmans this year. Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way.

we have noticed the big change in Revolution...we still like their ballet slippers for young students...their service is still quite good...but the costumes seem to all look alike..and the prices have changed too!..the sizing problem they had caused us a lot of chaos...they were not happy to exchange..we really loved them at the start..we hope they can fix the problems and return to the "happy attitude and great costumes' as in the beginning!

I've been having a lot of quality issues with Kelle this year! We use them as competition costumes but they are all getting holes by the seams!

Anyone else?

the comment above about buying a new sizing kit every year from Revolution will not fly here!...they were costly enough when originally purchased...the sizing, the quality, should not change!...where, oh, where, has good customer service gone!

Agree! Kelle has gone downhill! Straps have been sewn backwards, cheap & rip easily. Mostly in the lyrical dresses
Love the looks Kelle creates though.

Do not order from Marcea if you want to have your costume in time or work with a company that has good customer service.
I wish I would have read reviews about Marcea before I ordered.
I always thought they had cute costumes, but never had a need for them until this year...I fell in love with two costumes. I ordered my costumes 1/21 and gave them 4/23 as my must have "flag" date. No company I've ever ordered from actually went up to the limit date. But there's a first time for everything. The estimated ship date was April 6. So, when I my kids were invited to perform at two different showcases 4/21 and 4/25, I didn't think it would be a problem, but just called to double check . The first time I called, the lady I spoke with (Gigi) changed my "flag" date and assured me they would arrive on the 20th, but was not able to tell me when they would be shipped or if production had even begun on my costumes that I ordered 3 months ago. So I called twice more and not only could no one tell me where my costumes were, they said I never had my "flag" date changed both times I called. I called them 4 times, each time I was told something different. Every time they said they would call back with an answer, they never did. Of course I was getting nervous on 4/18 when they told me that they were still not sure if production had begun. So, of course 4/20 arrives and I didn't have my costumes. One lady spoke with suggested I have them delivered to Great America and hopefully I'd get them in time. She literally expected me to hunt down a costume box at a theme park while having 41 JH girls trail behind me in hopes--not assurence--that I would get them in time. So I told her to suck it and scrambled around for a costume. I asked the lady "why is it that all my other costumes I ordered arrived with no problems...." Her answer was that it was because they were different because they were an elite company and that I would just have to be patient. After the weekend, I let my anger go because the 4/21 show was before my originally promised date. However, 4/23--my original flag date--arrived and I still didn't receive my costumes. I called to find out why and they still couldn't find my costumes. Ther weren't sure where my costumes were so they said they would call me back. Of couse they didn't call back, so I had to call back. It turns out my costumes were shipped but the label was damaged so they were sitting in their wherehouse. So, I finally received my costumes yesterday...after both performances =( The sizing is way off and they literally scratched my dancers bellies raw because the sequins are so sharp. Oh and by the way, I was never offered a discount, refund, or even an apology. Terrible customer service, can't deliver what they promise, and bad sizing. They better look freaking adorable on stage or I might just burn the costumes.

Happy to say this is the first year in several that we have had all costumes here when we requested...everything fits....all are darling! Ordered from Weissmann, Libert, Wolff-Fording....no one else!....hope this is the new trend!...makes all of us much happier!

We ordered from Weissmans, AWCT, Revolution, Kelle, Algy, Reverence, Dansco, Curtain Call, Dance Couture NY, Pumpers, Glamour Costumes, Costume Gallery, Wolf Fording & Marcea.

Everyone except Marcea delivered on or before delivery date they had quoted. We were very happy with all the costumes and customer service with everyone but Marcea. I have a very odd feeling that Marcea would have shipped even later than they did if I hadn't have called about 2 weeks before our ship date to check on it, even with that phone call they still shipped about 2 weeks after they had indicated on the original order, because of the late ship date that class missed our picture day. Also every costume in the batch had issues. None of them fit correctly, straps were attached differently on several of the costumes and the attached material was draped incorrectly on 2 of them. I didn't even bother to call to get them fixed, we decided to fix them vs. trying to exchange them as I didn't want to ship them back once I finally had them in my hands.