Skaters' Costumes | Golden Skate

Skaters' Costumes

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
But was purposely misspelled. I want to know how posters of all ages feel about the costumes-esp. the young Russian girls. Do you feel the costume Adelina wears is ok for her age-or any age? Liza shocked us at 14 with the green costume with more illusion fabric than green. I have a curser hopping issue, so forgive if I miss typos. Also a 16 pound cat on the darn keyboard. Anyone want my cat? OT??

Is sex appeal being judged? I'm not going to link to the beginning, but in 1999, wasn't Maria B nopted for her white lingerie, barely there underwear look? Didn't Witt lead the way with catsuits and playboy spreads?

Sweeter than splenda ice princess Alissa wore Maria B's old dress. Is this necessary and does this help or hurt the sport? Please look at the skating dresses worn by Dorothy Hamill. Was this the last American to win an Oly without pounds of glitz, illusion fabric, what have you? Was it ice dancers who first pushed the limits?

I'd like to know when and who helped glamorize, sexualize competitive skating costumes. Links to photos greatly appreciated for purposes of discussion. I can say this bothers me, based on a few factors, culturally, religiously, and I guess my age matters.

In the early 80's someone of minor talent hijacked the name Madonna and started wearing underwear outide her clothes. I have said before I'd like to see an athletic SP skated to no music, simple retro dress or black unitard. We will see the best skaters rise above no trimmings. I am in favor of women and men having much stricter guidelines now- esp for singles- but would be happy to see all return to a sport first aesthetic. G&G wore most simple costumes in 1994-I feel it focused us on their lines/talent/etc. Is sex appeal being pushed. Men are only mere mortals-who can blame the girls wanting a maybe tiny edge from a judge noticing how skater x is simply hot while doing her 3/3? I confess, I think Adelina should get a costume deduction. Please weigh in, older GSers. I'm gonna be clobbered likely.
 

brightphoton

Medalist
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
No offense to those lovely figure skating ladies out there, but too much sex appeal isn't a problem any of them have to worry about.
 

brightphoton

Medalist
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
yeah. I don't care how many times this forum re-makes the "who is the prettiest skater" thread, skaters don't have sex appeal. No man is going to look at a figure skater and say, "I'm going to save a pic of this woman to my hard drive for purposes later."

Firstly, the outfits are problematic if you want more sex appeal. Illusion fabric and sheer fabric gives the impression of bare arms/legs/midriff . Although this sends older women into a frenzy, it doesn't actually fool men into thinking figure skaters are not wearing clothes. It has to be actual nakedness.
Secondly, and more importantly, none of the woman have assets worth looking at. I'm talking 'bout the ones on the chest and the butt. Whether because the preciously mentioned outfits compress those assets or because they don't exist in the first place, it means that sex appeal = nothing.
 

Skater Boy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Adelina and the likes have that European gymnastic (rhythmic) look and because they are little girl like in figure and age they are hardly sexy (to those of us who aren't pedophiles of course). figure skating favours the more slendor builds which is why culturally those with a more slender and less curvaceous tend to dominate the sport. Witt used her assets well although as many have pointed out it really did not go well with Schindler's List. I think the only time she didn't look sexy was when she skated that short program to robin Hood lol. But Witt used everything to win. She flaunted her looks, her sexiness, her flirtatioousness. She knew her limits. She exploited her strengths - her sex appeal, maximized the garbage triples and used her eyes to draw in the fans while some how covering her unpointed toes and some times lack of good edges.
 

hurrah

Medalist
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Well, I'm kind of glad to hear that female figure skaters aren't objects of sex!! Hopefully, female skaters and choreographers will pay attention to this thread and try not to sex it up in their programs with ridiculous costumes and choreography.

I would say however, that sometimes, female skaters in practice can look sexy, because they do tend to bare their arms and chest area more. Hence Miki, for example, always gets complements about how good she looks in practice.

Also, I do think that some mature skaters can evoke sensualness, as Carolina was in some parts of Bolero. I do think that in this instance, it did make the judges more forgiving toward her stumbles.
 

ciocio

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 27, 2010
yeah. I don't care how many times this forum re-makes the "who is the prettiest skater" thread, skaters don't have sex appeal. No man is going to look at a figure skater and say, "I'm going to save a pic of this woman to my hard drive for purposes later."

