Lysacek optimistic his issues with U.S. skating close to resolution

[gkelly]

Don't know who designed it, but I liked Kristi's black/gold lp dress in Albertville -- perhaps a bit too much of a late 80's/early 90s vibe but overall has enough of a classic look to still be attractive, looking back after 20 years (yikes).

Probably Lauren Sheehan? I think she did most of Yamaguchi's costumes.

Well, Grease was a cool costume, too bad the judges no like that program...

I thought the problem was that it was a hot costume.

 

[Buttercup]

I loved that chartreuse dress! And it's about the only time I ever loved chartreuse. It was perfect for Peggy's coloring and for the occasion.

But Buttercup, I have to put one other dress on the costume list: Rachael Flatt's magnificent Firebird costume for this year's long program. It was beautiful, even poetically so in the way it reflected the music. For me it may be the best costume ever, except that I have a vague memory of one of the Finnish ladies in 2006 in a really glorious stars-in-a-midnight-sky dress (Korpi, possibly, or Poykio) and a few chic outfits of Carolina Kostner's through the years. Definitely, though, Flatt's radiant dress tops the list for me.

I found it too literal. No, the chartreuse dress is tops and always will be, because it is such a tough color to pull off yet Ms. Fleming did just that. It was fabulous.

The Finnish ladies are always so beautifully dressed and styled - just gorgeous. It helps that they are stunning to begin with... I also liked some of Yu-Na's costumes, especially her Bond Girl dress with all the details. In other disciplines, I think Tessa Virtue and Meryl Davis are generally well-dressed, and Elena Ilinykh is stunning - but my real love is for Nathalie Pechalat's crazier looks. Who else could have gotten away with dressing in wrapping paper for a CD, with her Organ Donor and Circus costumes, or the cotton ball dress? Absolutely nobody. Even her old jacket looked crazy!

I think Evan usually looked better when he avoided monochrome costumes. That would be the Carmen costume, right? I'm surprised he's coming back, as I thought for sure he'd run out of warhorses to skate to. Except Swan Lake. I hope the skating gods will smite him if he attempts it.

 

[Olympia]

Oh, Meryl's gorgeous deep magenta dress for Die Fledermaus! It made her look even more exquisite than she already is.

I read that Peggy said that her mother chose the color chartreuse because of its French associations--I think the liqueur Chartreuse was named for Chartreux, where the Carthusian monks made the drink, and then the color was named for the liqueur. Mrs. Fleming hoped that the color would influence the judges in Peggy's favor. I kind of miss those days of homemade costumes. Was Hamill the last one who skated in what looked like a leotard with a skirt that you could either make at home or buy off the rack at a dance store? These days costumes cost a mint.

The issue of skating to warhorses...I've been disappointed in Lori Nichol's recent music choices, considering her astounding originality during the Michelle Kwan years. Lyra Angelica was just one of many unusual choices. I've got a pretty wide acquaintance with classical music and movie scores, and I can definitely say that if not for Nichol's choice of that piece, I never would have known that it existed. She also chose a piece by an Azerbaijani composer as the score for Taj Mahal. Nowadays she either uses things like Scheherezade and Firebird or re-uses stuff she's picked before, like "East of Eden." All of those are lovely pieces, but they've been well and truly squeezed dry as skating pieces. I miss Lori's earlier adventurousness.

By the way, a propos of nothing, I was looking up the meaning and origin of the Ukrainian name Oksana earlier--I thought surely it dated from pagan times--and the source I found said that it was a variant of the name Ksenia! And that both are adaptations of the ancient Greek name Xenia. I thought that was pretty cool. (I mention this since Oksana and Ksenia are both "skating names" these days and back in the 1990s.)

 

[Mathman]

By the way, a propos of nothing, I was looking up the meaning and origin of the Ukrainian name Oksana earlier--I thought surely it dated from pagan times--and the source I found said that it was a variant of the name Ksenia! And that both are adaptations of the ancient Greek name Xenia. I thought that was pretty cool.

So if someone doesn't like Ksenia Makarova's skating, that person is suffering from xenophobia.

 

[dorispulaski]

A lot of parents/skaters still make their own costumes.

AFAIR, Tanith Belbin's mom made many of her costumes in the pre-Linichuk days.

Jennifer Wester made her own costumes, and now she has a costume busines, as well as competing in target shooting.

I'm sure there are many more.

And even more parents/skaters who do their own stoning and beading.

