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Donna, from Colwyn Bay, dresses disco dancers and Miss Wales, amongst others.
After leaving art school in Carmarthen, Donna Morris went to London to work with big names such as Zandra Rhodes and Harrods. She also worked for a company called Chrisanne which specialises in Latin and ballroom dancing clothes which led to a very special job making the costumes for the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ show.
How do you go about making dance clothes?
A sketch, a pattern, cutting out and fitting with the dancer. The dancers said what they wanted, but sometimes they’d want something which wasn’t available.
What type of material is suitable when making dance clothes?
Stretch lycra, stretch satin, stretch lace, stretch netting anything with stretch because they have to move. If you were to use something without stretch in it, it would rip. There’s a lot of very nice stretch available with things like sparkle and flowers on it, but I’m more interested in colour.
Apart from dance clothes, what kind of clothes do you create?
Lately I’ve been doing mother of the bride clothes, wedding dresses, bridesmaids, flower girls, party dresses, bodices for special occasions and I make prom dresses for girls. They come to me to get something that’s a bit different from what you get on the high street.
You also design for Laura Livesey, Miss Wales. What was the process you went through there?
It was Laura’s idea really. From looking at her shape I had a good idea what would look nice and I designed something just in the form of a sketch. We had to work the red, green and white into the design because she was representing Wales.
What kind of materials do you use?
Simon and I have a daughter called Hannah Caron who’s five months old, and when she was christened I used my mother’s wedding dress which is forty years old to make Hannah’s christening outfit.
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