#34 - Shoes, Suits, Hair & Make Up
Hey, hey ladies. Welcome back. We're on episode number 34, you all, are talking about shoes, suits, hair, and makeup today. This is part of my competition series for athletes wanting to compete for the first time or for athletes who already compete that you know, are looking for little golden nuggets of wisdom. So, I don't know if I've told you guys. I think throughout the podcast, I've told you guys about my competition, career and about how long I've been in the industry. So I competed for the first time back in 2007, which puts me at 15 years in the industry, you guys. It makes me feel old. But I've seen this industry change and grow and evolve so much over the last 15 years, we've seen new categories added. We've seen suits change. We've seen things up leveled. But there's still this, like, structure to it. And from time to time, I get clients who want to push the boundaries, go outside the box with their competition look. And I'm going to talk today a little bit about where you can do that and where it's kind of best to stay a little bit more inside the box and why.
So let's talk, we're going to talk about all the things today. Let's start off with shoes. So you guys know what competition shoes look like. Right. Do you, if you don't and you're thinking about competing, you need to like get on the YouTubes and have a look. So, what we're talking about is like a Cinderella type stiletto heel, and it can be platformed, it can be jeweled, usually it's a clear heel. So you'll want to have a look at the federation. You're interested in competing with websites to see if they have any shoe regulations, shoe rules, some federations don't allow colored shoes, for instance. Some federations don't allow platform peels, some federations have a minimum requirement of five inches. Some federations have a maximum requirement of five inches. So for the most part, you're probably pretty safe with a four to five inch stiletto heel with a under one inch platform, a clear or maybe slightly rhinestone heel that either has an ankle strap or is a mule. All right. You can find these shoes at any stripper store. I'm not joking, you guys. When I first started in the industry, Uh, back in Manitoba, there was a shoe and costume store, Uh, in downtown Winnipeg that we used to go to for our competition shoes. And it was so much fun to go there because they had the best laundry and the best shoe selection ever. It was fantastic. Anyway, you can also find competitions shoes online at sinful shoes.com, is one of the websites I personally bought shoes off up, but I highly recommend if you have a shoe store available to you, or if you have a friend that has competition shoes, try on a few pairs, if you can, before you buy online because I do find they do fit a little small, little snuggy may need to go half size up. Because the plastic isn't as forgiving as you might think it is, especially when it's cold. Right? So maybe try on a few pairs of shoes. I keep three different pairs of shoes with me whenever I go to any of my coaching clinics or comp prep clinics, just so people can see, I have a pair of ankle strap shoes, a pair of mules and then a pair of slingbacks. So that athletes have the ability to try different shoes on. Another tip, I'm going to give you on a shoe front is, I highly recommend that you invest in two pairs even if it's your first show, you may want to consider getting a pair of mules or a pair of slingbacks and a pair of buckle ups. Some ladies feel way more confident in a buckle up. They feel more secure in their ankles, and feel more stable. They're comfortable walking in a buckle up. Personally, I find the buckle to be a pain in the ass. I'd much rather something I can slip into, so I started out with meals. I wore meals for years and I've recently changed over to a slingback. Mostly because I really like the pretty rhinestone heel but the slingback also offers a little bit of support as well. So do try a few different pairs. Another reason I recommend you get two pairs, is because if you order just one pair and they're really uncomfortable for you and you're walking funny in them, you're going to think it's you. And it may not be you. It may be the shoe. So if you order two pairs and one is crazy uncomfortable, you can always resell it. And then you know that you have a comfortable pair of shoes. However, there is another reason that I want you to invest in two pairs. I have had more than one athlete tear the plastic on their competition shoe, whether it's weather and the shoes were left in a cold car, and then they were put on before they had a chance to warm up and the plastic cracked. It's plastic, it's thin plastic. So it does have the ability to crack tear breaks. If you've bought used shoes, you don't know how old they are. As that plastic ages, it is going to get harder and more susceptible to cracking. So it would suck if the week before your show, you broke your shoes and you had to go find another pair. If you have a friend. That has the same size feet as you and has a pair of shoes. You can always use their shoes as a backup pair, but I highly recommend having a backup pair. I always bring an extra set of shoes to shows when I'm going to see my athletes compete. Not everyone has my big size, nine feet. But I always bring them just in case someone has a shoe malfunction and just happens to have the same size feet as me. All right. If you have any questions about, oh, and one more thing on shoes, you can also buy used shoes, there are fantastic Facebook groups out there now for competition suits, jewelry and shoes. So you can always jump onto a Facebook page or a new unused online platform in your area and see if anyone's selling their competition shoes. I have had lots of athletes buy used shoes. Mostly that haven't been worn at all because it's someone who bought a pair of shoes and they either didn't fit properly or they weren't comfortable for them. And they're just reselling brand new shoes. You can get some good savings there you can expect to pay anywhere from 50 to $70 US for a pair of competition, prep shoes. All right, you guys let's move on from shoes.
