I can't help wondering if Lisa has upset the dressmakers and that is why they make her in the dowdiest, dreariest, least flattering (for her shape) dresses they can dream up.

Lisa is a fun personality, and a good dancer, so come on dressmaking elves: give her a break and make her a lovely dress ... and while you are about it, sew in some decent support.

I have seen many larger ladies dance, both ballroom and Latin; they have some fabulous dresses and probably wouldn't be seen dead - let alone on a dance floor - in the rubbish dished up for poor Lisa.

I'm of the opposite opinion in that I think the current team's done a far better job for Lisa than was done in previous series for the non-size-8 ladies. The frock horrors of people like Lynda Bellingham and Letitia Dean spring to mind vividly...

That said, your experience of this kind of thing (as ever) far outweighs mine and if there are better ballroom dresses out there for larger ladies then I'd love to see some examples! Any signposts you can give?

I have no intention of being unpleasant and am a bigger than average size myself - but really what else can Wardrobe do? Her top half is just round - she has no shape! Thought her dress on Saturday worked well. How the hell could anyone have put more "shape" in it. It was pretty close fitting as it was.

That dress was hideous on Saturday, especially the see through back and the view of her ample thighs at every turn.

They have no idea how to flatter the larger lady atall.

Sorry to bang on about this - but are you really saying there is some magic dress design that is going to make Lisa look any more fab than she did on Saturday night? I thought she looked great on Saturday - of course you are going to see flabby bits, because she's flabby! - but it was close fitting with lovely see through wafty bits and an interesting detail at the neck.

Please if there are ballroom dresses out there that can make a size 24+ woman look like a size 12 then please let me know where I can get one.

Her Halloween ensemble wasn't that great, those green tights

However, I think the worst outfit this series so far has to be Fern's on Saturday I couldn't believe the bits hanging out by her arms, why would wardrobe do that to her?

Lisa has been well dressed compared to Dani on Saturday. That 'dress' was hideous and put me off her Tango which is a shame.

Overall I think wardrobe has done her proud. That outfit that was worn by the plumber in ITT was fantastic.

The dress was fine but the white legs looked awful, wish they'd given her some black tights.

They can base her dress on a corset that supports her and holds her in, rather than basing it on a Lycra leotard which has absolutely no support and even made Denise's fab figure look like she had two deflated balloons instead of boobs on Saturday.

I feel like I'm having this conversation over and over again, but you need proper control underwear if you're anything above a 14

Serious question - can you dance in a corset?

I don't know but I would have thought so if it doesn't restrict your breathing. Have it fitted properly and it's just like a bra with boning. Women from the 19th century managed fine with really restrictive ones.

I've got one and its really, really comfortable.

A corset would help with your posture as well wouldn't it? Which would help Lisa, especially in ballroom.

I'm sure it would - but the size of the corset she'd require surely would make moving freely very difficult. Just feel that if a corset was going to sort things out - the wardrobe department might already have thought of it.

I just feel there is a lot of very glib criticism of the highly experienced wardrobe department who have a very difficult job to dress a very large lady elegantly and sexily. I think they are doing a good job, but if there is someone who has actual experience of making dance dresses for someone of Lisa's size - I really would be interested in finding out how they'd go about it.

They really are giving her silly dresses. I also disliked Victoria's dress, horrible colour combinations. I don't like much of what this new head of wardrobe is concocting .

Didn't they used to have the dresses made by a professional ballroom dressmaker? Claudia used to go and visit them and the head woman would come in. I remember some of Letitia Dean's dresses were amazing.

It's really not that hard to dress a larger lady, don't ever use lace on bingo wing arms, drape fabrics over problem areas, show her assets which in my opinion are her legs, her cleavage and if her boobs were adequately supported then she'd have more of a shape.

This week's dress was better because your eyes weren't drawn to her middle, but the first bunch of dresses, they constantly cut her in half at the worst point.

No one is suggesting that they have a magic wand to make her appear size 12 when she is clearly a 20+

However they could have put her in something firmly constructed with a back in it for a start. Think Spanx ... covers all kinds of wobbly. Secondly there was no reason to strip the dress down to the bare minimum on the bottom half which showed her thighs constantly. A couple of splits with black tights underneath would have made all the difference.

I know she is apple shaped, but to me what she wore on Saturday just emphasised that.

Some of the dresses really are quite atrocious, when you think back to previous series and how beautiful they were.

I thought Ferns was far worse on Saturday , it did nothing to hide the loose skin / fat on her back and I was totllay distracted by it .I am no skinny minny myself and have plenty of rolls that need hiding .

Lycra simply isn't sufficiently supportive.

I run in my normal underwired bra and wouldn't dream of wearing anything else. Corsetry and wiring is essential.

I thought exactly the same thing about Fern's and Lisa's dresses on Saturday i.e. How on earth could Wardrobe not see the back fat that showed the moment the two women moved? They are not dressing mannequins that never move or women who dance for a living and have muscles where most of us have some body fat.

At least Fern's costume had some support at the back and all it needed was for the fabric to come further around at the back. But no, they had her looking like a sausage with lycra flesh coloured back. Lisa's dress though had a chiffon style fabric at the back that gave no support to help lift up her boobs, which would have given her a better shape over all.

Have none of these costume designers ever watched Gok Wan or even the awful Trinny and Susanna? You need to lift the boobs to even start creating a waist. From what I have read the female celebs who need extra support wear two sets of Spanx style underwear beneath their leotard based costumes (btw once they are dressed, going to the loo is a major problem for some female celebs, as they often need help to get in and out of their costumes because they are so strapped up. Lycra, more lycra and even more lycra is not the answer.

Alli-F is right that a corset not a leotard should be the core of any costume for larger women who need all round support and it does help with posture. I'm not talking about Scarlet O'Hara style corsets, but corsets made using modern fabrics like Lycra and more flexible boning!

How ironic was it to see Victoria, who has to be one of the most flat chested women ever to take part in the show, wearing a costume last week with an underwired bust section?

I agree. I think Lisa looks great, whereas they often get it so wrong with Dani. It ruined the tango for me, too.

Pamela Stephenson was no sylph when she started Strictly, although several dress sizes smaller than lisa.
However most of Pamela's dresses showed off her cleavage and clearly managed some uplift as no-one's boobs look as perky as hers did without some help.

I do agree that overall Lisa's costumes have looked better than other larger female celebs, but that's because she'd basically been completely covered from the neck down most of the time!

Deliberately dressing Dani in 50s style all the time might suit her body shape, but it's just wrong for such a young woman.

and how odd that the underwired bra made her boobs look even smaller.

I had never noticed in her previous costumes or in her normal wear that she was flat chested, I know her cycling gear made her look that way but I thought it was designed to minimise her boobs to make her more aerodynamic.

If I were Fern I would have been mortified to have seen those back sausages


I don't think War drobe know how to dress anyone who is not stick thin, even poor Dani, who is not fat and has a tiny waist looked dumpy with a podgy tum.