In the News
Valery Ortiz
While online, Valery Ortiz saw a Head To Toe Designs dress created by Julie Schaefer. It was at that moment that she decided to contact Ms. Schaefer.Actress and television host, Ms. Ortiz was married to singer Jesse Carrion on January 16, 2011 in Orlando FL. Both ladies are thrilled to have Julie create a memorable dress to be worn for her first dance with Jesse.
The couple is excited to be preforming a dance specially choreographed by Alexander Sinelnikov, a professional ballroom dancer in Los Angeles, at their wedding. The sexy, red lace and ruffle dress will be the perfect complement to the dance which is a mix of a rumba danced to Beyonce's "Dangerously in Love" and a tango to "Adios Amigo" by Projecto Tango!
Valery has starred on the TeenNick groundbreaking series South of Nowhere in addition to the number one film Date Movie ; she also hosts on E!. She has appeared on several primetime network series including Cold Case and is currently recurring on ABC Family\’s new smash hit series Melissa and Joey. She can also be seen weekly as the Host of American Latino on ABC which was recently nominated for a 2010 Imagen Award.
Dancing With The Stars
The Purdue University Ballroom Dance Team engaged Ms Schaefer and her Head To Toes Designs to produce their team's dresses for their appearance on the finals of the Collegiate Challenge on Dancing With The Stars Season 10 Results Show. Through a referral, she started speaking with the team's coach on Sunday prior to the semi finals. Her talents were "put on retainer" by the team pending the results of the semis. So as she waited, she did some research on the team determining body types, body sizes relative to teammates' and started reviewing the general style the team had in mind.
Tuesday evening brought great news. Purdue was moving on to their big dance challenge while Julie was moving on to her big design challenge. Between Tuesday and Sunday of the exasperating week, Julie procured the fabric (Wednesday) and other materials (Thursday), finished the design of the dresses, met with three team members for one fitting, sewed the four gowns, made the final alterations and handed off the finished products to the dancers by noon on Sunday.
They were literally headed to Chicago's O'Hare airport for their flight to Los Angeles. It usually takes two or more fittings for custom dresses, so there was absolutely no room for error in Julie's design. The fourth dancer was not able to make even the single fitting. So, Julie used one of the other ladies as a model to fit that fourth dress.
While the team showed very well in the finals program, it had to settle for second place. Julie's dresses however were second to none. The dresses came alive and danced just as they were designed. Their style was stunning in design, color and flair. Julie Schaefer and her Head To Toe Designs had plenty of reasons to be proud.