Let's talk about suits. Okay. I'm going to mostly talk about bikini suits here, but I'll touch on figure as well. So again, when competing, especially in Bikini, you want to make sure you check the federation rules and requirements for how the suit fits, especially the bottoms. Some federations allow a more risque bottom, whereas federations likely WNBF want one third coverage throughout the back end. It should look like you're wearing something. I'm just going to put that out there. So most suit designers, especially if you're having the suit custom made, we'll ask you what federation you're competing with and will so the suit accordingly. Also asking you what your comfort level is now, when you go to have your suit fitted, you're going to be like eight to 10 to even 12 weeks out. It's going to feel small. It's going to feel too small, period. It's going to feel tiny. It's going to feel too tight. You will dial in that suit. All right. However, you shouldn't be able to see. Anything you shouldn't be able to see crack in the back or it shouldn't be too, too low in the front. All right. Especially if you have a super long torso already, having a suit that's too low in the front is going to make that torso look even longer and it's going to make your symmetry look off. You also want to make sure that your cups in the front are an aesthetically pleasing size and comparable to your bottoms. So that they are not changing the symmetry of your body. This is something that's really important. You guys, your body is wearing that suit. The suit shouldn't be wearing you, all right. Your body should be the first thing that the judges notice, not the suit. So when you're having your suit made. One of the things I'm going to recommend.
Let's talk about suit colors and this is something that I'm going to just say across all categories. I highly recommend that you stick to jewel tones, and this is kind of just a, you know, inside the box way of thinking within competition, but your royal blues, your purples, your few shows, your hot pinks, your emerald greens, those colors tend to stand out and look the best on stage. I know athletes, like to think outside the box, they tend to look at what is on stage and want something different. So some athletes will go for a white suit or a yellow suit or a neon green suit or a pest L suit or a golden suit. And there is a reason that those suits aren't seen often onstage. And it's because for some of those suits, especially the pastels, the baby pinks, the baby blues, the baby yellows, the white suits, those lighter colored suits, the mint green. you're tan, you guys, your spray tan is dark and as much as the spray tan has evolved over the last 15 years, it can still come off a little bit on your suit. And the last thing you want is a big brown stain, tan stain across the bum of you're beautiful white suit. Right. So when it comes to those lighter suits yeah, they can pop on stage. Yeah, they may look amazing against your skin. You just have to be really careful with where you sit, what you touch, how you put them on, etc. And know that it is possible that you may end up with a tanning smudge on them. Be prepared.
