Child Beauty Pageant Dress Guide

A short glitz pageant dress should have a multi-layered cupcake skirt that falls to fingertip length. The dress should be stoned with several gross of Swarovski rhinestones.

Most people use a mixture of stones in different sized and colors. Some of the stones might be the same color as the dress, or they might be in the same shade as the dress. The majority of stones will be crystals or Aurora Borealis (AB) stones.

Be sure to select a dress that compliments you child's coloring. A good rule of thumb is white, pale turquoise, yellow, and bubble gum pink for girls with dark hair and skin.

Blondes usually look best in light blue and light fuchsia pink. Most redheads are limited to pastel mint green and royal blue.

Custom-made dresses usually do best in pageants. These dresses are made to fit your child perfectly, and they're one of a kind, so the judges aren't tired of seeing them.

Because these dresses are so expensive, you might want to give pageants a try before you spend the money on a custom-made pageant dress. After a pageant or two, you and your daughter might decide that pageants aren't for you.

For your first pageant, rent a dress. Many pageant people have a nice supply of rental dresses, and they'll usually help you select one that's a good match for your daughter.

If you find that pageants might be something you stick with, but you're not completely convinced yet, you might want to consider buying a used dress. These can often be found at pageants, on pageant message boards, and on Ebay.

Practically anything goes here, and for glitz pageants, the more imagination you use, the higher your score will be. Some great winning outfits have included headhunter, sailor girl, punk, Bratz doll, go-go dancer, biker wear, fifties poodle skirts, sixties retro wear, Vegas showgirl, cheerleader, and cowgirl.

Some great casual wear outfits don't have a specific theme. They might be a brightly colored tennis shirt with fringe or pom-pom balls, worn with a matching midriff top. They might also include bell bottoms and tops with layers of neon ruffles on the pants and sleeves.

In the swimwear competition, most little girls go barefoot. The swimsuit might be a one piece or a two piece. Most swimsuits seen in glitz pageants are adorned with ruffles, beads, fabric flowers, bows, lace, tulle, rhinestones, ribbons, or dangling trim.

Many girls wear a ruffled anklet dyed to match the swimsuit, along with a matching bow in their hair.

Costume wear is another fun category and somewhere you can get creative. Many pageants that offer this category have a specific theme, like Mardi Gras, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, or Halloween.

Costumes should be in keeping with the overall theme. For example, for Fourth of July, a contestant might wear a Betsy Ross costume, and for Halloween, some of the little girls would likely dress as witches, black cats, or perhaps scarecrows.

For casual wear, swimwear, and costume wear, originality is very important to the judges. Music accompanies each girl's walk on stage, and each contestant usually chooses her own music and brings it to the pageant with her.

Below are some cute Costume and child beauty pageant dress ideas that you can buy online: