DWTS Who Wore it Better? Part X – The Pre-Season 12 Edition!
So the official cast pictures were released on Thursday, and we could be like every other site and just post them for you to see…or we could have fun and do a new (long-awaited!) edition of Who Wore it Better? 🙂 Enjoy!
Battle of the hot pink, fringed cut-out Latin dress: Petra’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Dmitry vs. Denise’s cha-cha with Maks in season 8
Courtney: It’s almost not fair to pit ANYONE against someone as gorgeous as Petra 🙂 And while I always thought Denise looked pretty awkward in every costume they put her in, Petra wears this one well – I think the color looks much more flattering on her that it does on Denise, and I love the loose, wavy hair and understated makeup.
Heidi: Well, Denise’s makeup is too over done when she’s wearing the dress – that was distracting to me. You can tell Petra is a model – she knows how to wear clothes. Conversely, Denise is an actress, NOT a model (or a dancer) and isn’t as comfortable in her skin in this sort of outfit. It shows.
The winner: Petra by a pose.
Battle of the white & black embroidered, ruffled “crotch doily” dress: Lacey’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Mike vs. Lacey’s jive with Kyle in season 11
Heidi: You know this dress might be cute on someone else – but not many people. Julianne could probably wear it. But this is just not a flattering cut on Lacey and I don’t get why she insists on wearing it!! But forget about the dress…what the HELL is wrong with her damn hair!?!?! Good lord, you have hair and makeup people at your disposal and this is what you do? This is not “rebel”, this is…I hate to say trailer park is the first thing that came to mind!! Limp and lifeless. You look at pictures of Lacey with the very dark hair (which makes her eyes pop) and she looks gorgeous. I don’t get why a beautiful girl sabotages herself.
Courtney: *sigh* I have to wonder sometimes what the pros’ (or the costume department’s) motivations are for picking certain costumes for these shoots. This is one of those times. I always thought this costume was silly – I think someone mentioned the comically placed “crotch doilies” on it, and it just kinda reminded me of something a circus performer would wear. As for the hair and makeup – oy. If I hated Lacey’s bleach blonde hair last season, then I downright LOATHE this dark roots, light ends ‘do she’s rocking now. Her makeup also seems a little drab in this photo shoot – I kinda liked the “pop” that the bright red lipstick gave her face when she wore this costume the first time.
The winner: Ain’t no winners here, move along.
Battle of the white-fringed, asymmetrical Latin dress: Kendra’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Louis vs. Edyta’s cha-cha with Aiden in season 10
Courtney: It’s hard for anyone to hold a candle to Edyta in pretty much any costume, but Kendra gives her a good run for her money here! Both ladies look very pretty, but I think the white is a bit more striking against Edyta’s darker hair & skin. I kinda wish they had given Kendra a more textured ‘do…maybe some loose waves or something to frame her face better than this straight hair. And what’s with this pose they’ve got her doing? Does she have to pee? Or did she forget to put on undies before leaving the house this morning?
Heidi: That’s the Playboy pose. You can take the Bunny out of the mansion but you can’t take the….wait. You can take the Bunny out of Playboy but you can’t take the playboy out of the bunny. Happy Hour wuz gud. Anyway, Edyta wins on skin tone.
Courtney: I guess we should also point out that Julianne actually wore this dress recently for she & Derek’s exhibition performance in Hong Kong. Special thanks to Lori for pointing it out 🙂
The winner: Edyta by a spray tan.
Battle of the black lace, off-the-shoulder asymmetrical hem tango dress: Wendy’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Tony vs. Niecy’s Argentine tango with Louis in season 10
Courtney: Eh…this seemed like a bit of a cop-out on the part of the costume folks. “Gee, we’ve got a curvy, outspoken black gal this season. Let’s put her in a costume that another equally curvy, outspoken black gal wore 2 seasons ago!” Kinda seemed like they were typecasting a bit with this one. I didn’t love the dress on Niecy, and I don’t love the dress on Wendy. I think I would have rather seen her in something with a little more impact – they’ve got the other gals wearing hot pink and bright white, why not Wendy? I guess if I had to chose, I would have to give this one to Niecy – her overall look seems a bit more put-together.
