Dawn Smart is the owner and designer of Doré Designs, the most well-known dancesport dressmaking business in America. 

Her dresses are in high demand across all levels of the industry and have become must-wear creations for world and national champions for over a decade.

We recently sat down with Smart to gain some insight into her success and to get her thoughts on how the industry is changing for better and worse.

Common Threads

From an early age, Smart realized she had a talent for needle and thread. At the age of 7, she was gifted her first sewing machine by her grandmother — and immediately Smart was hooked.

“By the time I was 10 I was making all my clothes… and making clothes for my mother and her friends,” Smart recalled. 

Smart's intuitive ability to design and her technical prowess to bring it to fruition only improved as she made her way through high school. But it wasn’t until after college when a friend took her to a social dance event that her path toward becoming a world-renowned dress designer began.

“I wasn’t a dancer, but my friend tricked me into going to this dance party where I met a man that asked me to dance and eventually took me to my first ballroom dance class," Smart said. 

From that moment forward, Smart never looked back. A year later, she went from having never danced before to being encouraged to dance competitively.

“I wanted to try dancing competitively, but at that time I had no idea what kind of dress I needed, and there was no internet or photos to reference at the library,” Smart said.

A Seamless Approach

She created her first two dresses based off what she imagined a gown should look like for a ballroom dancer. When she arrived at the competition, she was shocked to find that her vision couldn’t be further from reality.

Smart described her competition dresses as “the worst dresses ever made."

"They had like 12 rhinestones on them literally,” she said. 

But it was that experience that opened the door for her to become one of the most talented and sought-after dressmakers in the world.

Smart went on to dance professionally and teach for several years before having to retire due to knee problems. Her plan was to settle down and open her own studio, but prior to that, she decided she would spend a year working as a traveling dress vendor for Doré Designs as a way to see the world.

By the end of her trip, Smart's aspirations had changed, but this time she was clear on exactly what she wanted. She continued to work for Doré and take on more and more responsibility until one day the opportunity presented itself to buy the Cape Coral, FL-based company.

“The day I bought the company was the same day that Millennium started and that was like my make-or-break moment," Smart said.

She drove straight from the bank to the first Millennium competition as the new owner of Doré Designs with zero dollars to her name but a determination to make her mark on the ballroom world.

Designing The Future

Ten years later, Doré Designs is the most successful ballroom dressmaking company in the United States. And business just keeps getting better and better for Smart, thanks in large part to dance competition shows like "Dancing With The Stars" which have contributed to the massive growth of ballroom dance industry not only in America but also all over the world. 

"When I first started, there were only 14 competitions, only 3-4 dress vendors that traveled, and the average age of our competitors was 60 or above," Smart said. "Now there are hundreds of competitions, a multitude of dress vendors, and the average age of competitors is now mid-40s range and they are much more competitive than before."

This change in the industry brings more business but also more competition. Smart contributes her success to her “ability to see those changes and adapt to them before other vendors even realize what's going on.”

It’s Smart's willingness to adapt and try something new combined with her raw talent for design and a consistency in quality that are responsible for the reputation that Doré Designs has built for itself. But Smart remains humble and aware, knowing that it takes innovation and determination to stay at the top.