Top 10 Iconic Ladies dresses of all time

LisaS · Jun 3, 2016

Josee Chouinards 1994 short program dress and her comeback year 1996 short program dress were always two of my favourites.

1994 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKnp2P9xM1c

1996 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhyyMLi9TlY

LisaS · Jun 3, 2016

here is a picture of 1994
https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...f7ecda43b32851bb23f3363a2f25.jpg&action=click

and 1996 which shows both front and back

https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...mblr_mnvhsdtPsf1r5ashao1_500.jpg&action=click

Skater Boy · Jun 3, 2016

skateluvr said:
What dress when you see the skater in it makes you think this is what she will forever wear in your heart?

Number1. For me is the perfection of the Vera Wang Lp dress Nancy wore in 94. The best and very timeless. She could wear it today.

Number 2. The blue velour Lp dress Mk wore for her 98 Lyra LP. It was vintage Michelle at her peak. Loved the simplicity.

Other costumes just glued in your head?

Was MK's light blue velour no. a Vera Wang too. i thought Nancy had a great white Vera WAng and the beaded no. both were winers though i do wonder how good iswhite on the ice to show up - might hide bad body lines perhaps lol

Skater Boy · Jun 3, 2016

FlattFan said:
People are confused. Iconic is not the same as pretty. There is not a single dress in recent years that is "iconic" There are a lot of dresses that you'd watch and think you would like to wear if you are skating, but none of them is that special.

The neon dress that Peggy wore would be iconic. I still can visualize it now. The 60s style and loud color are very distinctive and Peggy brought that look into her competitive program. Dorothy, on the other hand, didn't incorporate much of the 70s into her dresses. It was just pretty like the pretty dresses now.

That Katarina Witt 98 Olympics dress is iconic. It was so dramatic, suited her style at the time.

Michelle with her crushed velvet strappy blue dress is also iconic.

Of course, Nancy's Vera Wang dress is iconic.

Surya's dresses are iconic as well. On any other girl, it would look silly, on her, it looks regal.

Debbie Thomas catsuit is so elegant.

Flattfan must be a lawyer. you are right iconic and pretty or aesthetically pleasing is different. A dress can be ugly, baring too much skin and be iconic -memorable. Having good taste may make the skater iconic but does not make the dress iconic.

Skater Boy · Jun 3, 2016

glorybox6 said:
How has Tonya's 1994 olympics LP dress not been mentioned? It was a historic night for skating and it was center stage for that moment. Much more iconic and memorable when more casual fans or the general public are considered, though not necessarily "stunning" or gorgeous, than many of these listed here.

I'd also probably add Kristi's 1992 Olympic LP dress. Such a standout design.

But nothing comes close to Nancy 's 1994 LP dress. The skating dress of the ages.

I think nancy's 1992 oly dress in white is really iconic her 1994 really was another simple and elegant vera wang. AFter a while like choreogaphed programs by Bezic, Wilson et al they start looking the same.

jenaj · Jun 3, 2016

Skater Boy said:
Was MK's light blue velour no. a Vera Wang too. i thought Nancy had a great white Vera WAng and the beaded no. both were winers though i do wonder how good iswhite on the ice to show up - might hide bad body lines perhaps lol

It was not a Vera Wang. Vera started designing for Michelle later. There is a story behind the blue velour dress but I can't remember what it is!

yyyskate · Jun 4, 2016

judging by how many imitations from youngsters that I personally have seen,
Yuna's dress is the most imitated hands down.
among which, her blue gershwin dress (the most imitated), kiss of vampire dress (which is a surprise for me, since that program is underrated itself), scheherezade (including Gracie Gold) , send in the clown, homage to korea, Dance Macabre, Adios nonino, Nessun Dorma, Lark ascending, even Miss Saigon. (sometimes it is a mix of Yuna's 2 dresses such as a mix of SITC and meditation or a mix of Lark and gershwin). Bond girl dress is also pretty iconic, it has been used as the image of ladies figure skating for quite long time. Although the imitation occasions that I personally have seen is not a match to the fame of that program (an opposite to Kiss of Vampire dress), I guess maybe due to the decoration is too complicated, or it is too famous and too obvious.
As for les Mis, did not see many imitations as well, that dress is kinda complicated and role oriented as well. but do noticed the use of les Mis music skyrocketed among youngsters ever since Yuna's les Mis.

