Cosmo Does Fashion - Figure Skating Style!

WeakAnkles · Oct 29, 2018

American magazine Cosmopolitan's gallery of "35 of the Best Olympic Figure Skating Outfits of All Time." As they say, "If only all sports utilized this much chiffon and glitter." (Hmm, I thought professional wrestling does.:think

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-...boola&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign=arb_fb_d_tb

Mathman · Oct 29, 2018

We've got to bring back the baker's hat look (picture #1).

Ic3Rabbit · Oct 29, 2018

Many of their choices, especially the most recent ones, suck. Yuna's best costume at the 2010 Games was her Bond one. Kwan had better costumes at the OG's she attended other than that Red piece, and I can't believe Rochette's gorgeous LP costume from 2010 was left out.

plushyfan · Oct 30, 2018

WeakAnkles said:
American magazine Cosmopolitan's gallery of "35 of the Best Olympic Figure Skating Outfits of All Time." As they say, "If only all sports utilized this much chiffon and glitter." (Hmm, I thought professional wrestling does.:think

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-...boola&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign=arb_fb_d_tb

There is no Russian? hm.

WeakAnkles · Oct 30, 2018

plushyfan said:
There is no Russian? hm.

There might be a Russian version of Cosmo, but I am not familiar with it if it exists. You'd have to do a web search on a Russian search engine. Good luck! But this is an American magazine whose target market is primarily American women, so it's not a big surprise that they favor American skaters. I'm sure French Cosmo would probably mainly feature French skaters, Tokyo Cosmo Japanese skaters, and so on. That's the magazine business for ya.

chopinskate · Oct 30, 2018

WeakAnkles said:
There might be a Russian version of Cosmo, but I am not familiar with it if it exists. You'd have to do a web search on a Russian search engine. Good luck! But this is an American magazine whose target market is primarily American women, so it's not a big surprise that they favor American skaters. I'm sure French Cosmo would probably mainly feature French skaters, Tokyo Cosmo Japanese skaters, and so on. That's the magazine business for ya.

There are plenty of non Americans there lol

I don't think it's "hmm"-worthy because it's a list of dresses, it's very possible they just didn't think Russian costumes were that great. Nothing much to conspire about there.

VenusHalley · Oct 30, 2018

Interesting list and i love it shows costumes throughout the whole skating history (almost), not just few recent picks.

lappo · Oct 30, 2018

I know this is an American journal but they should have added Yulia red coat...just iconic and her video on Youtube is the most watched competitive skate so I'm sure someone would have appreciated. Also, G/G Moonlight sonata was worthy of the list and they were very well liked in the USA.

WeakAnkles · Oct 31, 2018

lappo said:
I know this is an American journal but they should have added Yulia red coat...just iconic and her video on Youtube is the most watched competitive skate so I'm sure someone would have appreciated. Also, G/G Moonlight sonata was worthy of the list and they were very well liked in the USA.

With any kind of list like this, you'll get what YOU think are obvious omissions (and you may very well be right!). It's like the "Top Songs/Movies/Books/Houses/Bath Mats" of the year. I don't take them too seriously -- they're just fun.

GF2445 · Oct 31, 2018

Cheltzie made the list!

RobinA · Oct 31, 2018

OMG, I loved Jill Trenary's dresses, but they picked a so-so one. Also Michelle. And they picked what must have been the WORST Arakawa dress. Of course, one can discuss skating dresses for hours without any agreement at all. It's definitely a YMMV discussion.

DanseMacabre · Oct 31, 2018

I like that they went way back to ye olden days. And I really liked this:

Vera Hrubá represented Czechoslovakia in the 1936 Olympics, and later went on to become an actress in the 1940s and '50s. Her costume featured a colorblock polo with oversize buttons and a flowing skirt for movement.

It was apparently at this Olympic event that Hitler asked if she would like to "skate for the swastika." "I looked him right in the eye, and said that I'd rather skate on the swastika," she said later.

What a legend.

Also a huge fan of the complementary colors of the ladies 1968 podium with the green, blue, and pink.

Not a huge fan of the more recent choices they made but hey, that's fashion. Different strokes for different folks.

macy · Oct 31, 2018

its interesting to see the evolution from basically every day clothes in the early 1900's to the more glitz and glam styles that appeared in the 80's that eventually evolved into what dresses are today. wonder what differences we will see in another 20 or 30 years!

maggieanne · Oct 31, 2018

This was interesting to look at. I really liked that it showed the evolution of costumes, but the more recent picks were honestly really boring. That’s what some people prefer, I guess.

skylark · Oct 31, 2018

This was a really fun article for figure skating fans

thanks for the link, Weak Ankles.

This was my favorite entry, too. Happily, she made it out of Czechoslovakia in the last plane to America before Hitler invaded.

Vera Hrubá represented Czechoslovakia in the 1936 Olympics, and later went on to become an actress in the 1940s and '50s. Her costume featured a colorblock polo with oversize buttons and a flowing skirt for movement.

It was apparently at this Olympic event that Hitler asked if she would like to "skate for the swastika." "I looked him right in the eye, and said that I'd rather skate on the swastika," she said later.

Courageous and admirable, and she was only 15. But the really fun stuff is in the linked two obituaries of her. She was such a bad actress that John Wayne threatened to leave the studio if they made her his co-star for a third time. The first-linked obit, below, gives a saltier quote from him. But a director said she was "cooperative, hard-working and eager to please."

And I liked the bit about a movie with Fred MacMurray, where she played the South Seas girl Fred fell in love with. "The fact that she had a Czech accent was not explained."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1422994/Vera-Ralston.html
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/feb/28/guardianobituaries.filmnews

noskates · Nov 1, 2018

Nice representation of dresses but certainly not what I would consider the most iconic.

Cosmo Does Fashion - Figure Skating Style!

WeakAnkles

Mathman

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️

plushyfan

WeakAnkles

chopinskate

VenusHalley

lappo

WeakAnkles

GF2445

RobinA

DanseMacabre

macy

maggieanne

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset

noskates

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