Heidi: I dunno, I think the cut of the dress works better on someone taller, like Wendy. Either way, I don’t like that cut high at the hip and then long in front.
The winner: A rough tie – Wendy wins for fit, Niecy wins for ensemble. But neither is perfect.
Battle of the sparkly, silver-ruffled rumba dress: Karina’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Ralph vs. Karina’s rumba with Aaron in season 9
Courtney: This dress came from the season where Karina seemed to be having a love affair with ruffles – almost every costume she wore seemed to have them! Some of you may also recall this dress as the one she was wearing when Aaron had his post-rumba meltdown in the confessional 🙂 Anywho…I guess it’s kind of a pretty dress. Not necessarily my favorite rumba dress (there have been some gorgeous ones over the years), but it looks nice on her. Funny how it almost looks like it’s pale blue when she wore it in the rumba, and it clearly looks silvery-white here. Gotta love the magic of photo shoot lighting. I gotta give this one to photo shoot Karina for the oh-so-dramatic poses 🙂
Heidi: I think this dress is very pretty – but she wore it for a Rumba?? Seems very strange for a Rumba dress – of course, it was a Rumba with Aaron, so that could explain it. 🙂
The winner: Photo shoot Karina…because the only drama comes from her pose, rather than her unstable partner 🙂
Battle of the hot pink-fringed Latin dress: Chelsea’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Mark vs. Lacey’s Team Kristi cha-cha with Kyle in season 11
Heidi: Chelsea is darling. And too tall for Mark – I wish she was dancing with Derek. 🙂 I smell future showmance. And exploding Bristol/Mark shipper brains. 🙂 She looks great in this dress and is confident enough to wear it well. I predict top 3 with these two – either that or a shocking elimination. I still don’t like Lacey’s blonde hair, so I have to go with Chelsea.
Courtney: Ok, Chelsea may be the cutest thing EVER 🙂 Out of all the celeb ladies, I think she looks the best in the costume they chose for her. Love the flirty pink color, the fringe, and her adorable blonde bob. Just darling. Lacey looks alright – definitely not the worst costume she wore last season, but the hot pink with the bleach blonde hair just looks kinda…Barbie-ish.
The winner: Mark, no question. *drum riff* 🙂
Battle of the black tuxedo-inspired dress w/ruffled neckline: Kym’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Hines vs. Kym’s freestyle with Donny in season 9
Courtney: At first blush, this may not even look like the same costume – but if you look at it a bit more closely, you’ll see that they just removed a lot of the tuxedo details, slapped on some ruffles, and turned it into a simple black Latin outfit. I think she also wore it for the opening pro dance for the season 11 finale. I kinda like the simplicity of it now, without all the cheesy tuxedo stuff – although the bowtie in the back is a bit odd. Whichever way you look at it, it makes her legs look miles long!
Heidi:I dunno, I have to go with the cheesy tuxedo version mainly because I don’t like the black ruffles at the neckline or the way it’s cut around her legs in the other version. Plus she’s really rockin’ out the hair in the tuxedo version – she makes the best, fierce dance faces ever, too – as we’ve mentioned before. 🙂 So, I have to go with the in action shot versus the posed one.
The winner: Cheesy tuxedo Kym, for all-around fierceness!
Battle of the white-fringed, sparkly-neckline Latin dress: Chelsie’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Romeo vs. Chelsie’s cha-cha with Jake in season 10
Courtney: I actually really like this dress on Chelsie, even if I never did quite understand how it fit in with the “Risky Business” theme of she & Jake’s cha-cha. And I dig the fiercer, more mature look she seems to be sporting this season – I like the straight hair better than the crimpy ‘do they gave her the first time around, and I’m glad they 86’ed the long black gloves. Only one complaint: don’t she & Kendra kinda look like the Bobsy Twins? White, tiered-fringe Latin costumes with rhinestone trim & long, straight blonde hair. Wish they had put one or the other in a colored costume, just to set them apart…both are gorgeous.
