You know, I was delighted to move out of the ‘I wanna look like a stripper’ era. But last night, I was watching the compulsory dance. It was the tango, so that’s one thing.
But the outfits were truly heinous. Good lord, horrific cuts, terrible colours. Make up that would make a vampire blush.
Did you see the male ice skater with the black pants that were way too high? Like way. He seriously looked like he had a huge ass. Hard as steel I’m sure, very impressive, looked like you could rest a laptop on it. More impressive was that the commentators managed to go the whole program and not make reference to his enormous looking ass. And it wasn’t a huge ass, just a really ill fitting costume.
As bad as the women’s costumes were the men’s were every bit as distasteful. They seemed to favour the ill fitting suit for the tango, and I do mean ill fitting.
Often ice skaters are shorter-ish girls. Skirt lengths stretching past the knee or poorly cut make them look incredibly thick and stocky.
Isn’t there anyone in the organization with any taste? I don’t expect to love every outfit but good Lord, each one was worse than the last.
I’m hoping it see something better in the next series of skating events. Fingers crossed.
Well, this is not a full defense, but remember that these routines and outfits are created to be seen by the judges in the stands and an arena filled with people. So makeup that looks good on TV will be nonexistent to the live audience. So outfits and makeup are composed of broad strokes that will be noticeable to the live audience.
Also, skaters come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Many of the best skaters and coaches come from Eastren Europe and they just have a different idea of what’s tasteful and attractive. If the coach dressed like a 70’s Disco Star, that’s what his students wear too.
But yeah, the conflict between looking good for the tv and being visible to live judges is the heart of the problem. Individual video replay for the judges has only become common in the last 15 years and only the very top competitions can afford it. So it’s important that you wear something eye-catching.
Men traditionally wear higher-waisted pants for the tango. So, yes, those pantsare going to make his butt look big. But they’re what you wear for the tango. Many men’s tango costumes are derived stylistically from zoot suits, which were traditionally high-waisted. Many people don’t realized this, because under that long jacket, you’d never know how high the pants went.
The costumes the women wore were totally appropriate to the style of music as well. Women’s ballroom costumes (especially tango costumes) are often cut asymmetrically. The high side allows for more free movement of the legs, the low side adds flare when it moves with the dancer. They may also be longer, with large slits to show off the leg work. However, with ice dancing, the long skirt would be in the way, so the preferred style would be the shorter asymmetrical cut.
They’re being true to the style of dance, with a little ice dancing flair. Nothing wrong with that.
