Helen Skelton's stunning Halloween dress has been worn…

Helen Skelton's stunning Halloween dress has been worn before, Strictly's costume chief Vicky Gill reveals as bosses wary of budget

Strictly Come Dancing's costume chief has revealed a little known fact about Helen Skelton's jaw-dropping Halloween dress.

With 20 years of Strictly, hundreds of dresses have been worn by contestants over the decades. Top designer Vicky Gill, who has been working on the show since 2012, said it was important to her to not be wasteful.

So instead of getting rid of previously worn pieces, a lot of them are repurposed or recycled - such as the dress worn by Countryfile presenter Helen Skelton last week. The gown was originally created for Karen Hauer when she danced an American Smooth with Greg Wise in 2021.

But Vicky said it was easily transformed with the help of red dye for Helen's and Gorka's foxtrot, the Mirror reports. She said: "It's something that I have been doing for a long time. I hate being wasteful.

"We are not only taking care of budgets, but strive for sustainability and something good for the environment". Vicky says they dyed the dress just days before Saturday night's show. "We didn't know how it was going to take, but I thought 'lets just go for it'," she said.

Strictly fashion designer Vicky Gill has revealed that the dress worn by Helen Skelton for Halloween week had been upcycled (Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

"In the end it ticked all the boxes, helped us upcycle, and also create a broken feel for the Halloween week as I didn't want it to be a perfect dye. Everyone was a winner."

Other pieces that have been recycled include the skirt worn by Rose Ayling-Ellis which was last seen on Gemma Atkinson during the 2019 Xmas special. Vicky said: "I try and be clever where I use them.

The dress had originally been worn by Karen Hauer (Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

"In Rose's case her dress was in the closing number of a Xmas special so it's not so obvious to the viewer and doesn't break the magic for the celeb coming into the show. It's not a case of pulling raggedy old skirts off the rail and going 'there we go, pop that on'. It's not cut and paste."

With tonnes of experience under her belt, Vicky has designed stunning pieces for the likes of Kylie Minogue and Girls Aloud. She said her encyclopedic knowledge of pieces used previously really help the process.

She laughed: "My team pull my leg and call me the elephant. I usually have good idea of where things started."

She added: "Costing is at the forefront of what we do. It's not an endless pit of money. We have a healthy budget but its a big show and it runs for 13 weeks.

"It can't be grotesque, we can't be throwing money at pieces. You have to mind the pennies."

However, these challenges help keep her on her toes. She said: "It's really exciting from a creative perspective.

"It's like what can we do? We can't just store everything forever and a day, and we are paying for storage as well. It makes you think."

After the show, a lot of thought goes into how the dresses can be used in the future. Vicky said: "We decide at the end of the series what happens.

"A vast number of dresses go on the main tour, and then the spin off shows. The professionals go on their own tours and they will be repurposed."

She added: "If they are high street garments like shirts, we may give them to charity or to dance schools or organisations that can't afford things. From a competitive angle, it can go back into the dance world and then some things are available to hire. It's a moveable feast."

It also helps that there are a multitude of versions of the show aired on TV around the world. "The show has been sold in something like 56 countries, so they outfits can go and live another life," Vicky said.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday night (November 5) on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 7pm. The results show will air the following evening from 7.15pm.

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