Vicky Gill, Strictly Come Dancing’s costume designer for 13 years, reveals the mammoth logistics behind the iconic Blackpool special, involving 150 dazzling looks and thousands of crystals
A sea of crystals and a mountain of shoes can only mean one thing – it’s time for Strictly Come Dancing to pack up and head to Blackpool.
This weekend, the much-loved dance show left its Elstree Studio behind and made its way north to the seaside town, where the latest live episode will be filmed in the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom. Every year, Strictly makes a pilgrimage to this coastal town to broadcast one of its live episodes from the globally renowned venue, often referred to as the ‘home of ballroom dancing’, reports the Manchester Evening News.
But the sheer scale of work required for the programme, particularly when relocating it up north, is absolutely mind-boggling. Vicky Gill, the programme’s costume designer, is one who understand precisely what’s needed to ensure Strictly’s Blackpool spectacular appears flawless during its live Saturday evening broadcast, followed by a pre-recorded results programme on Sunday.
When the Manchester Evening News had an exclusive chat with Vicky before the show, she was taking a brief moment to sort out the week’s logistics. “It’s mad this week and I like a few hours at the kitchen table making sure that we’re all doing what we need to be before I actually go into the work room because you can’t answer anything once we go in there,” she revealed.
Vicky has held the position for 13 years, though she’s actually been part of the Strictly family since approximately the programme’s third series in 2005, when she served as an adviser to Sue Judd, who was the costume designer then.
“You know what, it’s really strange because time just flies by and I think that Strictly, although it wasn’t intended, has been such a huge part of our lives as a family and, you know, in career terms, so it’s amazing,” Vicky explained.
Vicky detailed how the groundwork for the series begins in May, a period when she likens herself to a “lone wolf”, reflecting on previous series and pondering necessary alterations or enhancements.
“Even though we’re going to Blackpool this week, we have been thinking about Blackpool. We’ve been trying to prep as much as we can, but the heavy work is happening now.”
The lorry bound for Blackpool was packed on Wednesday morning, and following what she described as a “last swoop” of anything they reckon they might require, the deliveries to the Tower Ballroom carried on right through to Friday evening.
And the difficulties don’t end there. “I mean, anxiety levels go through the roof, as you can imagine,” Vicky chuckled.
“But once you calm yourself down and think practically about where people are gonna work, how best to create, working with Jane Marcantonio, who is the wardrobe supervisor on the show with us, working out where we’re gonna put dressing rooms, where we’re gonna do quick changes..”
But mistakes can be unavoidable. “Honestly, I could probably write a book. I could probably make the money out of it,” Vicky chuckled when questioned about what might go awry”.
However, the sheer scale of the wardrobe alone is staggering. Vicky elaborated: “We probably have 150 looks at Blackpool, and so if you imagine that’s 150 pairs of shoes or 150 options, and then we have to have backup in case something goes wrong. So it could be as many as like 175 pairs of shoes.
“If we got 150 looks, they wouldn’t all be embellished heavily, but if we take our main show, we’ve probably got 30 garments that would be embellished, and here’s normally a minimum of five packets on a garment. Our leading ladies this week will probably have 10 to 15 on there, and there’s 1,150 crystals in a packet. So you can imagine just the size of application and attention to detail”.
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