This is a lot of information to process. First, I went to an ice show? Yes! I got to see Stars on Ice in Portland with my wonderful brother and not-sister for an early birthday present.
Second, I have indeed taken up sewing again after not touching a needle and thread for a very long time. I don't think I've lost my skills, because somehow I've been successfully making a costume without a pattern or any instructions.
Finally, the dolls are back. Kind of. If you've known me for a long time, you'll know that I used to love dolls, even up to a few years ago. I mainly collected American Girl dolls, but I had other types as well. As my interest waned, I tucked them away in the closet and promised I would be back for them later. For a long time that never happened, until one day a week ago when I decided I needed to make super fancy skating costumes for them. So I did.
You can expect me to share my completed first costume when I do eventually get it finished, but until then I have nothing but a mock-up made of really ugly fabric I had way too much of, and all the fabrics and trims that will make the real one are piled up waiting patiently to be cut out. I'm a little afraid I'll make a mistake on the real one, which I want to be perfect. We'll see.
Moving on, in case you hadn't guessed already, today's wonderful topic of interest is costumes: the best, the worst, the history, and personal opinions. What constitutes a good skating costume? What about a bad one? Is it really fair to compare a costume from the '80s to one from this season? If you feel like you might care just a little bit about the answers to any of those questions, keep reading.
First I want to talk about the history of skating costumes. If we travel back to nearly 100 years ago to the '30s, we'll find the ladies like Sonja Henie wore simple, warm dresses:
And the men like Karl Schäfer wore a suit-like jacket with skating trousers/tights:
Moving forward to the '40s/'50s, we can see that men like Dick Button wore this:
And ladies like Tenley Albright wore this:
Already the dresses are beginning to look a little bit like skating dresses one might see today, at least ones that could be used in practice.
If we move forward a couple more decades, you might notice the costumes look even more modern:
Everyone remembers what happened in 1994, right? If you don't, maybe google it and watch I, Tonya when you get a chance. As for costumes, the '80s and '90s brought on puffy sleeves, high-cut skirts and leotards, and lots of extra fluff:
You might almost be able to get away with wearing one of these costumes now, but it certainly would look dated. Still, some people try.
The 2000s were filled with... experimentation when it came to costumes. On one hand, we have Michelle Kwan in her simple blue velour costume:
On the other hand, we have Ilia Kulik's yellow cow/giraffe vinyl? thing:
Let's move on quickly so we can get that monstrosity out of our minds. (If you like this I'm very sorry for making fun of it, but please take a look at my list of favorite costumes so you can get an idea of what most skating costumes look like as opposed to this. Also, this is actually 1998 but I'm still calling it the 2000s because it's close enough.)
Late 2000s/2010 were filled with some beautiful costumes. Men's trousers were still looser, and I don't think many of them dared defy the ISU by wearing tights, but women's costumes were similar to how they are today:
Now that we've covered a brief history of skating costumes, let's delve into some of (what I consider) the best and the worst of recent years.
To answer the question I posed above, I am not going to compare any modern costumes to older costumes, since styles change and what might have been popular and attractive 30 years ago is thought to be ugly or silly now. I'll go as far back as the early 2000s, but that's my limit.
We'll start with my top three men's costumes.
Yes, I'm aware all three are Yuzu. What can I say? I like his costumes. Actually, Étude in D-Sharp Minor is very similar to Hope and Legacy, only in all blue instead of green fading to blue. I slightly prefer the latter, but both are beautiful. Also, the Seimei I chose is from the 2018 Olympics, but I love the second version as well.
I'll list some non-Yuzu costumes as well now.
I love the simplicity of Javier Fernández's Man of La Mancha and the jewel-toned red and black in Malaguena:
Shoma Uno's blue Turandot is quite lovely:
Johnny Weir's costumes will always have a special place in my heart, especially these two:
Yuzu is the one whose costumes usually make my favorites list (not all the time), but these are some of my other favorites that didn't quite make the top three:
Yeah, the boy's got some interesting costumes. You either love them or you can't stand them. As you may have noticed, I generally prefer more exciting costumes, especially for men. Ladies can wear a simpler dress or jumpsuit and look stunning, but men who wear a regular skating shirt just don't match up to the ones who get all dressed up in costumes. Some prefer a less-is-more take on men's costumes, and that's fine. Obviously my taste is not going to be the same as everyone else's. But I do love a good sparkle on a man's costume.