EDIT: i have also seen imitations of Zijun's sleeping beauty, Mao's maroon colored Masquerade.

SarahSynchro · Jun 4, 2016

How about Ekaterina Gordeeva's 1988 Olympic free program's blue dress with the flowers on the arm? North America was totally smitten and fell in love with "Little Katia" at these Olympics, and news articles and photos of her in this dress were everywhere. I'd say for the casual skating fan, this dress was more memorable and iconic than her and Sergei's 1994 Moonlight Sonota costumes.

jenaj · Jun 4, 2016

yyyskate said:
judging by how many imitations from youngsters that I personally have seen,
Yuna's dress is the most imitated hands down.
among which, her blue gershwin dress (the most imitated), kiss of vampire dress (which is a surprise for me, since that program is underrated itself), scheherezade (including Gracie Gold) , send in the clown, homage to korea, Dance Macabre, Adios nonino, Nessun Dorma, Lark ascending, even Miss Saigon. (sometimes it is a mix of Yuna's 2 dresses such as a mix of SITC and meditation or a mix of Lark and gershwin). Bond girl dress is also pretty iconic, it has been used as the image of ladies figure skating for quite long time. Although the imitation occasions that I personally have seen is not a match to the fame of that program (an opposite to Kiss of Vampire dress), I guess maybe due to the decoration is too complicated, or it is too famous and too obvious.
As for les Mis, did not see many imitations as well, that dress is kinda complicated and role oriented as well. but do noticed the use of les Mis music skyrocketed among youngsters ever since Yuna's les Mis.

EDIT: i have also seen imitations of Zijun's sleeping beauty, Mao's maroon colored Masquerade.

Her blue dress is reminiscent of Tara Lipinski's 1998 Olympic blue dress.

boskil · Jun 4, 2016

"Look, an angel! Angel in red!" :sad21:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8DMmkEJBAg

Skater Boy · Jun 4, 2016

Looking at these posts maybe we are confusing iconic - or we have diffmerent definititions with beautiful or outstanding for notorious reasons ie showing too much or the dress so and so wore when whatever happened.Korpi had many beautiful dresses but other than her extreme fans we won't really remember them or the program. Whereas Kerrigan's white confection by Vera Wang when she won bronze transcended skating and entered the fashion world. Julia's red coat dress probably meets the iconic status because it is so memorable and part of a mlemorable program that helped win oly gold. the problem with Bobek, Trenary, Yamaguchi and others with supposedly nice costumes is they sort of get mixed in with Bob Mackie beaded numbers- lots of bling but maybe hard to be memorable which is fine because icons are suppose to very rare. Liz Taylor, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Susan Lucci and Oprah Winfrey are all icons in their own genres. It is hard for anyone in their genre to compete. They transcend awards, money even death. i might also add Witt's Carmen dress because it was such a big competition but really very few dresses reach the icon status.

desertskates · Jun 5, 2016

The dresses that stand out as iconic to me are all associated with the Olympics. Because of more public interest in skating during the Olympics, these dresses are photographed over and over again, and almost everyone can recall them. Katarina's Carmen dress, Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul's long program dresses from 1994, Yuna Kim's blue 2010 dress And Julia Lipnitskaia's red coat dress are the first ones that come to mind for me.

khughes · Jun 5, 2016

For me, it's what stays in my mind and is also really beautiful (so that rules out Oksana's dress, charming though she was in it): so Kerrigan in Vera Wang, '92 and both '94 dresses - these are really the gold standard. Kwan's Lyra Angelica dress. Gordeeva's Moonlight Sonata dress - maybe that one is infused with our memories of them, but even at the time it's simplicity seemed to herald their maturity and emotional bond. Ashley's recent sp dress, or variations on a dress, (all but the too-sparkly Nationals one, anyway) may fit here. It's a bit early to say. So six dresses for me - that's it!

Ophelia · Jun 5, 2016

Y'all need to look up the definition of iconic.

Agreed that the only two dresses in recent memory which qualify for iconic are Kim's 2010 blue Gershwin dress and Lipnitskaia's 2014 red Schindler's List outfit.

jenaj · Jun 5, 2016

lilahozi said:
Y'all need to look up the definition of iconic.

Agreed that the only two dresses in recent memory which qualify for iconic are Kim's 2010 blue Gershwin dress and Lipnitskaia's 2014 red Schindler's List outfit.

