STRETCH : Two Joffrey Ballerinas Demonstrate Elegance and Elasticity in This Fall’s Sexy Flexibles

BALLET DANCERS ARE NO STRANGERS TO STRETCH. IN fact, Carole Valleskey and Elizabeth Parkinson, principal dancers with the Joffrey company, say they practice extensions and other dance exercises six to eight hours per day. Both will exhibit their skills starting Wednesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. And both say that, in private life, they wear the new stretch-fabric fashions. “We hate confining clothes,” they said while being photographed. “As dancers,” Valleskey explained, “we’re always cinched and corseted in costumes so tight that we can’t be comfortable or breathe.” During off-stage hours, she added, there’s nothing more luxurious than wearing an outfit that provides more give than take. The new stretch styles do exactly that, often combining expandable fibers with traditionally rigid ones such as silk or wool. An extra attraction: The clothes’ stretch components add durability to otherwise fragile fabrics. They last longer and wrinkle less.

Makeup and hair for Carole Valleskey by Colette Taber/ Design Pool; makeup and hair for Elizabeth Parkinson by Beth Olson / Design Pool; styling by Beth Bickson.