As for ladies, here are my top three favorites:
I also love Wakaba Higuchi's black Skyfall dress from Worlds:
Carolina Kostner has some pretty costumes too, including this one:
Satoko Miyahara's dresses from this season are absolutely stunning:
I'm a big fan of several of Yuna Kim's costumes, but aside from Kiss of the Vampire above, Adios, Nonino her red dress from All That Skate 2014 are two of my favorites:
This next costume of Mao Asada's is a bit controversial, and by that I mean some people love it and some people hate it:
I think it's amazing, especially when the skirt flies out in a jump or spin. The colors are lovely on her, the pattern is unique, and everyone remembers it from 2014.
Some costume designers say not to wear white on the ice because it makes the skater look fat, but I think both Akiko Suzuki and Karen Chen pull it off wonderfully:
Now, before we move on to my least favorite costumes, I would like to preface it by saying that for some of them it's just one or two things about a particular costume that put it in this category. Some, like Ilia Kulik's puffy giraffe thing, are all-around terrible. Some could be great if a few design flaws had been changed. Some I just don't personally like the style of. I'll explain what I don't like about each one, since some might not be as obvious as others.
Now, on to the bad ones.
First, since we've already shown Ilia Kulik's 1998 costume, here's my second least favorite costume, courtesy of Stéphane Lambiel:
I love Stéphane, but a zebra top with orange and blue sleeves isn't a good idea for a comp program, especially when that's the costume for a free skate, which means he was wearing that on the Olympic podium in 2006. Also, I'm not really sure what the beading on the side is meant to be. Flowers? Coral? An accent that doesn't match the rest of the costume? Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't help to pull the entire thing together, because it looks messy and cheap.
Next I want to look at two costumes from this year:
You may or may not have seen Gabriella Papadakis' costume due to a wardrobe malfunction at the Olympics, but my problem isn't with that. Guillame Cizeron had a top with long sleeves on at the Olympics, which he changed out again at Worlds because the long sleeve top was "too hot." That's fine, but I can't stand tank top cuts on men. In real life and in skating, I don't like how sleeveless tops look on men, which is completely a personal preference, but I do think it makes Guillame look silly. I'm also not a fan of Gabriella's dress in this dance. Neither the design nor colors are very flattering, and that dress is way over the top compared to the simple black costume her partner is wearing.
Next up is everyone's favorite American boy, Nathan Chen:
I don't really like any costumes Vera Wang has designed for men. Even her costumes for women can be hot or cold depending on the style. I understand that this geometric, black-and-white style suits Nathan quite well, sadly, which is great if he's happy with it. It's not so much the costume, even though I don't care for it, but the fact that he changed costumes twice this season. He started off with his boring skating shirts and trousers, then Vera Wang made his costumes for Nationals, then he switched those for the ones she made for the Olympics. For a sport in which costuming is a big part of selling the program, that's too many costume changes. How on earth is he supposed to connect ot his music and choreo, let alone make the audience connect, when he can't even keep the same outfit for more than one event? Don't even get me started on how many times he switched elements in his programs, because that just makes it worse.
I hate to do this, but next we have Yuzuru Hanyu:
Prince + total purple (including boot covers) + the Purple Pants of Sin = disaster. Why? Honestly, the top isn't that bad. He has a white version of the same costume, which I think looks much better. I wish he had gotten the purples in the shirt and pants to match, I wish the pants weren't so high-waisted and tight and loose in all the wrong areas, and I wish he had left his boots black. I don't hate this costume by any means, it's just so strange, and really it did have potential. Here are a few more pictures featuring boot covers, Purple Pants of Sin, and the second version in white:
At the 2010 Olympics, pairs made a splash with some questionable costumes. Oksana Domnina and Maxin Shabalin wore "Aboriginal" costumes for their original dance:
Yes, that was actually on Olympic ice. There are many things to be said about these costumes, but I will leave you to form your own opinions. The one thing I will say is that the spandex used for them actually looks incredibly cheap, almost as if the costumes were only a few hundred dollars each to make (most skating costumes cost in the low thousands). Compare these monstrosities to Meryl Davis and Charlie White's traditional Indian costumes from the same competition and these "Aboriginal" ones are a joke:
Meryl and her mother actually went to an Indian boutique to find fabric and embellishments for the costumes, which I think ended up looking lovely.