Firstly, the outfits are problematic if you want more sex appeal. Illusion fabric and sheer fabric gives the impression of bare arms/legs/midriff . Although this sends older women into a frenzy, it doesn't actually fool men into thinking figure skaters are not wearing clothes. It has to be actual nakedness.
Secondly, and more importantly, none of the woman have assets worth looking at. I'm talking 'bout the ones on the chest and the butt. Whether because the preciously mentioned outfits compress those assets or because they don't exist in the first place, it means that sex appeal = nothing.

Sorry, but I think Yuna is very pretty and sexy and I have a lot of pictures saved in my computer because I like very much her makeup and outfits. :p (ok, I'm not a man though :biggrin:)
 

YunaBliss

On the Ice
Joined
May 11, 2010
No man is going to look at a figure skater and say, "I'm going to save a pic of this woman to my hard drive for purposes later."

But I do exactly that. :laugh:

It has to be actual nakedness.

For many men, seductively dressed (miniskirt, tights, etc) >>> actual nakedness in terms of sex appeal

Secondly, and more importantly, none of the woman have assets worth looking at. I'm talking 'bout the ones on the chest and the butt.

Who says big breasts/big butts = sex appeal? :p
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
Mmmm. In the absence of a costume thread this season, I've been looking for a thread to post this comment in.

This is probably the best, so here we go!

You all know my opinions on the revealing dresses worn by quite a few of the teenage skaters. I have made it clear in a number of posts in last season's costumes thread (starting with this comment) that I find them totally inappropriate.

But, I want to talk about one of the older skaters (seems strange saying that when it is somebody competing in their first season as a senior! But, she is older than a lot of the singles skaters that I have discussed previously...)

Alexandra Aldridge

When a competitor moves up from Juniors to Seniors, it is understandable that they want to make an impression. They want to stand out amongst the established names.

And Alexandra certainly stood out with her Short Dance dress at the Cup of China!

HOWEVER, I feel that Alexandra is totally giving out the wrong impression. Here we are trying to persuade everybody that figure skaters are not purposefully trying to look sexy, and then she comes out and wears THAT???!!! :eek:

It is bad enough that the neckline is rediculously low. But, to have an illusion section below it to make the neckline seem EVEN MORE PLUNGING?!

And then, for this illusion section to actually be SEE-THROUGH?! :eek:

The result was that there was very little being left to the imagination. Especially when she was being swung around in the air.

I'm a straight guy, but I do not find this an attractive look at all! In fact, I find it a big turn-off.

It just looks desperate.

And it is a real shame, because when I was watching Junior Worlds last year, I was finding Alexandra VERY attractive.

Yes, Alex. You've made your point. We know you are not one of these children that are coming through.

YOU CAN PUT THEM AWAY NOW!!!


Seriously, PLEASE do not wear this dress again, Alexandra. Or, if you do, at least wear a bra underneath it, so that we don't get to see quite as much.

Incidentally, I loved the costumes that Alexandra and Daniel wore in the Free Dance.

CaroLiza_fan
 

Alex D

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
Hmm,

first of all I disagree that a Skater cant be sexy. No matter if female or male, you can find very cute ones in each of the brackets and I agree what someone said about the practice, wearing a bit more can indeed be more sexy than wearing almost nothing, but this applies to everything in life. Clothes make bodies and not bodies Clothes.

Anyways, I tell ya those ladies that were rooting for the Spaniard at Zagreb for sure had many pictures of him on their desktop and I believe the same thing guys do with some of the Ladies. I for instance have a picture of Laura Lepistö in the slide show of my Desktop among with many other athletes not necessarily figure skaters. Sure Laura was 21 when the picture was taken and the youngest is 19 I believe, but still.

Even if someone would have such pictures on the Desktop, it still wouldn't make him or her mentally sick. If you follow the skating magazines you often find pictures which are "open minded" so to speak. There was a big discussion about Kaetlyn Osmond this year too because of it.

Sure you can argue if a 14 years old should show that much, but that's just how it is today. I also go to quite a few junior sport events throughout the year, not only figure skating - and every sport with some type of "art" does use the potential an athlete has. Gymnastics was mentioned by someone.

Athletes sell a program and you cant dress like a potato if you have to perform the life of a beautiful butterfly.

You can see it like that, there are whole US shows where 14 years old run around half naked (seventh heaven, Dawsons Creek, the OC, Star Search ...) and nobody says a word, but in figure skating it is a big deal? :)

I see where you are coming from though don't get me wrong, and to protect children from sick minded people is very important, but I do think figure skating is the wrong place to start with such a crusade.