Let me tell you a story. The second year I competed, I wanted to be the golden child. I had these dreams. I was going to walk out on stage in this beautiful golden suit. I was doing a federation. I don't even think they exist anymore. I don't remember what it was off the top of my head, but there were costumes and bald. And, uh, I hand-sewn this beautiful Pocahontas costume. And I was going to do this gold suit. And, uh, I had long dark, dark brown hair at the time. So I had my suit maker make me this custom golden suit and she was a fairly new suit maker, she has made all of my suits. Big shouts out to Gloria and Winnipeg, she's amazing. Quarter turns, posing suits as her business, but one of her first competition suits ever was one of my first competition suits ever. And so I think this gold suit was kind of in her first dozen or so suits that she made. I don't know if she knew at that time that gold wasn't, you know, an optimum color for being on stage. And I didn't know. And no one told either of us. So I got onstage in this golden suit. And. It looked good. It was fine. I placed second, but when you look at the photos, you guys. I almost look naked. Like you have to really look for the suit because it's almost the same color as my body, right with that dark, dark golden, bronze, tan. A golden suit can just disappear. So that is something you want to be cautious about. So again, I highly recommend you stick to those big bold jewel, beautiful colors. And then when it comes to adding attachments, and jeweling it, I highly recommend that you opt for some of the cool rhinestone attachments. They can really add a lot of blink to a suit. If it's your first year competing. Maybe even like a nice sparkly material in your favorite color and the attachments, some blinged attachments, maybe at your hips and at the top of the bikini and maybe in between the breasts is enough. That is all you need. Your body should be able to speak for itself besides that. And then next year, when you compete again, you can add $200 in Ryan stoning. This is a really, financially savvy way to do this because then your first suit is going to ring you about $300 and then you add an extra $200 in rhinestones in the next year. And then maybe. Another 200 the year after that. Just let your suit, make her know. If you want to continue to add stones so that they can add stones in a way where. They can continue to add and continue to build on that suit. So one of my favorite suits of all times, Gloria made for me out of quarter turns and it was a purple suit that I still have. It's what I've won, both my pro cards in. And we did it as a, it was a few parts. So she did the outlining of the pattern for one of my shows and I just wore the suit with the outline. And then for my next show, she filled in the patterns and wow. It looked amazing. It is a crushed velvet suit. I don't know if you can even get crushed velvet suits anymore. But I love the thicker material in that suit that just holds everything in place so nicely. So for your bikini, there's a few different ways you can go about getting a suit. You can buy a used suit, which I highly recommend that you make sure your measurements are almost identical to the person who owned that suit before you, or that you have a seamstress on hand. You can buy your suits online again. I would really make sure that the company you're buying them for has a good reputation of producing quality suits that fit. Do your research. Ask for referrals or you can have a suit custom made, especially if you live in a big city where you do have access to a custom suit designer here in Vancouver, we have the Suit Lady out in Langley, shouts out to the girls over there who work their asses off and make beautiful suits. I send my Manitoba athletes to Gloria Winnipeg. I have my girls here go to the Suit Lady, because when you have a custom suit made by those girls No matter who you see, we'll make sure that that suit fits your body perfectly. And if it doesn't, they will alter it until it does. We had an experience with one of my athletes where this suit top didn't fit her boobs. They were natural and they didn't shrink as much as the designer thought they were. And so the Suit Lady made my athlete a brand new top that did fit. And that is the beautiful thing about custom design. If she had ordered her suit through an online company, no way they would've done that. All right. So if you have the opportunity to have it custom made for you, I highly recommend that you do that.
All right. Let's briefly talk about Figure suits. So the difference between a Bikini suit and a Figure suit. In a Bikini suit you tie the back top up around your back, just like you normally would with a beach bikini with a figure suit, the top crisscrosses across your lower back. And attach to the back of your bottoms. The reason for this is with the figure suit, your bottom should be hiked up the sides of your figure suit bottoms should be on par with where your belly button sits. So the size should go over your hip bone. And having that crisscross across the back helps hold them up there. it also gives your back this beautiful freedom to open up into a full lot spread because you're not confined by having that bikini tie across the back of your lots. So you have much more room to showcase your back and it's beautiful seeing a back without that line cutting it off in the middle of it. With a figure suit too, there usually isn't as much bling accessory. But with a figure suit, it's very standard to go into some jeweling on the material right off of the hop. So if it's your first time competing, and you're competing in figure. You may want to consider having some jeweling done, but maybe talk to your designer about how much you want to spend that first year, and then what you want to embellish it with in the years going on so they can design accordingly for that progressive approach or if you wanna, you can just, you know, throw 700 or 800 or a thousand dollars or $1,200. All at once and make a ridiculously beautiful suit from the start. Totally up to you. So that's the difference between the bikini suit and figure suit.