I love Miki Ando, but her Egyptian costumes just don't work.
Something about them looks cheap and costume-y, like she bought them on sale at a department store after Halloween. I'm not really a fan of any of her costumes, which is a shame because she's a beautiful skater.
Next up is Ivett Tóth from this season:
I wish she hadn't skated to AC/DC at the Olympics. I get it, it was the first games that music with lyrics could be used and everyone was excited. But no one wants a hard rock medley in a short program. Well, maybe someone does. My problem with this costume, as well as the music, is that it's much better suited to an exhibition. Skaters can and have had lots of fun with EX skates and popular music, and this just looked out of place on Olympic ice, especially when it's sandwiched between beautiful dresses and elegant jumpsuits.
Next is Evan Lysacek, men's singles 2010 Olympic champion:
More Vera Wang. Great. I will say, though, that the snakes were appropriate for him. The snakes may also explain why Johnny Weir always called Evan a mongoose. I'm not sure how, but maybe somewhere in there is a reason. I never understood that.
Now for Sasha Cohen:
This is... colorful. And messy. It kind of looks like something one might throw together for a costume party, with the wrap-around, tassled skirt and the asymmetrical top. I don't hate this, I just don't think it really works as a skating costume.
For the next skater I had a hard time choosing between her short program costume and her free skate costume from 2014. I decided to pick both, because in my eyes they're equally ugly:
Both look cheap, ill-fitted, and uncomfortable. The red one looks like moths ate away at part of it and the gray(?) one looks like something the someone from the fishing district in The Hunger Games would wear. The colors in both aren't particularly pretty, and I can't stand the nubbins of gloves Adelina Sotnikova has with the red dress. If she wanted gloves, she should have done illusion sleeves, because the baby gloves just look awkward.
No least favorite costumes list would be complete without Kevin van der Perren:
From what I can tell, most of his costumes appear to be black bodysuits with various embellishments sewn on. I'm fine with one-piece costumes for men if that's what sells the outfit. Unfortunately, none of these are that great. The skeleton one looks like a Halloween costume, hardly even appropriate for an exhibition, the gaming one has the odd cord(?) wrapped around the wrist which looks awkward and uncomfortable, and the superhero one is just off-the-wall insane. I like Kevin's skating, especially his triple-triple-triples, but the costumes in no way help me like his programs more.
Next is Ashley Wagner:
Usually I like Ashley's costumes, but this one just didn't work for me. I hate the excessive beading in that odd pattern, and I really don't care for the bold, dark red and blue mixed together. Honestly, I don't even like the design with the halter top. High necks and halter backs are probably one of least favorite designs on ladies' costumes.
On to Mariah Bell:
Again, I don't like the high neck and slightly unflattering design of the dress. The red by itself would be alright, but mixed with that purple is awful. Just like with Ashley's above, it's drenched in beads, which is never a good look, no matter how pretty sparkly costumes are.
Carolina Kostner also makes the worst list:
This green rockstar frog thing is a hideous color and strange design. Caro's costumes are either a hit or miss for me, and this definitely didn't work for her in my eyes. At least she only had it for a couple of events.
Now, everyone's favorite OGM and Eteri factory kid, Alina Zagitova:
Both Alina's costumes this season had tutus, which is an interesting choice to say the least. Her Don Q one was much prettier than Swan Lake, in my opinion:
The Swan Lake dress looks a little bit like an oil spill or a mechanical bird. The black and silver sequins are glaring an obnoxious, and give the costume that unflattering metallic look.
Well, that's all I have for now. I'm sure I've missed many costumes that I love and hate, and if I remember them perhaps I'll go back and update my list. Until then, enjoy all the costumes and feel free to express your opinions on the above costumes. Which ones do you love? Are there any you hate? Let me know.