Since you brought up the definition, how do those two dresses qualify as iconic? Just being memorable or pretty is not enough, in my understanding. Kim's dress is not really unique, It is quite reminiscent of Tara Lipinski's Olympic dress. Electric blue is a skating staple--not iconic, in my opinion. Julia's dress is of course burned into the memory of anyone who saw her skate to Schindler's list, but it borders on being a costume. It is certainly specific to the program. I don't expect to see anyone wearing something that is derivative or reminiscent of it. So I categorize Julia's dress as maybe iconic. Let's revisit it in ten years.

ETA Look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxrPASby8to She's even skating to the same music.

Krunchii · Jun 5, 2016

jenaj said:
Since you brought up the definition, how do those two dresses qualify as iconic? Just being memorable or pretty is not enough, in my understanding. Kim's dress is not really unique, It is quite reminiscent of Tara Lipinski's Olympic dress. Electric blue is a skating staple--not iconic, in my opinion. Julia's dress is of course burned into the memory of anyone who saw her skate to Schindler's list, but it borders on being a costume. It is certainly specific to the program. I don't expect to see anyone wearing something that see derivative or reminiscent of it. So I categorize Julia's dress as maybe iconic. Let's revisit it in ten years.

ETA Look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxrPASby8to She's even skating to the same music.

Iconic doesn't mean unique? Yuna Kim's Gershwin dress was famous for it's bejeweled halter and the jeweled back of the dress and Tara had a different neckline with illusion mesh sleeves with jewels. Elena Radionova's 2014-15 FS dress is reminiscent of Tara's. Yuna has had a history of wearing high-neckline dresses in different colours anyways (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Like you said, electric blue is a staple, it's a different dress. I don't think we need to revisit Yulia at all, her performance got her on the cover of Time Magazine in both Europe and Asia and personal letter from Steven Spielberg. A dress is also a costume, especially for a figure skating program. I have no idea what you're talking about with regards to it bordering on a costume because that's what it is along with it being a dress.

Maybe because this a English-speaking forum but Yuna is based in Asia and she is quite iconic there, the photo of her smiling with her gold medal in the that blue dress was everywhere and is one of her most representative images. Just because something isn't as iconic in the Western media circles doesn't mean it can't be iconic. If you go to Europe or Asia they might have different ideas of what constitutes an iconic dress and their answers may not mention some of the ones people have mentioned at all. People are saying American figure skaters and Katarina Witt but the rest of the world is also exposed to figure skating. Plenty of people here have brought up Yuna's 2010 Olympic dresses and not her 2014 dresses simply because her 2010 ones are so much more well known.

Amei · Jun 5, 2016

Iconic is really a matter of personal opinion.

I wouldn't call Yuna Kim's blue dress iconic, it's barely even memorable. Was her Olympic program an iconic moment in the sport - yes, but that doesn't mean the dress was.

MiRé · Jun 5, 2016

Amei said:
Iconic is really a matter of personal opinion.

I wouldn't call Yuna Kim's blue dress iconic, it's barely even memorable. Was her Olympic program an iconic moment in the sport - yes, but that doesn't mean the dress was.

Uhm, you literally just contradicted yourself.

Imagine · Jun 5, 2016

Amei said:
Iconic is really a matter of personal opinion.

I wouldn't call Yuna Kim's blue dress iconic, it's barely even memorable. Was her Olympic program an iconic moment in the sport - yes, but that doesn't mean the dress was.

The dress was beautiful, but I agree...not as memorable/iconic as her Bond dress from that same competition.

glorybox6 · Jun 5, 2016

Amei said:
I wouldn't call Yuna Kim's blue dress iconic, it's barely even memorable. Was her Olympic program an iconic moment in the sport - yes, but that doesn't mean the dress was.

Same. I'm a pretty big fan and I couldn't really visualize, in much detail, any of her dresses from those Olympics off the top of my head. I feel like that's a fair litmus test for something like this.

Top 10 Iconic Ladies dresses of all time

LisaS

LisaS

Skater Boy

Skater Boy

Skater Boy

jenaj

yyyskate

SarahSynchro

jenaj

boskil

Match Penalty

Skater Boy

desertskates

khughes

Ophelia

jenaj

Krunchii

Amei

MiRé

Match Penalty

Imagine

glorybox6

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