What is the best brand of dancewear?

This is another common and complicated question with a complicated answer.

**Please note that I am limited by brands with which I am familiar.  I will also be referring mostly to brands related to ballet/jazz/modern dancewear.

The most basic answer I can give is that there isn't a single best brand.  Different brands are better for different things for different people with different needs.

However, in general, dancewear brands can be broken into luxury, moderate, and economy categories (maybe with other categories in between) based on quality and price point.

Luxury brands are usually foreign (with the exceptions of Gaynor Minden and Eleve, despite their exotic sounding names) and include special order and self design companies like Yumiko Dancewear and Eleve Dancewear, as well as high quality expensive brands like Grishko, Wear Moi, Gaynor Minden, and Freed of London.  Yumiko and Eleve offer mostly leotards (and some other clothing items like skirts, pants, and tops) that are the epitome of fashion in the professional dance world.  The materials are also very high quality.  Grishko, Wear Moi, Gaynor Minden, and Freed dancewear is also very fashionable, high quality, and expensive.

 



























Moderate brands offer the widest variety of styles at fair (though varied) prices.  Some of these brands include Bloch, Capezio, Motionwear, Sansha, Body Wrappers, Natalie by discountdance.com, and So Danca.  Most of these brands have a "basics" line including plain leotards, tights, and shoes, as well as a "fashion" line that is a little more expensive and has more stylish items.  The vast majority of items at dancewear stores are from moderate brands.  In general, if you don't know what brand to get, go with something moderate.

Economy brands usually have limited styles and are very plain and/or lower quality.  Some economy brands include Trimfoot, Balera, Liberts, Theatricals by discountdance.com, and Eurotard.  Economy products are great for young kids who are just trying dance and are growing quickly.  They are also good for costumes (both for dance performance and for Halloween, etc.) that will only be worn a few times.

As for my personal preferences, I like Yumiko leotards, Capezio tights, Mirella by Bloch ballet skirts, Sansha technique shoes, Grishko pointe shoes, Stephanie Professional ballroom heels, Bloch jazz shoes, and a crazy combo of Gaynor Minden, Grishko, Body Wrappers, and Natalie warm ups.  This just goes to show that there is no one best brand for anything.  I highly encourage dancers to experiment and try new things to find out what works best for them individually.