00:00Hi, my name is Howard Sussman, and we're here at Dancing with the Stars 20th Anniversary with Deadline.
00:10Well, my job title is costume supervisor, and my responsibilities are overseeing all aspects of the costume department.
00:18So I budget, I schedule, I pay the bills, I hire the people.
00:23And just in the schedule of our show being fast-paced week to week,
00:27it's just making sure that everything is ready at the time needed for a live show.
00:32How many costumes do you end up averaging every season?
00:35Over a thousand, because each show, depending on dances and number of people in each performance,
00:42any dance can have up to 15 or 20 costumes, and about 100, 120 a week, times 10 or 11 weeks.
00:51So over a thousand a season for sure.
00:54Is anything repurposed?
00:55Not for the celebrity and their professional partner.
01:00Those are always custom-made in the week-to-week basis.
01:03We do have a stock and a warehouse out back in the event that at the last minute,
01:08a couple of troop members are added to a number, or, you know, some things go on tour sometimes,
01:15but for the most part, everything is custom-made in a week-to-week time frame.
01:19What is the most requested feature about costumes?
01:22What do people want the most?
01:24Well, everyone wants to be skinny.
01:26And because everything has to be danceable, everything is built on four-way stretch,
01:32or the fabrics themselves are innately stretchable.
01:35And then the embellishments of feathers and rhinestones and different trims get put on,
01:40you know, in the multiple fittings that happen throughout the week.
01:43But it's really the danceability of it and that it's true to the form of the dance style.
01:49So if it's a tango, it's very different than a salsa dress.
01:52And the men wear suits for waltz and they wouldn't for samba.
01:56So the dance often dictates very much of the elements of the costume itself.
02:04The professional dancers especially are sticklers for traditional ways of wearing, you know,
02:10what they wear has to speak to the dance that they're dancing.
02:13And so there'll be times when we get creative input from producers and it's not a danceable silhouette.
02:22So that my two costume designers, Daniela and Steven, work with the talent to sort of modify it,
02:29to make sure that it is danceable and true to the dance style at the same time.
02:34So it's a challenge every week and everybody's body is different.
02:38Everybody's, you know, what they want to exploit is different.
02:41So, yeah, I think it's gotten sexier over time.
02:45A few seasons back, the girls' shorts underneath their dress all were square cut and complete coverage.
02:54And nowadays they're more bathing suit inspired and more length of leg is shown.
03:00And I think that there's a lot of fashion elements that are traded off between our dance clothes and the fashion world.
03:08We get inspiration from them.
03:10I think I see a lot of things that we have done.
03:12We see later on, on the runway of some designers.
03:16So, yeah, I think it's a give and take.
03:18We get inspiration in a lot of different places.
03:20Well, certainly we always start out with a conversation about, you know, I hate my body part.
03:27And so we're not going to, you know, exploit it if they don't want it shown.
03:31But the creative process is from the production design team, you know, production design.
03:39And producers come up with the dance, the style that they're going to be dancing, the song they're dancing to.
03:45And the celebrity and the partner have input in all areas.
03:49But by the time they get to us and the costume portion of it, it's already been dictated by producers and my costume designers.
03:58Well, I would like to say that in 20 years, 34 seasons and thousands of costumes, the fact that there's one or two mentions of a wardrobe malfunction.
04:07Yes, I want to die inside.
04:08Those are my two least favorite words in the vocabulary of the show is a wardrobe malfunction because they simply don't happen.
04:16I mean, there's another one I would talk about, but I don't want to.
04:19The fringe pants, they're so special for me.
04:22But do you try to trot them out sparingly?
04:24Yes.
04:25Why?
04:27Because too much of anything is too much.
04:29They have to be used sparingly.
04:31And if everybody did it, it wouldn't be special.
04:33The costume department is a village of people from two amazing costume designers and their assistants to shoppers and beaters and sewers and tailors and dressers.
04:43And it's just, I mean, I oversee 25 people and it's an incredibly honor to have this position.
04:50So I just wanted to say that.
04:51And they're fast too, aren't they?
04:53Well, every week.
04:54I mean, it's a five-day turnaround.
04:56My department works seven days a week, whether they're shopping or designing or sewing or dressing and fitting.
05:01So it's always something going on.
05:02We're one of the only departments that works that way on the show, seven days a week.
05:05But, yeah, it's nonstop for the run of the show and totally worth it because we get to see our creative input and output within the week.
05:14And, yeah, like you said, people watch for the costumes.
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