DWTS, Season 11, Week 7 – Who Had The Best Costumes This Week?

Weren’t there some great costumes this week? Once again, Randall Christensen had his work cut out for him with the contestants as well as past celebrities returning. Here are some takes from Stylist on the challenges he had.

“Seeing over 50 celebrities return to the ballroom was a very fun night for me,” Christensen says. “There was a lot of chatting and reminiscing.”

Christensen tells StyleList he had a scant 10 minutes to create looks for the group dances of rival teams led by former Olympians and prior “DWTS” champs Apolo Anton Ohno and Kristi Yamaguchi. “I hated infringing on their already precious rehearsal time,” he says. “But they were all team players.”

Rick Fox and Cheryl Burke: The basketball player performed a top-rated quickstep in a Jolly Green Giant-esque zoot suit reminiscent of Castroneves’s banana-yellow number.

“We wanted to pay homage to Helio and the movie ‘The Mask,’ which the music was from,” says Christensen. The $125-a-yard tie fabric was a splurge “but set off the polka-dot suit lining.” The overall look “had a lot of personality, just like Rick Fox.”

Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough: Grey’s dress was an almost-exact replica of the gown Burke wore to tango with football great and season 3 champ Smith. Christensen went with the original because “the cut of the back revealed Jennifer’s phenomenal body and the skirt accentuated the sexiness of Derek’s choreography. Jennifer mentioned this was her favorite costume so far and I have to agree with her. Wow, did it ever soar and fly!”

Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas: The political daughter had “big shoes to fill” for attempting a Viennese waltz first danced by Osbourne, but she gave it her own spin in a dreamy gown featuring a triple-tiered skirt with 18 panels.

Christensen added a nude sheer insert accented with gold-plated crystals. “It was quite the dream gown,” says Christensen.

Brandy and Maksim Chmerkovskiy: “Watching Brandy dancing to ‘Fever’ made me break out in a sweat,” confesses Christensen of the singer’s re-creation of the dance first performed by Cheryl Burke and Gilles Marini.

Her leopard-print gloves, suggestively draped over Chmerkovskiy’s back, set the steamy tone. ”

Those gloves brought out some passion,” says Christensen, who added rhinestone-encrusted red bangles to the costume after dress rehearsal.

Kyle Massey and Lacey Schwimmer: The young duo took on a difficult paso doble in edgy black looks inspired by the Mel B/Chmerkovskiy originals.

“Sexy and powerful describes not only the costume, but Lacey,” says Christensen. “The look paid homage to Mel B, but also put Lacey’s own style in the forefront.”

In other related news, Stylist is reporting that the ponytail Kelly Osbourne wore this week was from a new “Dancing With The Stars” wig, hair extensions, and hairpiece line from VogueWigs.com. That is a really cool line. Be sure to check it out.

The collection features seven styles ranging from the Bellissima braided headband to the Bango Tango clip-in bangs to the SalsaLoosa hair wrap. And the hairpieces cost $10 to $49.

In honor of this week’s 200th episode, Kelly Osbourne returned to the reality TV show sporting the Flirtini ponytail clipped into her platinum blonde locks. Does that mean the retro ponytail we spotted her with recently was a fake?

Ok, so who looked the best this week?

With an exception to Rick and Cheryl and Bristol and Mark, I’m having trouble deciding on a favorite? But, I think I’m going with Jennifer and Derek. I just loved the deep red in Jennifer’s dress and she looked great in it. Stunning. My second favorite was Brandy and Maks. Those leopard gloves were the ultimate.