‘Bling’ It On: Waltham Shop Owner Creates Pats’ Cheerleader Uniforms

By Eli Sherman
Wicked Local Waltham

When New England Patriots cheerleader director Tracy Sormanti strolled into Sondra Celli’s Waltham design shop in April, she thought she had walked into a “princess factory” and was determined not to leave until Celli agreed to create the 2013-14 uniforms for the Patriot cheerleaders.

Last Thursday the cheerleaders, joined by Celli, unveiled this year’s uniforms along with the 2014 Swimsuit Calendar at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill at Patriot Place. Celli, who has worked in the fashion industry for about 30 years, used more than 10,000 genuine Swarovski stones imported from Austria to “bling” out the navy-colored uniforms. Almost 600 crystals were used to create each Patriot logo on the uniforms and every crystal was applied by hand – one stone at a time.

“This is the first time I’ve done an NFL team’s uniforms,” Celli said. “So, I used waterproof glue, I used over 100,000 rhinestones in all of them combined. There are 25 girls and my employees worked around the clock to get them out.”

Celli, who works out of the historic Francis Cabot Lowell Mill building in Waltham, is no stranger to this type of design, as she has created sparkling custom pieces that have been featured in TLC’s “Bling It On” and she is currently working on the third season of the hit series “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.”

Celli said that when she met Sormanti and was pitched the idea of creating the cheerleaders’ uniforms, the two clicked immediately.

“We were a team right away and it was awesome,” Celli said.

Sormanti said that since she became the cheerleaders’ director, she has seen about 10 variations of the uniform, but none have been exactly the correct style. Sormanti said many of the previous variations did not stand apart from other teams’ cheerleaders.

“It really is so much more team identifiable,” Sormanti said of the new design. “I couldn’t ask for anything better. The cheerleaders feel comfortable and confident and it dances well.”

Celli also surprised the cheerleaders by delivering the uniforms in custom-made New England Patriot garment bags for each member on the squad. Fourth-year cheerleader Alyssa Caddle said she thought the uniforms were beautiful and probably one of the best in the past 20 years.

“I think they are going to look gorgeous, I can’t wait to see some photos from the sidelines,” Caddle said. “We really feel like they represent the Patriots while still being very feminine and beautiful.”

The Thursday unveiling party also included the launch of the 2014 Patriots Cheerleaders Swimsuit Calendar. St. Lucia was this year’s destination for the cheerleaders’ annual calendar shoot trip. Celli joined the squad and ended up also creating the swimsuit for the month of November. The theme was Veterans Day and Celli said she jumped at the opportunity.

“I’m super hooked to the veterans. I just believe that if these people can do this for us, the least we can do is anything for them,” Celli said. “We just happened to have a Patriots cheerleader who had her dad’s dog tags and said she would wear them so we chose her to do the photo.”

Photographer Justin Hammond, in his second year of working with the Patriot cheerleaders, took all the photos for this year’s calendar and said November’s shot really stuck out because it was one of the few shots where he created the set.

“I already knew that this was going to be the bikini that had the theme of camouflage and military,” Hammond said. “The whole point of that shoot was to give it a military scene. … The rest of them we scouted locations and things, but this one I had planned in my head.”

Celli, who has made uniforms for the likes of wrestlers, swim teams, Irish dance teams and ballroom dancers, said that now that the cheerleaders’ uniforms were done, she would continue her work with “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding,” which takes up a lot of time. Sormanti said she could not wait for the Patriot fans to see the uniforms under the stadium lights.

“It just captures your attention and it really flatters the cheerleaders because it’s so feminine,” Sormanti said. “It is glamorous and it just screams NFL.”