OK 'kicking when down' may have been the wrong terminology but I was taken aback by this thread.

This started as a comment about not liking the dress, then the shoes being too low not forgeting the colour being wrong. Moving onto the flower in Ali's hair, oh yes and her hairstyle, tights wrong colour, dress wrong colour, hem too low etc.

Along with the comment that Ali and Brian 'didn't know any better' how patronising can you get? Brian has great style and I can't imagine him not speaking out if he thought something was not right.

I am sure that most, if not all of you on a 'good day' would still love to look half as good as Ali did in the AT.

Aliwas my favourite (after Jade left) and I think she is beautiful. I also think her AT outfit was horrid. How that is being nasty to Ali is beyond me

I do not agree with the posts that say she could have had it changed. That is hardly realistic in a week when she is learning 2 dances, has all the pressure of a semi final and isn't an expert in what does and doesn't look good on the dance floor. That is the responsibility of the costume/hair departments.

Aren't most of Ola's dresses made up of off-cuts? They're always so skimpy!! Although if I had her figure...

I watched it again on the i-Player specifically to view Ali's dress and having looked at it a bit more closely, I think it is actually a beautiful dress, both in the fabric pattern and detail, and the wonderfully cut bodice, neckline and particularly the line of the subtly capped sleeves which I really love. She wore it well, it worked with the dance moves and her legs still looked fine and elegant.

I do think though, that not all the dresses are a success (colour can be tricky to get right and black can appear severe or funereal) and she, along with most of the others, had some almost hideous dresses earlier in the series.

I thought her shimmering satin grey/ blue dress for the American Smooth suited the dance perfectly and suited her too. It had a sumptuous swirl and swish in the skirt and beautiful detailed work on the back of the bodice. I wasn't keen on the leaf design on one strap and in her hair decoration but that's a minor peronal dislike and otherwise it was lovely. A fifties look and feel to it, I thought.

I suppose the wardrobe people are always trying to come up with something new and different based on ideas for different individuals, dances, eras and music and one consequence of playing with different ideas and themes is that we may get more things that are new, experimental, different, but there will be more that don't work or don't appeal to some of us.

On a good day , even in my wildest youth I wouldnt ever have looked as stunning as Ali , NO
And I still think that you have missed most posts point , that we are dissappointed for her that the dress wasnt a hit
I willed Ali to win , I love her and Brian together , I still wish she was in the final .But as soon as I saw that dress my heart plummeted as first impression can last and it did nothing for her
Surely you can differentiate between knocking and having a perfectly normal conversation about a dress

You people amaze me.


Actually, it is a little known fact that Ola has very conservative tastes - the frumpy cow - and she has all Hattie Jacques outfits to begin with. I just sneak into Shepherd's Bush with a pair of scissors every Friday night.

(I learnt my skillZ through long hard childhood sessions with paper-chain men.)

If, on a good day, I once in my life looked half at beautiful as Ali is I'd be a very, very happy woman indeed - on that good day would I want to appear in public wearing that AT dress - good god no, it was vile. It's still a mystery how the wardrobe department managed to make such a gorgeous woman look frumpy.

That slit in the position afore described is allegedly standard wear by certain ladies of the night, not sure if it is like a uniform in Buenos Aires tango bars.

Did anybody see (I missed it) the 1975 film "The Happy Hooker" about the life of Xavier Hollander with Lynn Redgrave playing her? In it Lynn wore a dress which had a slit at the rear which could be hoisted high and draughty by Lynn pulling a string from the front when required .

http://www.redgrave.com/images/1733.jpg

It looks like BBC Wardrobe tried to be factually authentic.

Sweet inoffensive Ali cannot vamp it up to save her life, so in this case Wardrobe's good intentions backfired. No way could Ali ever play Xavier Hollander on the screen, so why ask this of her on the dance floor?

I think it safe to say that all who question this one costume adore Ali the person and are distressed she was burdened with it, possibly evicted for it?

I don't think the dress was the main reason she was evicted. Unfortunately people didn't seem to connect with her and, as we are always being told, as this is an 'entertainment' show that makes a huge difference.

However, the dress did not help matters Nor did the hair

I still think Ali and Brian were fantastic though. Pure class.

Oh come on! Most of us were surprised at how such a beautiful woman, with lovely legs and figure could have been dressed so badly. If she had been given a dress similar to Rachel's or higher heels to her shoes along with better tights then she would have been half way close to selling the dance. Everything about what she was wearing screamed "frump" not "vamp" and as a result imho took something away from her performance.

Indeed. No self respecting vamp would opt for comfort over style ... or more to the point look like they were.

I understand that the heel height was foot injury related, but the style of heel had more to do with the frump side than the height. I think the dress length had been designed with a higher heel in mind, though