Confidence in a Cowboy Hat
Hayley Maddox on the Inspiration Behind Lasso Leos
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
As many dancers can confirm, there are few things worse than showing up to ballet class in a leotard that makes you feel self-conscious. Donning an uncomfortable, ill-fitting leotard can affect a person’s confidence, which can translate into their movement quality. Suddenly, dancers forgo extending through their fullest lines and focus on making themselves smaller. Throughout every dance class, there’s a laundry list of things dancers need to be focusing on. Fixating on the fit of their dancewear shouldn’t be a priority. Local dance educator Hayley Maddox is passionate about creating custom, eco-friendly leotards in a comfortable fit for dancers of all shapes and sizes. Her retro, cowboy-themed dancewear brand Lasso Leos centers on providing dancers access to affordable and sustainable leotards while creating favorable fits designed to make dancers feel confident.
Hayley’s dance journey began at age five at Bremerton Dance Center in Bremerton, WA. She joined BDC’s performing arts company Peninsula Dance Theatre around age 11 and continued dancing there until 2017. During her time in Bremerton, Hayley’s training specialized in ballet and modern and she taught for about five to six years. In 2017, Hayley moved to Seattle and worked as the program director and a ballet teacher at DASSdance. She also worked with Daniel Wilkins on staging DASSdance’s 2019 production of The Nutcracker.
Hayley continued teaching until the end of the 2019-2020 school year and was suddenly left with copious free time as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on. “I always kind of liked the idea of creating my own leotards so...that’s when I started playing around with making [them],” Hayley shares.
Hayley has a decade’s worth of sewing experience, as her mom taught her the basic mechanics of a sewing machine and her grandmother worked as a professional seamstress. “It’s kind of been passed down through the generations,” she says, although she admits most of her skills are self-taught. Hayley also enjoys thrifting and upcycling materials to make herself custom pieces. “So I was like ‘well, no brainer. I should just try to make some custom [leotards] for myself,’” she recalls.
Her idea snowballed into a bigger plan to create a business centered on custom leotards in inclusive sizes. “I know I’m not the only one struggling with a leotard that doesn’t fit quite right,” Hayley shares. “[When you have] any type of body that’s not prepubescent, it’s kind of hard to find leotards that fit you exactly how you like.”
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“I thought it would be a cool idea to have a brand that is eco-friendly by using upcycled materials, [and focused] on having inclusive sizing and being affordable...Those are all of the things I feel like are really important,” Hayley says. “Not only is it hard to find the right fit but to find an affordable, custom leotard is also really hard.”
Hayley has a specific fit she incorporates into her leotard designs, in which the leg line is higher on the hip while still possessing full coverage on the backside. “When you have a mature body, the run-of-the-mill cuts just don’t fit,” she says of the inspiration behind her designs. “I’m really just inspired by anyone who has a mature body who is still dancing and wants to feel confident.”
Lasso Leos currently sells three different styles of leotards, “Round Up” skirts, and scrunchies called “Lasso Loops.” Later this year and going into 2022, Hayley plans to roll out some new leotard styles and unique warm-ups that resemble knitted chaps.
When deciding on a name and theme for her brand, Hayley was playing around with a random name generator and came up with “Lasso Leos.” The name quickly stuck. “I’m like a low-key horse girl. I always loved horses growing up,” she claims. Many of Lasso Leos’ leotard names are inspired by old and new country singers and songs, such as “Patsy” for Patsy Cline, “Orville” for Orville Peck, “Velvet Elvis,” and “Show Pony.”
For others interested in starting their own business, Hayley encourages them to “just do it” as there are many great resources online to help people get started. She found an article that broke down starting a business into 12 steps and simply went through step by step. “I just started from the top and worked my way down so I wasn’t too overwhelmed,” Hayley shares. She also says it’s important for aspiring entrepreneurs to go easy on themselves and take things at their own pace. “Just really being true to yourself and being able to balance your time and your energy is going to set you up for longevity.”
Through Lasso Leos, Hayley strives to help promote inclusivity in the dance world, specifically with body types. “It’s totally fine to embrace our curves and to have mature bodies because we’re mature people,” she says. However, her goal of encouraging acceptance extends past body sizes, as she hopes to see the dance industry be more welcoming of all gender identities and expressions. In the following year, she plans to work on designing biketards for Lasso Leos as yet another dancewear option to help dancers feel as comfortable and confident as they can be.
Lasso Leos offers fresh, playful, and considerate dancewear that’s greatly needed in the industry today. For those interested in buying a custom leotard, skirt, or scrunchie, you can reach out to Hayley Maddox directly, through the Lasso Leos Instagram page, or keep an eye out for products coming to Dancewear Center soon!
