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Dance Seamstress Dresses Hopeful Stars

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

Julie Weintraub tries on a dress at Designs to Shine, which specializes in one-of-a-kind dresses featured on various TV shows.

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By CLOE CABRERA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 5, 2009

Tucked away in a quiet Pinellas Park industrial park lies a sparkly style mecca.

From the outside, Designs to Shine could be any aging warehouse unit. But walk inside and it's an Aladdin's cave of fashion treasures.

Row after row of slinky dresses and gowns are just waiting to be tried on. Hundreds of bolts of luxurious fabrics line the walls and drape mannequins. Seamstresses pin, tuck and bead to the slow, steady hum of sewing machines. Photos of costumed dancers adorn the wall; all are clients who turn to this fashion haven for personal fittings before a ballroom competition.

An unusual setting for such a glitzy fashion house? You bet. If the shop had windows, 62nd Ave North would pile up with rubberneckers eyeing the drop-dead-gorgeous dresses.

"This is art in dress form," says Julie Weintraub, a regular customer at Designs to Shine. "These dresses make you feel glamorous and amazing."

Designs to Shine is Maria McGill's empire. It's here that her team of talented seamstresses whips up the sexy creations that adorn the bodies of starlets who waltz on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," boogie on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" and shimmy on TLC's "Ballroom Bootcamp."

McGill will dress local personalities when they shake a leg for the Thursday "Celebrity Dancing in Tampa Bay" show at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

"To work with different fabrics and to be able to blend them harmoniously and get them to work takes real talent," says McGill, motioning to the staff, some of whom have been with her since she started the business in 1996. "We have some of the finest seamstresses in the country. It's quite a production."

The 5,000-square-foot design center houses 30 employees who pool their talents to create one-of-a-kind looks from scratch in as little as three days - usually without a pattern. In the sewing room, you'll find Loulia Sviatogor carefully draping stretch crepe onto a body suit. In the beading room, Herlindo Gutierrez painstakingly intertwines rhinestones, crystals and rope onto netting to create an ornament for a dress. Mylee Tran finishes a dress by hand.

Even jeans, purses and clothing the customers bring in can get a dose of glamour with some added rhinestones, flower petals or rope.

"Some people come to us with just a concept and we take the idea and refine it for them," said Summer Gray, creative director. "Others tell us exactly what they want. Anything artistic someone wants we can do."

McGill keeps business personal, taking only appointments so she can be hands-on with everything from the selection of fabric to the final fitting. Mannequins are padded to take on a customer's precise measurements.

"Everything - panties, bra - is built in to what we make," says McGill, who hails from Hungary. "The fit is the most important thing; when we make a dress, we design it for that specific occasion."

There are two main looks for dance competitions: long and flowing gowns and short and sassy dresses. The gowns are made for smooth dances like the waltz and fox trot, while the short dresses work best with Latin dances such as the samba and cha-cha, McGill explains.

Each dress is created specifically to be "dance-friendly," which means it stays put while you move, she says. And they all have built-in body suits to avoid wardrobe malfunctions.

So when Kelly Monaco (of "General Hospital") looked like she was coming out of the skimpy outfit McGill created for her in the first season of "Dancing with the Stars," she didn't sweat it.

"I know how we made that dress, and I knew nothing was going to come out," McGill says, holding up the green rhinestone two-piece she keeps on a rack along with the rest of the "Dancing with the Stars" outfits she designed. "Maybe she Kelly and the audience didn't know it, but we did."

McGill was a professional ballroom dancer for more than 20 years. Her love of fashion stretches back to her early days in dance, when she couldn't find what she wanted commercially.

"I wanted to have something no one else had," recalls McGill, who at 57 still looks like a dancer. "I wanted to be out of the box. I wanted to be unique."

Her mom taught her how to stitch, and McGill set up shop in the family kitchen. Spectators regularly bought the dresses she wore, so she enlisted help form her sister, Ilona Buckner, and grew the business. Buckner now works as her production manager.

Today, the shop turns out more than 600 handmade dresses a year for glitzy occasions, weddings and beauty pageants. Ballroom dresses start at around $2,500, while evening gowns begin at $500.

McGill also has a line of ready-to-wear separates called "Budapest" with prices from $60 to $300. Customers are welcome in her store, but by appointment only.

McGill keeps all of the costumes she designed for "Dancing with the Stars." They're not for sale, but she often displays them at charitable events.

"People get so excited when they see the outfits," she says with a laugh. "They're awed. They want to touch them because they know they were on television. I let them touch them; they're my dresses."

See more of McGill's designs at her Web site, www.designstoshine.com.

IF YOU GO

Third Annual Celebrity Dancing in Tampa Bay

WHAT: Professional dancers are teamed with local personalities to compete in a dance contest to raise money for The Spring of Tampa Bay, a domestic violence shelter in Tampa.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

COST: Tickets are $10, $30, $40 and $50, and can be purchased online at www.tbpac.org or by calling (813) 229-7827 or (800) 995-1045.

Reporter Cloe Cabrera can be reached at (813) 259-7656.

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