The Look
Dresses, vests, bling, wigs. Irish dance is a lot to look at.
Shoes
Let's start with the least alarming part of the Irish dance costume.Irish dance has two styles of dance that require two types of shoes.
Softshoes are the first type of shoe you will receive as a dancer.
Masculine softshoes are known as reel shoes and are almost like a lace-up jazz shoe with a full hardshoe heel. Male softshoe steps include clicks and other percussive tricks, a good practice for hardshoe.
Feminine softshoes are also called pumps/pomps, light shoes, or ghillies. They're a variation of a lyrical or Highland ghillie. The main difference between a lyrical ghillie and an Irish ghillie is the toe shape. Irish ghillies have a much shallower toe. In the past, the toe has been so open as to barely cover the big toenail.
Both types of softshoes differ from other dance shoes in additional ways. They're made of much thicker, black leather that can take several classes to break in, depending on the type of sole (leather or suede, full or broken) and how often the body of the shoe is stretched.
Softshoes are always worn small. It's important to size down at least two sizes due to the amount of stretch your shoe will undergo. A floppy softshoe is difficult to dance in. The smaller size will seem like a punishment—they really do hurt when you're breaking them in.
Below is a simple size chart for basic conversions:
| Size in American | Size in UK/Irish |
| 10 | 8 |
| 9 | 7 |
| 8 | 6 |
| 7 | 5 |
| 6 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 4 | 2 |
When trying on ghillies, make sure there is no sagging in the toe or heel—if there is, they're too big. It's not unusual to go through a pair or two a year due to stretching or other wear and tear. You want form-fitting shoes! A sagging toe is difficult to dance in, but a buckling big toe is not the way to go, either. Try them on while you are wearing thicker socks (poodle socks are preferable).
When you tie your ghillies, because the laces are so long, they will often need to be wound around your arches or ankles. Neatness is key, however, and most dancers (and teachers, as well as adjudicators) prefer you wrap the excess laces around the arch. This can actually damage the foot or cause cramping in the arch, so don't tie them too tightly. Around the ankle is permissible, especially for beginners. The ultimate point with the laces is to keep them almost invisible while dancing. How you go about doing this is at your discretion. I do not recommend cutting the laces.)
General dance supply stores don't typically carry proper Irish softshoes or hardshoes unless there is a local demand, so I recommend going online to buy. That's what I've done for twenty years! (Beginners can get away with jazz shoes or lyrical ghillies temporarily, but these are not substitutes for Irish softshoes.)
See the links section for shoe sellers.
Hardshoes (also called jig shoes or heavies) are worn by both male and female dancers after they have mastered basic softshoe dances. They are not like tap shoes in any way, so do not buy tap shoes, even for practice.
The first difference is in the anatomy: hardshoes have a thick, steep heel and a thick, graduated tip made of wood, plastic or fiberglass. There are no metal taps and any use of metal taps is forbidden in competition. The heavier materials used actually make a better, fuller sound.
Hardshoes buckle across the ankle and tie up the center. They have no supporting shank, or only half a shank, so they are very malleable once broken in for things like toe stands. The front tip is also much narrower than a pointe shoe box, making balancing tricky.
Fitting hardshoes is more akin to fitting street shoes because they don't stretch in the same way, so you want a comfortable fit, not a tight one, when you try them on. Some dancers wear elastics to keep them more snug and to secure the laces.
Decorative buckles are an optional feature but many champion dancers wear them to draw attention to their feet.
But what do Irish dancers put on when they're wearing shoes?
Poodle socks are worn by females only. They are so-named because of the textured, elasticized fabric that, apparently, makes them look like the texture of poodle fur. That fabric is designed to keep the sock up better than ordinary socks. No poodle sock stays up that well, though, so sock glue was invented to keep them stuck to your skin. Poodle sock height varies depending on the current trends. When I was competing, they were generally worn just a couple inches below the knee. Now they typically only reach above the ankle.
Poodle socks can be purchased at any place selling Irish dance shoes, but most are acquired at feiseanna (competitions). I recommend buying many pairs, but they're pretty resilient.
Tights, always black, are also popular, and different schools require different brands and denier. You'll need to ask your teacher.
