Fabric Selection

The important thing to remember when selecting fabric for a costume is that you are not choosing something for everyday wear. If you are expecting to do mostly stage shows or professional gigs, you want to choose bright, intense colours (or pastels). The more lustrous the fabric is, the better. Shiny satins and metallic or sparkly textiles are your best bets.

If your style is folkloric, do research on what traditional costumes look like and how the looks ahve been updated. If you do tribal fusion, chances are you will be using darker fabrics and looking for interesting ethnic textures or detailing.

Also remember that no matter how intricate your beading and decorations are, if the base material looks cheap the whole costume will not look good. It's worth getting high quality fabric.

Silk	the most beautiful fabric for skirts and veils you can find almost any colour, weight, opacity, lustrousness, and embellishment two-tone, ombres or multi-coloured tend to be expensive
Satin	soft, flowing fabric good for bra/belt sets as well as skirts the weight varies (use a heavier weave for bra/belt sets, lighter for skirts) durable, lots of colours available
Metallic Taffeta	this is a stiff fabric, so it's harder to work with when making a bra/belt set frays badly where cut, so it has to be edged well beautiful and shiny enough that you don't need to embellish every inch for it to look good
Stretch Lame	easy to work with on bra/belt sets because it is stretchy can be used for tight-fitting skirts, or those Egyptian-style full dresses metallic substance rubs off, and can be discoloured by sweat
Liquid Metal (Lurex)	drapes nicely, very shiny, good for bra/belt sets and skirts NOT stretchy, doesn't breathe, metallic substance eventually runs off
Glitter-Dot	this is good for bra/belt sets and hip scarves looks a bit tacky up close, but beautiful and mesh-like on stage the problem is that the shiny dots peel off after a while good for student costumes, especially if you don't want to add much embellishment
Sequin-Covered Fabric	this is gorgeous for bra/belt sets and narrow skirts comes in many colours, but can be quite expensive good to use if you don't want to add much embellishment
Sheer Polyester Chiffon	can be used instead of silk for skirts and veils, more durable less stretch on bias over time, especially with heavier chiffons good light weave synthetics will ripple through the air instead of dropping like dead weight different weights of synthetic chiffons are the most commonly used circle skirt fabrics