Companion to the 2006 Worlds: Men's Skating Fashion
I would like to take this opportunity to present what I like to call Dressing for Skating Success: Men's Ice Fashion 101. Unfortunately for the boys, there are far more windows of opportunity for them to miss the mark fashion-wise than the ladies. Girls have more options and can get away with more without being made fun of. In view of that, I will propose that there are three categories of acceptable male figure skating costume.
1. "Normal" clothes: Generally ranging from preppy casual (Jeff Buttle - Sing Sing Sing) to formalish (Craig Buntin - Big Spender), this is a safe and smart choice that looks hot no matter what. Go with this option and you cannot fail, as long as you choose colour carefully.
2. Musical theme: This is where things start to get a little hairy. For those times when street clothes-style costumes don't cut it, one must be a little bit more creative and choose a costume that better suits one's musical theme - for example, Latin, film soundtrack, or military, but don't pick that last one or you'll look like Michael Weiss. When executed properly, this strategy is fetching and effective: Alexei Yagudin - The Man in the Iron Mask. On the flip side, when done improperly, you look like a fool: Alexei Yagudin - Gladiator. A variation on this look is the "Evgeni Plushenko man-in-black": generally all-black, with a little theatrical embellishment, highlighting line and graceful movement while still looking athletic. Plushenko has committed his fair share of fashion crimes (and his hairstyle is just one big blond mullet of a faux pas), but recently he's tended towards the simple and tasteful. [Photos © Andrea "Hoo" Chempinski]
3. "Romantic": This is more like a subcategory that overlaps with #2, and is the most difficult to pull off without looking like a tacky, frouffy ballerina (unless you desire that image). Sometimes, your music is soft and romantic, and hard-edged masculine costumes wouldn't have the proper fluidity to compliment the music. Then a guy has to venture into the dangerous world of ruffles, chiffon and sequins. Jeff Buttle demonstrates a nice, simple "romantic" costume [Photo © Andrea "Hoo" Chempinski]. However, this category is a slippery slope, and you don't want to end up looking like (horrors!) Alexei Urmanov. I don't care if your music is Swan Lake, there is no excuse for that. I know he's done worse than that too (as demonstrated by the existence of this), I just can't find pictorial evidence. (On a side note, I think I could do a whole post on awful Swan Lake cotumes.) If you don't want to be laughed at, if you don't want the sheer ridiculousness of your costume to distract from your skating, follow this simple, oft-repeated rule: LESS IS MORE!
My final pointer is, for the most part, don't wear some half-baked "creative" costume thinking you look like an artiste, because you probably just look like Ilia Kulik.
1. "Normal" clothes: Generally ranging from preppy casual (Jeff Buttle - Sing Sing Sing) to formalish (Craig Buntin - Big Spender), this is a safe and smart choice that looks hot no matter what. Go with this option and you cannot fail, as long as you choose colour carefully.
2. Musical theme: This is where things start to get a little hairy. For those times when street clothes-style costumes don't cut it, one must be a little bit more creative and choose a costume that better suits one's musical theme - for example, Latin, film soundtrack, or military, but don't pick that last one or you'll look like Michael Weiss. When executed properly, this strategy is fetching and effective: Alexei Yagudin - The Man in the Iron Mask. On the flip side, when done improperly, you look like a fool: Alexei Yagudin - Gladiator. A variation on this look is the "Evgeni Plushenko man-in-black": generally all-black, with a little theatrical embellishment, highlighting line and graceful movement while still looking athletic. Plushenko has committed his fair share of fashion crimes (and his hairstyle is just one big blond mullet of a faux pas), but recently he's tended towards the simple and tasteful. [Photos © Andrea "Hoo" Chempinski]
3. "Romantic": This is more like a subcategory that overlaps with #2, and is the most difficult to pull off without looking like a tacky, frouffy ballerina (unless you desire that image). Sometimes, your music is soft and romantic, and hard-edged masculine costumes wouldn't have the proper fluidity to compliment the music. Then a guy has to venture into the dangerous world of ruffles, chiffon and sequins. Jeff Buttle demonstrates a nice, simple "romantic" costume [Photo © Andrea "Hoo" Chempinski]. However, this category is a slippery slope, and you don't want to end up looking like (horrors!) Alexei Urmanov. I don't care if your music is Swan Lake, there is no excuse for that. I know he's done worse than that too (as demonstrated by the existence of this), I just can't find pictorial evidence. (On a side note, I think I could do a whole post on awful Swan Lake cotumes.) If you don't want to be laughed at, if you don't want the sheer ridiculousness of your costume to distract from your skating, follow this simple, oft-repeated rule: LESS IS MORE!
My final pointer is, for the most part, don't wear some half-baked "creative" costume thinking you look like an artiste, because you probably just look like Ilia Kulik.