 

[Skater Boy]

Oy, why did I ever bring up fashion. I remember reading about Nancy Kerrigan's thirteen thousand dollar dress with heat set (I think) Swarovzki crystals by Vera Wang versus the orphan waif Oksana Baiul who had to add feathers to make her costume fit because she grew. Good taste doesn't need to cost a lot. Unless Evan has huge supporter or is rich one would think Dior or Wang would have picked someone like Johnny Weir to design for the males. I mean with Johnny it is about the costumes LOL. Besides if Vera was so good she should have designed something to make Evan not look so awkward because of his height. Some people, imho need to look in the mirror LOL.

 

[seniorita]

Kwan's orange dress from east of eden was I think Kwan dresses, maybe the whole era when she skated had more simple dresses, it helped the skate to be hignlighted.

Sasha's wardrobe was great although more flashy, but I dont think there was a dress I didnt like, from competitions and galas.
I think Kira has the most beautiful simple dresses, with neat design and colors and very few cuts, I remember her olympic costumes were so girlish and lovely.
Yuna Bond girl and her Dance Macabre one will be legendary. I like Mao's ealry soft color dresses too.
Carolina has the most decorated ones, and she had a firebird costume too, love it I love Carolina 's costumes, most of them, I have many favs, I think in the most young days she had Kwanish dresses

My favs are both her dresses from Worlds 2009 , and I must say this season lp costume, when I had seen it on tv she looked like she was wrapped with christmas silverish paper, but when I saw it live, it was stunning, and it works great in a medal ceremony

I dont know how to connect my post with the thread, so Evan was going to Dance with the Stars with the Olympic Medal?

 

[lcd]

Didn't Johnny make references to the phallic nature of the snakes?
Not my fave either. Great body for showing off a lot of elegant fashion off ice on Evan, but costume that year, hmm.

 

[skateluvr]

I think Evan was too thin to wear black. I really hated that costume. As for tons of stunning dresses, Kwan had the taste and the big budget. I only disliked the orange EOE dress. Orange is the only color she didn't look great in. And yellow. Somehow we never saw her in lime or chartreuse. I loved MK's look. Always perfect. Sasha was to die for. Perfect for her programs. Caro was hit and miss, a little too fussy sometimes. I recall folks saying she looked like an ostrich once, lol. Well, she has the perfect body, best in skating right now. Not skinny, just toned. Wow. As for pro skaters. perfect Kristi and Katia always had glorious SOI dresses. Best of all time for me was nancy's famous vera Wang Oly 94. She was'i so stunning in person.

I love costume threads. Well, maybe we will see something new at Worlds.

 

[Olympia]

I love costume threads, too. Evan in real life must be pretty impressive, because he's built like a male model--tall and lean. He'd be very graceful and imposing. But as a skater he looks exaggeratedly thin because his limbs are so long. I think we're just used to seeing guys who are more compact: five foot six at most in singles skating, and Evan looks like a Giacometti sculpture by comparison.

I always loved Michelle's outfits for their simplicity. I know I'm biased in her favor, but I'd have liked her outfits anyway, just as I like Kostner's outfits even though I was often rooting for someone else. Very early on, Michelle started wearing dark colors--like that wonderful burgundy dress for Worlds in 2001 (Song of the Black Swan). She also wore a lot of black off the ice. This projected the idea that she wanted to be seen as an adult, not a cute girl (or a lacy Disney princess). The simplicity, the absence of ruffles and draping, was similar to the effect conveyed by Nancy Kerrigan's outfits. (Coincidentally both ladies were dressed by Vera Wang, but I'm sure they could each have achieved this effect with other designers.) Nancy was taller than the typical skater and had strong shoulders, so she would have looked fussy in princessy ruffles.

By the way, I'm not entirely sure that either Michelle or Nancy paid full price for their clothing. Sometimes a deal is worked out, because the publicity benefits the designer. It certainly helped Vera Wang's career. She was known mostly as a wedding dress designer before Nancy. A whole new audience saw her work in the most watched Olympic games ever.

 

[Tonichelle]

Evan comes across as weirdly thin on TV to me, he's not as much a tall twig IRL... at least he wasn't in 2008 when I got him to sign my shirt lol

 

[Violet Bliss]

Evan doesn't look thin to me, but gangly. I don't understand why he wears gloves to exaggerate the long limbs.