The suit is one of those areas within that first competition, where you can save a little bit of money. If you opt to go with a used suit, or if you're going with a custom suit, you pull back a little bit. It is one of those areas that you can save a little bit. And because going into your second year, ladies. You do not need to buy a new suit every year. Some people do this. Some people encourage it. I do not. I have been competing in the same suit. For many years. I love my suit. I have had new suits made. I do not like them as much as my purple suit. So I keep wearing my purple suit. So, know that, if you feel like your body. Your presentation needs an upgrade, if you feel like a new suit, would. You know, allow you to showcase your physique at a whole new level. Absolutely. Yes, get a new suit. But if you're looking at budgeting or if you're traveling to your next show or if you were wanting to put some of your funds towards photo-shoots or uh, coach or something different, do not feel like you need to show up in a new suit in front of the judges every time, the judges will not notice. Promise. Okay.
Let's talk about hair. So this is an area that. You know, when you think of a bikini model, you think of lungs flowing. You know, slightly curled locks that have a kind of beach feel. And that look does present very nicely on stage, hair either half down or all the way down that you can side sweep back sweep. You know, do the things with, go with the look very well. And then you have your edgy athletes and by edgy athletes, I mean, you got the girls with the shaved heads or the blue hair or the side shaves or the fohawk, those girls and I love that look, I fohawk my hair on stage as well. I do it in a very feminine way. And what I suggest is if you do have a rebel inside you, if you are one of those girls that wants to push the envelope, wants to come out with a non-traditional bikini look. What I suggest you do is make sure that you have a body that is unbeatable. Make sure that your hair or makeup or your suit, if you're coming out in a black leather suit won't be able to distract from the body. Cause that's, that's the issue, right? When. I say judges are distracted by your suit or by your hairstyle or by your makeup or by your jewelry. And it distracts us from your body. It doesn't. bode well, it doesn't create a symmetry feel, it doesn't add to your aesthetic. It pulls away from it. So you want to really make sure that your aesthetics and physique is at the forefront of your presentation.
That everything else just adds to that. So if you are going to rebel it up on stage, I do suggest that you revel it just outside the box. And what I mean by this is like, when I do my fohawk, I sweep high at the top and then bobby pin up to create kind of like a horse tail down my back. So I still have something to side sweep. It looks very pulled back, very clean, very elegant from the front, and it showcases my earrings and my collarbones really nicely. If you're going to go with a crazy hair color. It is a distraction. So you want to make sure that It really blends well with the suit you've picked out. It shows well on stage, you want to look put together on stage and you want to present well for your body. So I'm all for revealing it up a little bit. But you do want to be cautious. I pushed the envelope for one year. Um, I did a suit that was neon yellow, pink and black leather stripes that had more of a cupped top to match an eighties themed fitness routine I was doing, and I got told after the show that the judges felt my suit was a little bit too outside the box. Like by multiple judges. I got told that the soup preference wasn't great. And I shouldn't wear that suit again. I loved my suit, but it didn't fit inside their box. Right. It pulled away from my physique. And when I looked back and looked at photos of that competition, I could see that. So, when it comes to picking your soup, picking your hairstyle, picking your jewelry, all of it. You do want to make sure that you're presenting as a package and you're presenting you and your personality in the boldest way possible, but within the confines of the sport. Does that make sense? All right. So with hair, you can do it up. You can do it down. I like to go down, but if you're having trouble remembering decide sweep, or you find your hair's getting caught in your suit or caught in your earrings especially for your first show, don't be afraid to put it up in like a nice, big, nicely displayed ponytail can look really nice or a half pinup can look really nice. And then you don't have to remember to brush off your shoulders. I like to put a, like a jeweled burette or jeweled comb in my hair, just to add a little bit of bling up there. I once competed with tinsel in my hair, the judges didn't like that. Just throwing that out there. And put a little bit of sparkle in your hair if you want. There's fantastic products out now that allow us to do that. I would highly suggest testing out the look you want to do with your hair. If you don't like how full it is, you may want to consider getting extensions or having a hairstyle that gives you a blowout. Most competitions will have a hairstylist backstage that is available to you that you can pre-book in with. And usually it's a hundred to $150 and they'll do your hair first stage presentation. And they usually do a fantastic job. So if you're not good with hair, that might be the route for you.