No matter where you go - to figure skating, athletics, gymnastics ... the kids dress like the "Ladies" and it is part of their sport. You don't want to run the 800 meters in a jacket and jeans, it slows you down and isn't healthy either ^^ and if you have a choreography like Moulin Rouge, Candy Man etc. then you also have to wear an appropriate outfit to sell that role.


If it can influence the judges? I don't think so, if the expression by the skater in combination with his costume pays off in the PC´s especially IN, most likely yes.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Why do skaters -- especially female skaters -- often dress and pose to flaunt their sex appeal, however much it may be?

Are they doing it for the judges, to earn points?

There's nothing in the rules that requires sex appeal per se. (For ice dance, though, it is inherent in the character of some of the required dances. So that's a whole separate issue.)

At the international level, most judges are middle aged or older and somewhat on the conservative side. They will tend to dislike overt displays that they consider crude. That includes too flashy as well as too sexy.

Of course judges are human and respond positively to skaters radiating charisma, whether that is explicitly sexual or not.

So skaters are encouraged to project charm and connect to the judges as well as the rest of the spectators. This is officially rewarded in skating more than in most other sports, even other judged sports.

Since more than half of the judges are female and more of the male than female judges are gay, you'd think that if turning on the judges worked, male skaters would gain more advantage this way than female skaters.

A lot of the ways that women learn to from the culture at large connect to viewers, through performing arts and visual imagery, includes sexuality in ways that are not equally true for men.


Are they doing it for audiences?

Skaters may attempt to connect to audiences just because they're naturally extroverted, because they crave approval and connection, because they believe it will help the Performance/Execution mark, because they want to develop a fan base to increase chances of being hired to perform (or to compete, where invitational events offer prize money or appearance fees).

And again, one of the culturally common ways for female performers to connect to audiences is through sexuality.

Are they doing it for themselves?
Teens who are in the process of discovering and taking control of their own sexuality -- rejecting the presumed asexuality of childhood -- may be more inclined to overdo it. Either they haven't yet learned how to modulate the signals they're sending, or they may actively be trying to shock their parents' generation as a form of self-assertion/rebellion.
 

noskates

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Oh dear. I have to disagree that figure skaters - both men and women - aren't sexy. But I DO think that dressing up a teenager in a revealing dress is just ridiculous. And choreographing a program to music that is beyond their years and giving them sexy moves is disturbing. I've never been a big fan of Russian costuming, I think Carolina Kostner's costumes have been too over the top, and some of the Americans could use a good designer (yes Agnes, I'm thinking of you! OH, and the horrible dresses that Tanya Harding wore) Akiko Suzuki and Gracie Gold's long program dresses are beautifully designed, fit their programs and are age appropriate. Jill Trenary and Michelle Kwan always had beautiful dresses. One of my favorite dresses of all time was Michelle's Lyra Angelica. The soft powder blue with little or no bling was perfect for the music.

Do away with the sheer and/or illusion fabric. The outfit should be secondary to the skating.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
The requirements for a skating outfit needed to do all the technical elements will already be revealing (short skirt, etc.), so anything beyond that I usually find unappealing. I prefer skaters get creative when trying to evoke a sexy image rather than showing more skin. For example, one of Irina's Carmen dresses (or maybe it was a dress for another program) had fishnet sleeves on the arms which looked interesting and added a bit of sexiness to her look without having to show more of her body.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
When did skating dresses change drastically. Was it 1980 Olys? I think the theatricality hurts the sport, and mens outfts that are too effeminate hurt our cause.

Should there be simple costumes again to level the field?
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I HATED the costumes Scott Hamilton used to wear, so I even prefer feathers and jewels over the ugly one piece, speed skater type outfits.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
When did skating dresses change drastically. Was it 1980 Olys?

I think Linda Fratianne is credited(?) with popularizing sequins and similar showbiz accoutrements in competitive costumes, so leading up to 1980, yeah.

I think illusion fabric was a later 80s innovation.

I think the theatricality hurts the sport, and mens outfts that are too effeminate hurt our cause.

Should there be simple costumes again to level the field?

The rules and various statements from officials over the past 25 years or so have tried to encourage that direction, but the skaters seem to like trying to outdo each other in theatricality. I guess it's entertaining for them as well as for audiences.

But, as you point out, trivializes the sporting aspects.

And personal or cultural tastes vary.

Would we want to rewrite the costume rules to further insist on "modest, dignified, and appropriate for athletic competition"? How could they be rewritten in a way that could be enforceable?
 
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