Strictly magic!

© BBC - Photographer: Guy Levy

Strictly wouldn’t be Strictly without a touch of magic glitterdust – and this year’s series was memorable for hiding a record number of costume changes up its sparkly sleeve.  

From the pros’ magical costume change in the opening number of this series to Anton and Ruth’s incredible Strictly Ballroom costumes hidden under staid airline uniforms, there were too many magical moments to name them all here.

But the most unforgettable example was Katya Jones’s astonishing Cinderella transformation in her winning showdance with Joe McFadden, which saw three costume changes in 90 seconds.

Their rags-to-riches routine saw Katya as a mysterious lady in blue turn into the broom-wielding Cinderella after the strike of midnight only to change, once again, into a sparkling princess when she was reunited with her Prince Joe.

The transformation got everyone talking on Twitter and even moved one viewer to tears. Costume designer Vicky Gill, who works with the dressmaking team at DSI London, shared a few insider secrets with the Sun Online. She explained that the idea had come from Katya who had done something similar before in one of her shows.

Vicky said: “We were nervous because when they do their personal shows, they have two and a half minute routines and they do a change every 30-40 seconds. But on Strictly, we had 90 seconds for three changes so it was nerve-wracking because it could have gone horribly wrong.”

“It was a bit of an ask but when we talked about it I said, ‘If anyone is going to pull it off, it would be Katya.’  Katya has real determination – she doesn’t find problems, she finds solutions – so I knew that together we’d find a way.”

The first costume change happened at the top of the staircase – Katya’s blue dress had a big Velcro section at the back, which was ripped off by one of the wardrobe assistants hiding in the shadows.

The second was more risky. The final sparkly gown was hidden under the raggedy brown-grey dress. Vicky said: “The section that was up, with the rags on, housed all of the fringe and sequins for the final dress, so it was still a bit bulky but because of the constant movement of the rags you couldn’t see. It’s secured at the shoulder with elastic and Velcro, but it can’t be too much Velcro because otherwise it really sticks and you don’t get that sort of pop release.”

It was down to Katya to initiate the second costume change herself as she turned – no mean feat! “When she released it she had to manually push the material down. So what was up and was over her bustline from her hip then became the skirt and all the fringing and everything else fell out,” said Vicky.

“She knew that she had to really give it some welly and then spin as she pushed the dress down. We knew it would go down but we had to make sure it was fluid and didn’t get half stuck in her knickers and lose the moment.”

On the night, Vicky was so nervous she couldn’t watch. “There’s a monitor backstage where we were watching and I couldn’t look at the screen. I felt sick with nerves,” she explained.

“I just told the floor manager, ‘Tell me when the final dress is down.’ When I heard him say, ‘Gillster, it’s down’, the whole room was elated that we’d pulled it off. That was when I let everyone in the team have a drink.”

Of course, as we all know, Katya and Joe went on to claim the glitterball. And, despite some lovely claims on Twitter that Vicky and her hard-working team deserve their own glitterball, seeing a great plan come to fruition is its own reward for Vicky. She said: “Katya sent me a lovely message saying ‘Thank you for persevering and finding solutions to make it work.’ But that’s what we do.”