Thread: need advice -- delicate burnout velvet

I have an Eman Zaki costume made of a very delicate and sheer burnout velvet (pink on a black base). The skirt is one of those minimalist wrap-around things. It is ruched just a bit at the top and has 3 metal/crystal medalions with swags of beads in between.

it had built in boy-shorts at one time, but they've been hacked out.

It currently is held on by two hooks. the sides just meet. There is no overlap.

It fits me well -- I just feel like a need a backup system for holding it on.

The problem is the fabric is so delicate. I'll have a body stocking underneath that it could be pinned to, but I do not want to load it with safety pins for fear of it ripping little holes in the fabric.

I had a plan to add thread casing + elastic to the skirt, but now I am concerned that this too might damage the fabric. But I think this would probably be better than safety pins because it would spread the stress out across many points instead of just a few.

Any thoughts?

I think I would be tempted to try to line the top of the skirt to provide more support for the fabric, or sew in another pair of boy shorts.

What is the top edge like? Could you line the top with wide bias tape to give it more stability, or would that ruin the stretch? You could also try sewing in some stretch lace along the top edge, since that would keep the elasticity while giving a little more support.