Tag: Erica Vess

Swing Meowt

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

If you’ve ever been to I Heart Bal or if you know Richmond-based instructor Erica Vess, you know what an incredible artist she is and how she is able to hone in on the most adorable and instantly relatable ideas and translate them into marketing and merchandise for her event.  I have only been to half of the I Heart Bal events, but I buy merchandise every year because I want it, it’s so good.  I was delighted to see a one-off design this morning from Erica in my Facebook feed, featuring a punk rock kitty with punk rock font saying SWING MEOWT.  This appeals to every fiber of my being.

From Erica on Facebook: “You can support our studio during the shutdown with this sweet merch I just dropped into our fundraising store. Bonus: you’ll also be supporting another local small business, Itty Bitty Press, who has lost tons of orders during this time.”

HERE FOR THIS SWEET MERCH, ERICA.  TAKE MY WALLET. 😉

Fishnets in a Range of Nude Skin Tones

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

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Whether you’re a chorus girl or you just want a little something between you and your dance shoes to reduce friction without sacrificing ventilation, you may have forayed into wearing fishnet stockings.  Often, fishnets are only offered in two colors – black or nude. However, this “nude” typically translates to “white people nude” and this is troubling for many reasons.   Dancer/instructor/event organizer Erica Vess posted a link on Facebook this morning to Discount Dance Supply’s nude fishnets page this morning, which offers Nude Barre fishnets in 12 shades of “nude,” citing that she has friends who have been “unable to (easily) find “nude” fishnets if their personal shade of nude.”  Now, if we could only get Discount Dance Supply to actually provide a sizing chart, we’d be even better…but you can always go to the source for this information, you can also order swatches to decide which color works best for your skin tone, and you can find more availability options at the full retail price.  If you haven’t considered dance tights for swing dancing for various reasons, maybe this is a good jumping off point, because, for the money, these will last so much longer than pantyhose.

I’ll add that if there are other products dancers use that would be more inclusive to you or others in the community, please feel free to share them here.  I’ve seen many discussions on Facebook in the past few months about exclusivity/inclusivity and, though this blog is fairly limited in scope, there are products, like these fishnet tights, that represent a step in the right direction.