While the Strictly Come Dancing costumes might take shape in little more than 24 hours, planning for the show's wardrobe — there are in the region of 500 costumes — begins in May.
Costume chief Vicky Gill — who has headed up the department since 2012, and whose fashion CV includes designing for Kylie, Girls Aloud and Dancing On Ice — meets all the contestants over the summer.
Though she will have researched them, it's only at that first meeting that she discovers their tastes and idiosyncrasies.
Viscountess Weymouth, for instance, wasn't a fan of purple, while Anneka Rice didn't want to wear pink.
Vicky Gill (pictured) has headed up the Strictly Come Dancing costumes department since 2012, and has a fashion CV that includes designing for Kylie, Girls Aloud and Dancing On Ice
And their opinions will inevitably only grow as the show goes on.
'Early in the run they haven't got a lot of experience, so where we are now they are much more confident to say what they like!' laughs Vicky.
Vicky and her team — about 35 of them, although it grows throughout the week — like to have a few dresses made for each celebrity prior to launch, but once the knockout process begins, it's a week-by- week affair.
'It's very fast-paced; I feel like we all step on to a train back in August and then it picks up speed and it's a case of us keeping everyone on the train,' says Vicky. 'We don't know who is going out so it is very much a seven to ten-day process.'
Having started to thinking about concepts for the following week on a Thursday, once she knows who's survived the weekend's results show, it's all systems go.
'On a Sunday night, Monday morning I do very, very rough sketches of all the silhouettes I feel will exist within the show,' she explains. 'I need to think about the whole picture, not just one person and then I go back to each individual and try to think what shape do I need for the dance style and what shape do I think they will be happy wearing.'
On Monday and Tuesday, she prefers to work quietly in her personal studio, while a team of six in the BBC studio deals with 'buying, shoe requests and general upkeep of the Strictly wardrobe' — although she's rarely left in peace.
A hit with fans, Musicals Week creates a pressure for the design team to live up to the expectations of viewers.
For AJ’s waltz to Edelweiss from The Sound Of Music, Vicky wanted to capture ‘the essence’ of what people think of when they recall the musical.
She opted for a delicate pale blue three-quarter length number reminiscent of the chiffon dress Julie Andrews wears as Captain von Trapp sings to his children.
The celebrities get first glimpse of their costumes on Friday, when fittings take place and three seamstresses and two embellishers join the team for rehearsals
‘We are trying to set that scene of The Sound Of Music, also we are trying to make the celebrity feel glamorous and ready to perform,’ explains Vicky.
Spot the twinkle? That’s from about 3,000 crystals. And the delicate pale blue stretch skirt consists of 4.5 m of satin, below which is 45 m of net.
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'[The costume team] have a million WhatsApp groups, pictures being sent left, right and centre to what feels like all corners of the earth, to action whether it be the shoes, or the construction of the dress.'
By Tuesday morning, the costumes are taking shape; in the case of the dresses, it's bodice first, then top skirt and then underskirt, which can be prepped in advance and adapted.
Each costume takes from one to four days to complete, whipped up by Vicky's BBC team and the talented staff of DSI London, the studio where Vicky herself was previously the in-house designer.
There, dozens of pattern cutters, machinists, designers and stoners (the deft-of-finger crew who apply all those sparkles) bring Vicky's sketches to life, ready for final adaptations and embellishments to be made at the end of the week.
The celebrities get first glimpse of their costumes on Friday, when fittings take place and three seamstresses and two embellishers join the team for rehearsals.
Come Saturday, eight dressers arrive for dress rehearsals and the live show.
The first step in every costume is a collaborative creative ‘vision’.
In the case of Rose’s samba, ‘she was going to be strutting her funky stuff down the red carpet at a Press event, so it had to have a fashion feel and a late 1960s early 1970s vibe running through it, hence the white boots,’ says Vicky.
The original sketch for Rose Ayling-Ellis's samba outfit (left). Rose loved the knee-high white leather boots she wore for her samba so much that she still has them (right)
She then moved on to the cropped top and skirt, which both featured silver sparkles and white fringing.
‘For Rose it was a silver reference, but we felt because we were working with a white boot we should keep the base of the garment white and introduce silver,’ says Vicky. Then came the
