favorite and least favorite colors for skating costumes?

[icenut84]

I think any colour can look nice on the right person, and in the right context (programme/music/costume design etc). Including white (Maria Butyrskaya's 01 LP), gold (T&D's 82 FD Mack and Mabel), pink (some of Kristi Yamaguchi's dresses have been pink), etc.
I probably prefer more striking colours over pastels though.

 

[euterpe]

I generally don't like white, and I HATE overembellished dresses. AP McDonough's Swan Lake costume gets a double No-No. But Nicole Bobek was stunning in white.

I much prefer brighter colors to pastels, and I thought Fumie's turquoise dress at Campbell's was lovely. Some skaters (Jenny Kirk, for example) look best in pastels, though.

In the end, the costume has to fit the skater's coloring and personality. I think Kwan's costumes suit her, even though I haven't liked some of the colors she chooses.

 

[mpal2]

I love white when someone is competing at US Nationals on the blue ice. Other than that, I think skaters should stay away from white dresses. As so many others have already stated, they blend into the rink too much.

BTW, I loved Michelle's orange East of Eden SP dress but I think I'm a minority in that. I didn't like the one with the brown/white/tan rags for EOE exhibition.

 

[BronzeisGolden]

Nah, Mpal, I liked Michelle's 01 Worlds EOE dress. It really turned some people off but I thought it went well with the music and was quite different. As for dark burgundy being a bad choice...think Chen Lu in 1996. Her dress for "Rach" that year was a spectacular design and the color only enhanced the overall effect.

 

[windspirit]

I've come to think that yellow dresses don't look good on anyone. I just saw Sasha skating her SP in a yellow dress, which itself wasn't bad, but the color... was kind of odd, and it did distract me from her skating. I was a little distracted by Michelle's yellow dress, as well, not to mention the fluorescent yellow costumes Lobacheva & Averbukh wore for one of their exhibition programs (I'm not sure if his costume was yellow, but her dress was yellow... painfully).

I don't have anything against black and white dresses (it depends on the person; on some people they look good, on some less so). And I think that I prefer dark costumes on men (but I do make exceptions ).

 

[giseledepkat]

How do people feel about fit? My only complaint with Michelle's costuming is that it seems to have gotten tighter over the years. I don't mean more revealing -- I have no inherent objection to cleavage or navel-baring when part of a well-executed design. I just mean that the costumes look 1/2 size too small to me! By comparison, I always thought that Josee Chouinard's dresses fit beautifully and looked comfortable and feminine.

 

[KwanFan1212]

I guess it depends on the skater for me. Some skaters look good in some colors and some don't look good in those same colors. Some random examples:

Purple and Blue: Both tend to work well but the ligther either of these go, the more you can blend into the ice.

White: Not normally a color I like on the ice but I thought Anabelle Langlois looked wonderful in her white dress for her and Patrice's Tosca LP last season. I also liked Maria's white dress from 99 Worlds.

Yellow: I just do NOT like yellow much at ALL on skaters (I am not fond of the color in general actually, LOL) and count me as another one who wasn't fond of Tara's yellow outfit. But I loved Jamie Salé's Come Fly with Me dress which was white with yellow in it. It was just lovely. Michelle's eye strain dress from Campbell's last year though was NOT a good yellow though, LOL

Orange: I hate orange on skaters pretty much universally but I also liked Michelle's EOE Worlds 01 dress. If you want to see bad orange on a skater, get a copy of David Pelletier's Jr. Worlds 92 SP and see some scary orange on the ice! LOL

Green-I love the color green and normally if a skater is in a nice shade of green, I will like the outfits. I LOVED J&Ds Tristan & Isolde outfits from 2001 but when Jamie skated with her previous partner in 94, they had some green outfits that still give me nightmares, LOL

Well, this was all rather random but again, I guess for me it depends on the skater, how the outfit looks on them, and if it fits with the program.

 

[berthes ghost]

I agree about Josee.

I don't mind the tiightness of MK's as it's better than them being too big as they were in the Salome and taj days. it always bugged me.

 

[euterpe]

Speaking of costumes that don't fit well, Jennifer Robinson's costume in last year's Canadian Open was much too big for her, and very unflattering.

Then there was Melissa Gregory's costume in the 2003 US Ice Dance Nationals, that apparently had MUCH too much give in the bodice, so that each time Denis lifted her....

 

[diamondqueen]

I think it depends on the skaters. I think Michelle, Sarah and Angela have nice customers. I was not crazy about MK's yellow off shoulder think. Most of the time I think she looks great. I do not like the Ice dancers, they are way to bazaar. The men they need to get some good designers. The pairs can sometimes be off the wall most of the time they are not to bad. Overall the majority of skaters need better diretion on what to wear so it will the music they are using..


diamond

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

White for the short program; black for the long! and with tastefull frills. Please, nothing gaudy especially on a male skater.

Joe

 

[Gardenkitty]

I agree that the color of the dress should depend on the skater and the music. As a general rule, however, I think jewel tones look pretty on most people. Kristi Yamaguchi often wore deep jewel tones that were lovely and rich with color.

I generally don't like white or yellow, but I did like yellow for Tara's Walking on Sunshine. It fit the theme and upbeat mood of the program.

 

[giseledepkat]

I think it depends on the skaters. I think Michelle, Sarah and Angela have nice customers.

OMG! The first time I read this, I thought, customers?!? -- is that the latest slang for boobies?

 

[Mathman]

giseledepkat, .

But I also was interested in your question about whether Michelle's costumes look tight around the middle. I kind of thought the same thing about the blue Aranjuez dress last year (gorgeous as Michelle looked in it!) Considering that these outfits cost thousands of dollars, they surely must be tailored to fit perfectly, I would think. It's not as if Michelle just grabs any old thing off the size zero petite rack at Target.

So I think it's an optical illusion caused by the fact that she has a long torso. (?)

Mathman

 

[euterpe]

Mostly everything these days has spandex in it. The costumes may indeed look tight, but there's plenty of breathing room because of the spandex.

 

[giseledepkat]

the computer ate my post!....

 

[giseledepkat]

Ah.... that's better!

Originally posted by Mathman
But I was also interested in your question about whether Michelle's costumes look tight around the middle....So I think it's an optical illusion caused by the fact that she has a long torso. (?)

Well I was more concerned with tight fit in general ... but I think you're on to something! I have a long torso myself, so much so that I have to buy long torso swimwear -- when I look at Michelle's costumes they give me this subliminal sensation of wearing a standard-cut swimsuit (sore shoulders, wedgie --ugh!) I think it's due to where the skirt is attached to the bodice of the dress -- too low to be at the waistline, but just a little bit higher than I would choose to set in a dropped waist. I hadn't realized this before, but your comment about long torsos got me thinking! Maybe Vera wants to deemphasize Michelle's long torso, so as not to make her legs look short! This could explain the extreme shortness of the skirts, as well.

 

[Mathman]

Here's a picture that seems to show the points that you made, gisele. (What a beautiful young woman she is! Except that she was too skinny that year.)

http://www.avis.ne.jp/~tkosawa/pic/photo-fig-m_kwan_l.jpg

Mathman

 

[Rachael]

I hate yellow and orange. I'm not too fond of green either.

 

[BravesSkateFan]

In general it depends on the skater, but usually I don't like green, yellow or orange. Although any of these colors as highlights in a costume are okay (like the orange in Sasha's Malguena dress). I also don't like costumes that are close to flesh colored (like Kostner's LP dress from '03 Worlds)