Heidi: For it to fit the Risky Business theme wouldn’t she also have to be wearing a man’s dress shirt?? Or am I remembering that movie wrong?? And doesn’t it always seem to come back to hair with us when we’re talking dresses?? 🙂 And yes, her dress is too close to Kendra’s – but I don’t think it’s wardrobe’s fault. There is video of Derek picking what he wants to wear and I see no reason to think that the celebs don’t go through the rack and pick what they want. The only thing is, I think they went with a color tone last season so they may have only brought clothes that went well together. Anyway, I’m with you on this one.
Courtney: You’re remembering the right movie – although Rebecca DeMornay never wore a men’s shirt in Risky Business. She did, however, wear a pretty sexy black trenchcoat & matching fedora…kinda wish they had went with that to maintain the movie theme, but unfortunately I think the men’s-shirt-over-tightie-whities look is so iconic that no one would have remembered the trenchcoat/fedora ensemble. FAIL.
The winner: Photo shoot Chelsie, for not having Fake Jake as an accessory.
Battle of the beaded black-mesh Latin dress with the plunging neckline: Anna’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Sugar Ray vs. Kym’s cha-cha with the Hoff in season 11
Courtney: I seriously think this might be my favorite Latin dress on the show, EVER. Kym was a total bombshell in this getup – the long legs, the smokey eyes, the sexy bedhead hair, the great boobs – I wanted to be Kym in that outfit. Minus the whole having to dance with the Hoff part, of course – that was painful to watch. Anna looks great in it, but as I always say, it’s hard to out-fox Kym & her awesome boobage.
Heidi:HEY!! I was gonna use “awesome boobage”. 🙂 I think we’ve been blogging together a long time. 🙂 Gotta agree with you. Not only awesome boobage, but better skin tone and hair for that particular dress.
Courtney: Indeed we have, dearie 🙂 “Awesome boobage” is also a memorable line from an episode of South Park where Kenny hallucinates about boobs. But on a slightly off-topic note, I think (don’t quote me on this, because I haven’t done the research) this is the first time that a female pro has worn a costume for a pre-season shoot that was originally worn by another female pro. For the promo shoots, the pros seem to just pick out costumes they themselves have worn in the past and really liked…or that a celeb has worn in the past. Wonder how/why Anna ended up with Kym’s costume from last season…did she just not have any black costumes of her own to wear?
The winner:Kym’s awesome boobage.
Battle of the short purple Latin dress with black lace overlay: Cheryl’s pre-season 12 photo shoot with Chris vs. Cheryl’s “Toy Story” paso doble to Gipsy Kings with Tony in season 10
NOTE: We searched high and low for a decent quality photo of Cheryl in the Gipsy Kings performance – to no avail. Screen-capping was equally unsuccessful. So while a side-by-side comparison is impossible, you can check the dress out in action on YouTube. And here’s a special shoutout to our reader Ryan, who pointed this one out to us when we were stumped on where we had seen this dress before 🙂
Heidi: I like it, it’s cute – I think Cheryl really likes the lace overlay deal though.
Courtney: It’s a cute dress – but I’m not wild about it. Kinda seems similar to a lot of other dresses Cheryl has worn. I do think it’s funny that Cheryl’s pose for this season’s promo photo is identical to last season’s. I guess it’s become her signature pose, now that she’s gotten extensions 🙂
The winner: Ummm…Cheryl.
