Hello, My friends in costuming and dance,

Today I’m flipping through ancient files, old photos, and out-of-print books and booklets. My mission is to find old illustrations from past projects.

Through the 30 years of my writing three-pronged career of costume design, belly dance, and historical research, I’ve written countless articles, blog posts, and micro-blogs for social media. I’ve drawn 1000s of dancers, filled dozens of notebooks, and more than 22 published books.  So my project for Sept. and Oct. is to revisit the work of a lifetime to build the most complete version of Costuming from the Hip to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Costuming from the Hip: 30th Anniversary

When I set out on this journey to rewrite this book, my initial goal was to just update the text and modernize the language. As I’ve worked on this project over the past year, I’ve realized that what I want to do is craft the best belly dance costuming book I can make!

So I’m culling through this lifetime of writing to find the gems from these past writing projects, big and small. What am I finding?  A LOT!  And boy was I surprised by the sheer volume of content.

Costuming from the Hip: Expansion

With all of this existing content, I’m expanding the original book. “Costuming from the Hip: began in 1993 as a 75-page compendium of course handouts into a 200-ish page book. I’m folding out-of-print content from “Veils Unveiled,” “Hints and Tips,” and the much beloved, but outmoded “Style File.”

As I work on this book, long-time readers will spot illustrations from these past projects emerging from the archives.  These are a fraction of the images that have appeared in my 20+ published books.

Three Buckets and Five Layers

The next version of “Costuming from the Hip” will include some of the concepts I’ve taught as a college instructor, event speaker, and in workshops around the world.

In the updated CFTH30, I’m opening the book with an entirely new section on how to think like a designer, the history and evolution of belly dance style since 1850. I’ll also share my system for developing a cohesive look using the 5 Layers methodology.

Finally, I’m sharing the specific language and my stylistic identification and organization using three big sweeping costuming groups. This way of thinking allows for dynamic design and a deeper understanding of why we design and make costumes the way we do.

Costuming from the Hip: Plans and Timeline

So what’s next?  During September, I’m digging into my archives. It’s a quest for illustrations, photographs, and written materials to include in the new edition.

With luck and good fortune, in October I’ll begin the rough sketches for a new set of images to illustrate key points. While I’ve drawn quite a bit, in the process of modernization and expansion, there’s a new batch of images on the horizon.

I hope that you enjoy your journey through the spooky season 2024.

Happy Costuming and Dance,
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Sept. 2024

PS: I’m calling this project #CFTH30, so over the next six moths of work on this project, watch for this hashtag on social media and you can use the search function to find all the blog posts related to this rewrite.