Clothing
As an Irish dancer, you'll have a school costume and a solo costume, and maybe a few others for recitals/shows or teams.A school costume is your school uniform. It's usually provided for both boys and girls, and in some cases, different levels. The intricacy of the costume varies drastically between schools, and all schools have a different style. Feminine costumes might be a simple skirt and white blouse, or a pleated dress with machine-sewn knotwork. Masculine costumes will be a button-down shirt and slacks with a matching vest, tie, or cummerbund.
School costumes are worn in lower levels during competition, and for team/figure competition.
There are many different ways that school costumes are issued—some students actually purchase them, while some students rent. Boys usually have to buy their own shirts or slacks, and the school provides its portion of the uniform.
Solo costumes are unique to each dancer and worn in solo competition in the mid to upper levels.
They're also a great source of culture shock, because no one expects Irish dance costumes to look, well, how they do.
To directly quote fourteen-year-old me, "The first time you see an Irish dance solo dress you'll probably either a.) laugh b.) scream c.) scream and laugh d.) run away or, e.) stand and stare for a really long time."
The solo dress is usually prohibitively expensive and trendy.
Over the years, champion level dancers have increasingly opted to get a new costume every competitive season, a trend I find difficult to swallow—new solo dresses range from $1000 to over $3000. I recommend getting a second-hand dress, especially for your first one, as this can knock the price down. But don't expect to shell out less than a few hundred bucks for even the most used and "outdated" of solo dresses.
The shape and material of the dress have gone through countless changes over the last thirty years alone. From velvet dresses with stiff-paneled skirts and lace collars, to glitterball and neon with wide split-panels, to several panels with zig-zag hemlines, to ruffled skirts and leopard print, to drop waists with short skirts and illusion net sleeves, the journey of the solo dress has taken us to great heights and terrible, just awful lows. Headbands became crowns became tiaras became fascinators. Capes/brocks have gone from flowing fabric with a brooch, to stiff and wide, to a tiny afterthought. The dresses vary so much that it is impossible to include any more information. (Leopard print and ruffles should never happen again, though.)
The one unaltered feature since the late 1990s is this: rhinestones.
Masculine solo costumes are often black slacks and a nice shirt, suit jacket, tie, vest, or cummerbund (or some combination of them). Glitter and bright colors have invaded the look at different points, probably to keep up with the ostentatious pageantry of the solo dress at the championship level. Overall, though, the male costume is a lot easier on the bare eyeballs. A trend of the past that should be rekindled was that of a velvet jacket, tie, white shirt, cream kilt, and high socks. But I think that ship has sailed.
Hair is another evolving animal. As I briefly mentioned, the ringlet curls common on feminine dancers came out of the popular sausage curls of the 20th century. But a brief jaunt through time shows us dancers in the 1960s with bouffants and bubble hair, and blown out waves or stick-straight locks in the 1970s. By the 1990s, however, came the rise of the half-wig, which has continued to dominate. The shape of the wig, however, has changed a lot.
The earliest popular wigs were long curls. Then they simply grew in size. The natural ringlet became shiny became brushed out and loose. Even the style of the exposed natural hair has changed, from slicked back, to a little quiff, to a huge bump with extra curls. Meanwhile, the wig got higher and wider. Pageant girls must feel jealous.
In recent years, updo wigs achieved equal popularity.
Many rules have been laid down about competition-appropriate costumes. The "princess style" that Riverdance made popular for performances was not typically allowed in competition, although simple black costumes (usually a black leotard and a black skirt) are now worn at feiseanna. Skirts used to have to be no shorter than four inches above the knee, but with the adoption of the drop-waist dress, skirts have shrunk to barely cover the thighs at all. Dancers under ten are not allowed to wear false lashes (twenty years ago I wouldn't have seen a single false lash at a feis). Black tights sometimes fight for dominance over poodle socks, leading to some tense moments where people thought one or other would be banned from competition. Nowadays, it's teams and adults who wear the tights.
Poodle socks and shoes aren't exempt from trends, either. From glitter and rhinestones and ribbons threaded through the socks, to white tape and laces being used on shoes to help them look more "open" (white tape on hardshoe tends to make feet look huge and boxy to me, so I pray for the end of this era), and of course the rhinestone buckle has only gotten shinier. Then white dancers began tanning their legs, and just their legs. There is no shortage of ideas and experimentation when it comes to the modern Irish dance look.
For good or ill.