And a special note on Kirstie’s dress…
As far as we (and our readers, who’s help we solicited) can tell, the dress Kirstie is wearing has never been worn before on the show – or was worn so long ago that no one can remember when. If you think otherwise, and can provide the specific instance of when this dress was worn (i.e. “Cheryl wore this for her paso doble with Maurice in season 7”) or, better yet, a picture of when this dress was worn, we will post it in a future edition of “Who Wore it Better?” and give you credit 🙂 But until then, enjoy some commentary from Heidi & I…
Courtney: This dress looks comfortable. Kinda like a nightgown. I’d wear it!
Heidi: Definitely straight out of the boudoir – and that’s where I’d wear it too. 🙂
Alright, folks – thus ends another edition of “Who Wore it Better?”. Hope you enjoyed Heidi & I’s warm-up round of snark before we resume the Cheesecake Awards 🙂 So who do you guys think will be this season’s fashion plate? And who will be this season’s fashion victim?
Excellent post, as usual! Re Lacey: I think she’s channeling Sarah Jessica Parker and Drew Barrymore – two women who insist on showing huge roots and sloppy hair. Kym in the tuxedo dress – it looks like it’s also before plastic surgery. I like her very much but her eyebrows now are frozen in that surgical arch. I wanted to say something when you asked if anyone recognized Kirstie’s dress. That dress must have been tailormade for her personality.
Kym also wore that dress in the opening number of last season’s finale, and I think that’s where she looked better.
Also, Chelsie wore a black version of her photoshoot dress that same day.
Yay thank you for the wonderful post!
Petra looks beautiful, I am really hoping she’ll be able to move well.
Man, I thought Lacey had tweeted about going back to dark hair, and I rejoiced at the news! Then I saw this photoshoot and realized it must have been a figamentation of my imagination. Wishful thinking, I guess. I don’t *mind* the dress she’s wearing, but it’s more like something I’d expect to see on Halloween from some girl trying look slutty than a Jive.
Both Chelsea and Chelsie look great in their pics – Chelsea Kane sure is a cute girl and from what I’ve seen of her on the videos, will be sweet, charming and probably a more than decent dancer. I expect her to last long. I actually LOL’d at the Bristol/Mark shipper heads exploding line.
Chelsea and Chelsie look great! Yeah, Chelsea is going to be good. I wish they paired her with someone a bit taller than her. Mark and showmance? So going to happen. Chelsie and Chelsea are top 3 bound. Maybe Chelsea Kane more since Disney kids have done well.
“I think she [Kym] also wore it for the opening pro dance for the season 11 finale.”
Pretty sure I said it 🙂 And yeah, Chelsie did wear a black version of her dress above for that same dance – but there are no good pix of that number, unfortunately, for us to do a comparison with. For whatever reason, there is only one pic of that pro dance, and you can’t see anyone’s costumes 🙁
As for Lacey’s hair – I’m seeing more & more of this two-tone dark roots, light ends trend, and I HATE it. It just looks fake to me – like someone is a bottle blonde that needs to get their roots retouched. I wonder if she’ll change it before the show starts…or if the hair department will do everything they can to hide it, hehe.
Chelsie also wore Denise and Petra’s dress at the Kristi Yamaguchi benefit event. I saw a better picture somewhere but for now i can’t remember where but you can still tell from the top of it in this picture.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?fbid=436200600241&set=o.115308663786&theater
Excellent Guys!!!! LOL You always make me laugh!!
And add me to the list of why oh why does Lacey insist on wearing that particular costume? It makes her hips looker bigger and I would think she’d want to do the opposite? Please Randall, tell her!
From everyone, I think Petra is just gorgeous and she’s going stun us all Season in this area.
I am hoping Kirstie wears a lot of black this Season. This color fits her well!!
Funny, cause Denise Richards was a model for years before she was an actress.I think she didn’t do much runway stuff (mostly magazine shoots), but still it’s so surprising that she’s so awkward. I think she’s gorgeous but she did not get costumed well on DWTS.
Maybe it’s just me, but the picture of Kym from pre-season 12 makes her hips look big. Don’t know if it’s the costume, or the pose, or both.
LOL!!! You guys crack me up!!!
