Darcey Bussell Dancewear

As you may have heard, world-renowned, retired ex-Royal Ballet dancer Darcey Bussell is back in the UK for work commitments for a couple of years. International Dance Supplies (IDS) has a Darcey Bussell range of dance wear that I wanted to put to the test.  Would the items be good quality, durable and fun ? Would they stand up to the rigours of wear and tear of youngsters ?

I asked a family with two young children to try out the items you see photographed here – a Darcey Bussell leotard, a tutu, wand, hairpiece and suitcase. The skirted leotard is for 6-8 years and the tutu for 3-5 years, according to IDS.  In tests, the family found that size-wise the tutu comes up a little small.

They loved the colour of everything – it is a lot of pink but a good shade and first impressions were really good, with excitement from the children which is always a good thing! The headband was a great fit though two of the embellishments came off during general wear. The family reported, “the leotard so far seems to be in good condition, it washed well on a 40 degree standard wash. The tutu outfit is sponge clean only and has sponge cleaned well, saying this there were no obvious marks or stains that I was trying to clean from it, more a general clean. The wand accessory is being much enjoyed by the children, the star on the top seems to bend easily but has not snapped, however I am sure little fingers could do so.”

The family has been using the items in a role play capacity, and found them very useful for that purpose. But there is more….

the Darcey Bussell wand

Their parting comments were a huge bonus : “They [the Darcey Bussell items] have encouraged Jessica to enquire about starting ballet lessons, she seems very proud to wear them.”

the Darcey Bussell head band

The Darcey Bussell range can be bought from International Dance Supplies Ltd