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$125 Turkish Beginner CostumesWhile these costumes are called beginner costumes and accordingly priced, they are hand-selected by us from our suppliers for their outstanding value in terms of beauty and craftmanship. These are not your plain off-the-shelf two piece costumes. Most of our costumes come with matching head bands and arm bands, lots of long fringe, and very detailed patterns. We don't buy costumes that we would not wear ourselves.The problem that most belly dancers have with turkish costumes (see article below) arise from the fact that they usually come as a set with an (unusable) chiffan veil and skimpy, poorly made see-through skirts. We'd rather have you spent your money on a nice silk veil and a decent matching skirt, so our turkish sets just come with the bra and belt, and most with headband and armbands. The following are a sample of the ones that we have in stock. We usually carry black, gold, silver, green, blue, violet, and red costumes, in various styles.
  
6 piece Turkish Costume starting at $90
2 piece Turkish Costume starting at $70
Beledi Dress, various sizes and pricesWe carry various beledi dresses in different colors and sizes. Nazeem Alsabah in Beledi Dresses at Studio Show
Along with all this extreme glitz and sturdiness in Egyptian costumes comes difficulty in altering them and a rather high discomfort rating. They weigh a lot, don't give or bend with the body and tend to scratch their wearers. Getting a good fit in ready-to-wear Egyptian costumes can be a problem. The basic bra cup is available in only a few styles and three sizes. Either it fits or forget it. And the story is pretty much the same for Egyptian belts. They are usually constructed in one piece with a side fastening. If the ornamentation is in a symetrcial pattern the belt needs to be cut up and reconstructed to alter it. However, once you have gone all the way to Egypt you don't have to rely on ready-to-wear. If you know a little bit about getting around and where to go you can have a custom-made costume or tailored alterations done just for you. If we think of Egyptian costumes as Earth, then Turkish costumes are Air: light, shimmering, changeable, supple. Construction is minimal. Both bras and belts are often made with wired frames under soft fabric. This allows the costumers to make interesting shapes along the edges of both bra and belt. Sculptural effects are also featured in the sequin and bead work on the body of the costumes. Three dimensional designs are achieved by sewing rows of sequins with bead spacers in floral or butterfly or star patterns. Intricate overlays of sequins are used to achieve subtle iridescence. Delicate fringes in different lengths and bead colors and sizes complete these confections. If Bottecelli's Venus had been a bellydancer she would have come out of the sea wearing a Turkish costume. And compared with the Egyptian product, Turkish costumes are comfortable to wear and easy to alter. Also, Turkish costumes often come with sets of sweet little sequined accessories such as hand pieces, necklets, headbands and even foot coverings. However all this loveliness is plagued by one very big problem. These costumes are fragile as butterflies and as ephermeral as clouds. Even given that most of the Turkish costume makers have ceased using thin, easily broken thread, if you dance hard or often you may be doing constant maintainence. Also, be warned: the skirts and veils that come with most Turkish costumes are often worse than useless--skimpy, uninteresting, overly revealing, etc.You will probably have to spend some more money when you get home for something real to go with your Turkish bra, belt and accessories. For a Turkish costume to achieve its full impact the dancer needs to be very close to the audience. The subtle effects of sculpted beadwork and overlays get lost across a room. In fact, these costumes are often most impressive just lying on a table or hanging on a wall like the works of art they are. Caring for your CostumeThe following quotes give you some ideas about caring for costumes.(Source : touregypt. net/featurestories/bellydancingcostumes.htm)
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