Excellent, the only one I’d have to disagree is the tuxedo vs ruffles of Kym, I do prefer ruffles 😉
Anna looks very pretty too!!
Thanks guys! Love Kirstie and Chelsea Kane’s look. The dresses really suit them. I think they all look great except for Lacey – gotta agree with you both re: dress and hair! I’d forgotten just how gorgeous Edyta is until I saw her above.
Someone commented that they were glad that the pairs were going to have two chances before elimination. How’s that working? They’re not doing two dances the first night are they???
GREAT JOB, LADIES!! As usual!
Funny how Lacey can be battling herself and still lose…. I don’t like her outfit either. And while I still don’t care for her hair, at least it’s a definite improvement.
And I must admit to LOLing at the idea of a showmance between Mark and Chelsea because isn’t there a rumor that he’s dating Chelsie?
Meggie I was the onw that said that. 🙂 Its going to work just like last season 10 when there was no ” premiere ” results show, its going to work the same way this season. There wil be no results show until week 2 since theres only 11 stars and there is no need for a results show on week 1. Just the I like it. 😀
Sorry for the typos i was typing fast cause im in a hurry. 🙂
Zach, you can’t be in that much of a hurry if you come back to apologize for making typos. Just saying. Either slow down, or don’t make a second comment apologizing.
Petra is gorgeous in that costume. Chelsea is adorable in her costume and I TOTALLY agree about the showmance with Mark. My LOL is making Bristol/Mark shippers’ heads explode. Edyta is so beautiful and I miss her. Chelsie looks awesome in her promo picture (and she and Romeo look great in their promo picture), but I still get grossed out seeing pictures of Chelsie dancing with Jake. Please make your hair one color, Lacey, as you are way too pretty for that look.
YAY, I have missed “Who Wore it Better”
Courtney I agree the shirt/underwear combo has become the most iconic thing about that movie to the exclusion of everything else of course Rebecca DeMornay tends to be overlooked in general. It’s not a good shot, but his is the outfit you meant and I agree it would have been great for that dance.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/05/03/gal_cruise_riskybusiness.jpg
I do think they got lazy with Wendy’s dress, hopefully they won’t try to use any other costumes of Nicey’s on her, it wouldn’t be fair to Wendy.
I may be a bit off or some alterations from the original may have been definitely made, nonetheless I do believe I recall Kirstie’s dress adorning a female pro in Strictly Come Dancing (possibly Erin Boag or Flavia Cacace) if this dress is indeed inspired by the dress I’m seriously drawing a blank on the pro in Strictly then this could be a case of DWTS taking a page out of SCD’s book. I do believe the same can be said for one of Patsy Kensit’s dresses in the most recent installment of Strictly (I may have 2 look into to that) and Katya Virshilas’s Paso Doble (w/ Gavin Henson) underdress.
I think the dress of Patsy’s I was referring to was her Salsa dress, which I thought on 1st glance probably resembled Pamela Anderson’s Argentine Tango dress, but upon further inspection it doesn’t but her Viennese Waltz dress does ring a bell for some reason.
@Nick – Kirstie’s dress may look similar to one worn on SCD, but I doubt it is indeed the same dress, since each show has a different costume designer and I doubt they’d have any reason to “borrow” from one another. I’m thinking Kirstie’s dress may have been one they just happened to have on-hand that Kirstie liked, and may not have ever been worn before. The fact that it seems like a fairly plain-looking dress compared to the others makes me wonder if it was just a “stock” dress that Randall had in his collection as a “just in case” – especially since most of the costumes on the show are a size extra-small and small, and a few are medium. I don’t think any of the celeb ladies has ever worn a large, and without sounding totally insensitve, I’d say Kirstie is probably a large just due to her height & the size of her chest. I am definitely curious to see how Randall outfits her this season – I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of cleavage from her 🙂
Very true Courtney plus she does have a set of hips to, which can be tricky in designing costumes. Bristol and Niecy had the same issue and some of their dresses were somewhat less flattering because of the shape it took on their mid sections. I just hope the don’t try to dress Kirstie in pastels or fades because it just doesn’t work well; however, I think Randall is really trying to go the extra mile with Kirstie because she’s having a good start with this evening-gown type dress, which definitely not only suits her body type, but also fits her personality. I look forward to see how he’s gonna make Kirstie sparkle because he’s really outdone himself last couple of seasons with certain body types.