Makeup, do it yourself or hire a professional. So again, just like hair. Most shows will have a makeup artist available to you backstage. These artists are incredible you guys. They are professionals at doing what they do. And when it comes to your makeup, matching your tan is going to be the hardest part. The makeup you do on a day-to-day basis is not going to be enough. It's not going to cut it. You're not going to have it in your makeup kit. The makeup you need to match your face to your body. So I highly recommend that you pay a hundred to $150 to have your makeup done on show day, you're going to have a million photos taken. You're going to look amazing in your body. You want to have a face that matches, right? There were not always makeup artists available at the shows I've done. So I have learned, I've worked with makeup artists, makeup teachers, and friends who are really good at makeup. And I've created a collection of bronzers that allow me to match my face to my body using different shades of bronzers. Can you do makeup on your own first show? Absolutely, if you love doing makeup. You know, practice it. Find out from the stage tenors what you're coloring. W+ill be maybe go to a Sephora or a Mac or a makeup store and get some darker shade samples so you have an array of colors to choose from. You want to go darker with your highs as well. Remember, you're going to be onstage. Those bright lights are going to wash you out. So you want to go darker with your eyes. Definitely I would fake eyelash it up. You want those eyes to be nice and big. Fake nails, this is another area athletes ask me about a lot as a judge, I've never noticed someone's nails. So if you don't want to do fake nails, you don't have to, you can have a nice manicure. You can paint your nails with normal nail Polish. The beautiful thing about fake nails is the tanner doesn't stick to them. So you won't have orange nails, which is great. So. We've covered shoes, suits, hair, makeup jewelry.
Let me just touch on jewelry quickly before I let you guys go today. You don't want your jewelry to distract from your body? Just like the other things. So we don't want to see earrings that touch your suit. We don't want to see earrings that hang down over your shoulders. You want one to two inch earring that matches the bling on your suit accordingly. I also would suggest one bracelet, one ring. You don't want to have rings on every finger. You don't want to have bracelets all the way up your arm. Right? You can put a bracelet on both wrists, you do not need to. Right, with jewelry really suggests keeping it simple and classic. So again, the more jewelry you wear, if you're wearing a belly button chain or a necklace hanging down your back or a necklace, even hanging down your front. Again, you're pulling away from your muscle definition, you're pulling away from the beauty that is your physique to showcase these beautiful pieces of jewelry, which the judges aren't there to judge the jewelry, right? So limit it, I'd say one ring, one bracelet, a shorter set of earrings. And, you know, maybe a jeweled old barrettes or a jeweled comb in your hair, that's what I suggest to my athletes. You want to make sure that you show up on stage as you, as a version of you, that you are proud of, that you feel like it's you in there in your skin. You're already going to feel a little bit unlike you, because you've never been this lean before. You've never looked this way before. Right. You're going to be covered in orange tanner from head to toe. So you do want to make sure that your personality is coming out in the suit you choose and the jewelry you wear and the way you do your hair and your makeup. But you also want to make sure that it presents well as a package on stage for the judges. All right. friends, if you have any questions about this, hit me up [email protected]. You know where to find me. I will see you next week for episode 35. Bye for now.