 

[seniorita]

^ Live, he isnt or doenst look thiner compared to all the other skaters on ice and I saw him in two meters distance (for example you ll be surprised how small framed Joubert looks in reality) but I thought the same you said too so it is the long legs /hands probably that makes me see him akwardly.

Evan comes across as weirdly thin on TV to me, he's not as much a tall twig IRL... at least he wasn't in 2008 when I got him to sign my shirt lol

!!!Did you wash the shirt after? If I were you I would faint right there in front of him. Not for Evan, but you know..generally speaking!

 

[Buttercup]

I love costume threads, too. Evan in real life must be pretty impressive, because he's built like a male model--tall and lean. He'd be very graceful and imposing. But as a skater he looks exaggeratedly thin because his limbs are so long. I think we're just used to seeing guys who are more compact: five foot six at most in singles skating, and Evan looks like a Giacometti sculpture by comparison.

Most male skaters are 5'6'' at most? I don't think so. That's like 1.68m, and just going by the ISU bios:

Plushy - 1.78 (5'10'')
Fernandez - 1.73
Verner - 1.80
Joubert - 1.79
Abbott - 1.76
Chan - 1.73
Gachinski - 1.75
Contesti - 1.81
Song - 1.78
Hanyu and Kozuka are listed as 1.70 but I've read that Hanyu is probably a bit taller than that.

There are even some ladies taller than 5'6'', such as Carolina Kostner.

Evan is certainly tall for a skater, but he is not that much taller than everyone else. I think it's the combination of tall and thin; there are some pairs skaters about his height (e.g. Trankov) but he looks thinner - I agree with SF's description of gangly. Wearing all black does not help (I'm not suggesting he dress like Trankov), and the arm waving choreo isn't doing him much good, either.

 

[niami]

I think his snake costume looks pretty cool in this pic:

http://photocdn.sohu.com/20100219/Img270297615.jpg

 

[Bluebonnet]

Evan doesn't look thin to me, but gangly. I don't understand why he wears gloves to exaggerate the long limbs.

I don't like male skaters wearing tight long sleeves.

 

[Olympia]

Most male skaters are 5'6'' at most? I don't think so. That's like 1.68m, and just going by the ISU bios:

Plushy - 1.78 (5'10'')
Fernandez - 1.73
Verner - 1.80
Joubert - 1.79
Abbott - 1.76
Chan - 1.73
Gachinski - 1.75
Contesti - 1.81
Song - 1.78
Hanyu and Kozuka are listed as 1.70 but I've read that Hanyu is probably a bit taller than that.

There are even some ladies taller than 5'6'', such as Carolina Kostner.

Evan is certainly tall for a skater, but he is not that much taller than everyone else. I think it's the combination of tall and thin; there are some pairs skaters about his height (e.g. Trankov) but he looks thinner - I agree with SF's description of gangly. Wearing all black does not help (I'm not suggesting he dress like Trankov), and the arm waving choreo isn't doing him much good, either.

I stand corrected, and I apologize for overgeneralizing. Of course there are male singles skaters taller than 5'6" (I'm leaving out pairs skaters like Trankov because pairs men are generally taller). I was thinking of the many prominent skaters who are rather compact, including Kurt, Elvis, Alexei Yagudin, Oda, and many others. I agree that Plushy and others are near six feet tall. But Even is even taller than that, maybe 6'2", which I'd say is above average for a singles skater. And, as we've said, he has long arms and legs. Your suggestion of different choreography for arm placement would be a good idea.

Our discussion makes me think of American dancer Tommy Tune, who is almost seven feet tall. Somehow, he has managed to make himself a suitable partner, for example as he danced with Twiggy (5"7" tall) in the play My One and Only. His training in dance would make the difference, and since he is one of the great Broadway choreographers, he has figured out ways to make himself look good!

 

[Bluebonnet]

I was thinking of the many prominent skaters who are rather compact, including Kurt, Elvis, Alexei Yagudin, Oda, and many others.

Alexei Yagudin is not very short. He is 1.75m. Daisuke Takahashi is 1.65m. Kurt is 1.70m. Elvis is 1.70m. Oda is 1.64m.

 

[Skater Boy]

Evan is tall for a singles skater. Sometimes I agree he does appear gangly and the gloves don't help. I find on some spins it helps to be tall and others it looks awkward - especially when you are stalking your jumps. But he has an exotic look - not quite sure about his colouriing and cultural background but it helps to add to the persona.

 

[Mathman]

^ He's Czech and Italian. But I think he also tans and uses orange make-up to appear darker.