I hope Randall gives it his “all” too. Costumes can make or break a dance. IE: BRISTOL! Then again, Bristol danced bad too. Anyway, please… I hope we won’t see a repeat of how Bristol was dressed. Some of her costumes were so wrong for her. But, I blame Mark for that too.
Yeah, but Vogue, don’t forget that Bristol was quite adamant about not wearing anything revealing. I honestly think that her wishes were probably amongst the hardest that the costume department ever had to accommodate.
You know what I used to love? The segment when the celeb had to choose and design the costume (with Randall and his team’s help of course). I think they only did that a couple of times though, didn’t they? I thought it was fun and added another dimension to the whole DWTS experience. 🙂
I agree, Vogue – seems like a lot of Bristol’s costumes just did not suit her well at all. Whether it was the cut, color, or just the overall “look”, it was awkward to see her in some of them. However, I also agree with Evaine – Bristol definitely didn’t make it easy for the costume department to dress her. Being that covered up really limits the possibilities for costumes. Most of her ballgowns were pretty similar – her foxtrot, quickstep, & Viennese waltz dresses just showed her arms & maybe a little bit of her shoulders; her waltz & tango dresses covered her up even more. As for her Latin costumes – it all seemed downhill after that initial cha-cha. The rumba costume was a definite low – I don’t know why they couldn’t have put her in a rumba costume like Susan Lucci’s or Shawn’s…both were rather conservative but still pretty. I’m sure Mark had some edgy vision in his head that didn’t quite play out into reality. I just hope Kirstie doesn’t impose the same stringent restrictions on the costume folks this season – although she seems much more laid back about doing the show. It is possible to be demure & modest on the show without looking totally awkward!
So true too Girls!! Bristol was at fault too!!! I really didn’t like her costumes until the very end of the Season.
Courtney: “It is possible to be demure & modest on the show without looking totally awkward!”
Yep!!!
You mean the segment, Evaine, where the celeb would choose her costume AND that of her partner?? They did that several times because I have a recollection of being terrified to see what Lil’ Kim was going to put Derek in and then she turned out to dress him beautifully. They also did it in both Joanna and Nicole’s seasons. I remember comments about sequined speedos, and I seem to recall Evan teasing Anna with some seriously ghastly fabric patterns.
That’s exactly what I meant. Yeah. *g* Maybe they did it more often than I remember, though. I do know that I always wanted to see more of the process. (I like all that behind-the-scenes stuff more than I should, perhaps. Heee!)
I think Kirstie’s best assets should be as visible as possible like her feet & some leg because though she may not seem it I think her legs are worthy of a little showing off. Unlike Bristol’s who seemed to have a lot of “extra weight” (possibly cellulite) in them. I hope they bring that stars dress your dance week back because I love how terrified the men get when their partner mentions thong or frills. I seem to recall Steve-o mentioning a banana hammock (as funny as it would have been), and Lil Kim mentioning a speedo, I think? I know Kirstie & Kendra would have something deviously fun for the female audience in mind, and Romeo & Mike too judging by theor personality and Catherwood’s rather “interesting” interview.
I agree with Vogue. They could have dressed bristol modest without looking frumpy(My 99year old great granny has better fashion sense than that.) I think they just didn’t care enough to try to mesh “modest” and “dance style” clothing.(Has no one heard of nude color clothing. you know stuff that is typically on figure skaters’ outfits) Unless bristol had stated “no cleavage, no legs showing, no shoulders showing” they should have dressed her better(not that it would have helped her. poor poor poor poor silly girl who thought she could dance)