Color-changing costume. What do the most beautiful figure skaters’ outfits look like?

From October 18 to 20, the first stage of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in the 2019/20 season – the Skate America tournament – took place. Traditionally, the women’s standings attracted the most attention, with Russian figure skater Anna Scherbakova winning gold. For her, this season is her debut on the adult world stage. But this does not prevent the young athlete from demonstrating her well-honed technique, artistry and quadruple lutz in her arsenal.

Anna’s free skating program “Firebird” caused a storm of emotions at the show in Las Vegas. At a certain moment the stands exploded with applause: Shcherbakova was wearing a color-changing dress! During a short rotation, the athlete unbuttoned an inconspicuous clasp on her outfit and transformed into a scarlet firebird in front of the audience. How did they think of such a thing?

In fact, the outfits in which the girls go out on the ice, is a delicate handiwork. There is a lot more meaning put into it than we think. We tell you how figure skating costumes are designed, what the ideal image should be and who creates this exquisite beauty.

Costume standards in figure skating

In figure skating, as in any artistic sport, you can trace the evolution of costumes. And over the years, not only the appearance changes, but also the technology of creation. Distinctive features of dresses of the present time are simplicity, brevity and closeness to life. If earlier the emphasis in outfits was on theatricality, now the world of figure skating is gradually abandoning the old strategy. Even historical images of athletes are recreated in a combination of antiquity with mandatory modernity.

What a girl’s outfit on the ice will be depends on the particular type of skating. Single skaters usually appear in dresses with a short, floating skirt and a low waist – this step designers take for the sake of correcting the proportions of the figure. Athletes in pair skating try to avoid decorations in the waist area, so that the partner is not injured during the performance. And girls involved in ice dancing wear longer skirts, because they do not need to perform jumps. Nevertheless, all types of skating have one rule: no more than 30-40% of the bare body, otherwise the judges will not approve.

How is the perfect dress for a figure skater created?

The most important requirement for costumes in figure skating is comfort. Not just designers, but highly specialized specialists work on the creation of outfits. They know all the nuances of movements in ice sports and correctly select the fabric that does not restrain the body. Despite the fact that sports dresses and overalls are always tight, they do not interfere with the ability to perform jumps and elements that require excellent stretching. For this purpose, stretch fabrics are used: biflex, stretch and fine mesh flesh-colored. Less often choose guipure and velvet, and for the decoration of skirts suitable chiffon.

True fans of figure skating know by heart not only the names of athletes, but also the images in which they performed. Each program is a whole narrative, a story. Therefore, to accurately recreate the type of the heroine, designers study music in detail, watch training rides and have long conversations with coaches and the girls themselves. Next, a detailed sketch of the costume is created, which requires approval. And only after that, sewing begins with two scheduled fittings: an intermediate and a test fitting.

Although creating a costume is a serious process, sometimes even famous figure skaters get their first dresses only before the performance, without sketches and fittings. For example, in the Olympic season Evgenia Medvedeva’s program “Anna Karenina” brought a lot of trouble to the costume specialist.

It was a creative search. After all, initially “Anna Karenina” was staged as a demonstration number. I will never forget that call: “We have “Anna Karenina”, we need a dress. We’re leaving the day after tomorrow.” The dress was sewed on an old pattern, overnight, from what was at home,” – said in an interview designer Olga Ryabenko.

There were three dresses for Karenina’s image: black, brown and burgundy – the very first one, which was urgently created without a single fitting, overnight. And there are many such cases, according to the designer.

The world’s leading costume designers

World-famous athletes are most often devoted to one master, who perfectly knows their parameters and sees in advance what can be emphasized with a suit. There are a lot of highly specialized designers all over the globe, but in the world of figure skating a few names are the loudest. These are the specialists who work with the real prima donnas.

Olga Ryabenko

Perhaps now Olga can be called the most famous Russian costume specialist. The designer has been working with all of Eteri Tutberidze’s pupils for a long time and regularly sews their outfits. Ryabenko’s collection includes the famous image of a girl in a red coat by Yulia Lipnitskaya.

Olga is also the creator of Alina Zagitova’s Olympic tutus, Trusova’s and Shcherbakova’s costumes, and Evgenia Medvedeva’s Milky Way dress. By the way, the fabric of the last outfit was printed on a special printer and painted with an airbrush, so the dress turned out to have a 3D effect. Olga’s signature style is characterized by her love for complex techniques, details and jewelry: rhinestones, straps, lace and lacing. But the master tries to avoid fasteners and zippers as much as possible.

Maria Yevstigneeva

The designer owns the St. Petersburg atelier That’s ME. Two female masters headed by Maria have made more than one outfit for Olympic champions Ksenia Stolbova and Fyodor Klimov: images for “The Addams Family”, “Polovtsian Dances” and “Interview with a Vampire”. Evstigneeva also worked with figure skaters Alyona Leonova, Stanislava Konstantinova and even Caroline Costner. Interestingly, Fyodor Klimov wears costumes from Maria not only on the ice, but also in ordinary life. Of course, classic ones.

Olga Oskina

Olga is a specialist with a long experience. Her costumes shone on the world arena on Maria Butyrskaya, Elena Sokolova and Irina Slutskaya. For example, Irina’s famous cowboy jumpsuit for the demonstration performances is the work of Oskina.

In modern figure skating Olga actively collaborated with the pair of Ilinykh and Katsalapova, and after the duo split up, the designer began sewing dresses for Nikita’s new partner Viktoria Sinitsina.

Lisa McKinnon

A master who creates costumes for all the stars of North American figure skating. Her style can be recognized by the open-back leotard, crossing lines, gradient and abundance of rhinestones and stones. On one dress can be counted up to tens of thousands of jewelry. Ashley Wagner, Mariah Bell, Karen Chen, Starr Andrews and many other American women are devoted to Lisa’s work.

Satomi Ito

Satomi can rightfully be considered the designer of the entire Japanese national team. Her works are recognizable by a very delicate style, a large number of rhinestones and sometimes atypical materials – velvet or silk. In her home country Ito has many regular customers: Riki Kihira, Satoko Miyahara, Mai Mihara, Satuki Honda and the unrivaled Yuzuru Hanyu.

The work of the Japanese designer could also be seen on Russian Elena Radionova. The blue dress was made for the program to the music of Rachmaninoff.

How much do figure skaters’ costumes cost?

At this point, a natural question comes to mind: how much do figure skating dresses cost? Expensive, although in Russia the price can vary from 20 to 60 thousand rubles, depending on the complexity of tailoring, the amount of jewelry and fabric. But you should realize that the final sum is many times more, because with one dress it is impossible to skate the whole season. Figure skaters annually update their sports closet with costumes for short and free skating programs, as well as for several demonstrations.

From the look of it, women’s figure skating may indeed seem like a sport in which fragile girls easily float over the ice in beautiful outfits. In fact, this picture hides both the perseverance of the strongest athletes and the hard work of the best designers who know their business.