Ladies Individual
Russian gold medalist Alina Zagitova wore a striking black-and-white ballerina style tutu dress for her short program, with long sleeves ending in gauntlets worn over gray gloves, and a jagged, asymmetrical neckline. She also wore convertible hose pulled down to partly cover her skates. The combination of the gloves and the covered skates emphasized her graceful extensions and long lines, and the balletic skirt also emphasized her grace and elegance. Her long program outfit also included a tulle tutu skirt, this time in vivid scarlet with gold beading. The dress itself was sleeveless and had invisible straps so as to appear strapless, and she paired it with elbow-length red gloves, also with gold beading. Although still elegant, it was a much sassier and sexier look, and served her well.
Zagitova's win was considered an upset over her teammate, Evgenia Medvedeva, who was expected to win gold but came home with silver. In her short program, Medvedeva wore blue and white ombre dress with a flared chiffon skirt, long sleeves ending in gauntlets, and white spangles all over. Lovely, feminine, and the ruffle of the skirt as she moved across the ice showed her impressive power and speed. For her long program she opted for another chiffon dress, this one with a slimmer fit, in chocolate brown with burgundy and white flowers and matching wrist-length gloves. Like Zagitova, the two costumes provided a nice contrast of elegance and sass, mirroring the contrast of each skater's grace and power.
Canadian bronze medalist Kaetlyn Osmond also opted for a fuller, flowier outfit for her short program and a sleeker, sexier, more-skin look for her long program. Osmond's short program dress was midnight blue chiffon with a beaded mock corset bodice and a skirt pulled shorter on one side, paired with a saucy neck scarf and short gloves. Her long program was a shoulder-baring black dress with silver trim reminiscent of ballet costumes, and a short, straight chiffon skirt, shorter in the front than the back, with slits on the sides. Two really great looks, both with lots of personality.
Not quite making the podium, Japan's Satoko Miyahara took fourth place. Miyahara's short program dress was a very youthful pink dress with an asymmetrical skirt deepening to a bright bubble gum pink and long sheer sleeves, with plenty of silver spangles on the bodice. I found it a bit boring. Not so her dramatic silver to cobalt blue wrapped dress for the long program, with its asymmetrical bodice with a keyhole in front. It moved beautifully and looked striking on the ice.
Italian Olympic veteran Carolina Costner placed a respectable fifth, sporting a sleeveless burgundy chiffon dress with flared skirt and ruffled v-neck for the short program and a sleek deep purple fitted dress with curved geometric cutouts across the front for her long program. Both striking looks, and both lovely with her skating style.
Men's Individual
Fan favorite (especially with teenage girls) Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan made the most of his good looks in two outfits with sleek, fitted black pants and loose, light, long tops that made the most of his long lines. His short program look was a baggy ombre shirt that faded from white to deep blue, with gold detailing at the collar and matching gold-spangled belt, and his long program was a dramatic Asian military inspired tunic with gold detailing, a gold sash, black shoulder insets, and dramatic black gloves. This talented young man clearly knows how to work a wardrobe as well as he does a pair of skates and an audience.
Hanyu's teammate, Shoma Uno, took silver, but his outfits were gold medal-worthy in my book. For his short skate, he wore a short silver jacket with jagged front and raised collar over a black unitard with a faux open chest - a real rockstar look. And for his long program, he opted for an elegant deep blue top, again with open chest, with sleeves that fit tightly over the shoulders and then belled out with chiffon to the wrist, with gold detailing, a kind of sexy pirate look. Another young man who uses good costuming and good looks to his advantage.
Spain's Javier Fernandez moved up from his fourth-place finish in Sochi in 2014 to take home the bronze medal. His looks were reminiscent of earlier skaters, with his tailored velvet jacket over a white shirt and slim charcoal gray pants in the short program, and a loose muslin shirt with laced neck paired with plain black pants for his long program. Both looks were elegant, and while his long program outfit looked a bit dull at first glance, it suited his "Man of La Mancha" program perfectly and put the focus on his gorgeous skating, where it belongs.
China's Jin Boyang came in fourth place, another skater who opted for less flashy costumes placing the focus on his skating rather than his clothes. For his short program, he wore an all-black costume with silver studding creating a subtle faux jacket, and for his long program he paired black pants with a loose black-to-gray ombre top with just a hint of spangles. Classic, if a bit bland.
Nathan Chen of the US rounded out the top five in a somewhat disappointing finish, after struggling with repeated falls. Chen opted for sleek black-and-white looks for both his short and long programs, wearing black pants with a charcoal-gray top with one white sleeve for his short program and a solid black unitard with a white collar strip for the long program. The white sleeve didn't do his lines any favors, although the solid black unitard was elegant and showed off his impressive physique.
Ice Dancing
Ice dancing has always included more dramatic costumes, very reminiscent of ballroom dancing, and gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada were no exception. Their short program look was black with silver scales, with Moir in a chest-baring top with scales across the shoulders, and Virtue in a long-sleeved dress with dramatically angled skirt, with black panels forming a bra on the bodice and a black panel in the skirt, and silver scales everywhere else. For their long-program, Virtue wore a daringly back-and-side-baring burgundy dress with thigh-high slit and sheer sleeves, which was somewhere mirrored by Moir's black shirt with sheer sleeves and sheer side panels. Daring and dramatic.
The most memorable thing about the French silver medalists, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, was her horrifying "wardrobe malfunction" during their short program, as the collar of her dress came unhooked during their performance. It was especially a shame, because her fringed nude and emerald green dress moved beautifully and had great lines for the Latin style, and was not overshadowed by his all-black outfit with plunging v-neck shirt. She must have been relieved at the relative modesty of her sheer blue chiffon dress for the free skate, its fluttery texture emphasizing both the skaters' grace and their speed. Her partner wore a similar style outfit to his short program, with deep blue pants matching her dress and a white wrap jersey with open chest and 3/4 sleeves. Subdued, but effective.
Siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani of the United States took home the bronze. For their short program, Maia wore a stunning pink and orange flame-inspired dress with a gold-starburst bodice and full short skirt, which I loved, and Alex wore black pants with a metallic simple gold collarless button-down shirt, which I liked. But the two together didn't work at all for me - there was no connection of color, silhouette, or style. However, their long program looks were terrific individually and together, with her in a deep red plunging halter dress with flowing skirt and just a hint of black accents, and him in black pants and a red-and-black jersey. A much more successful look for them.
Just missing the podium were the Shibutanis' teammates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. both of their outfits were impeccable. For their short program, Hubbell wore a single-sleeved, back-and-side-baring lavender and purple dress with a skirt that angled from hip to calf, and Donohue a solid black outfit with bare chest and just a hint of silver spangles. For their long program, Donohue wore a short formal black jacket (complete with white pocket square) with black tuxedo pants and a plain white dress shirt open at the neck, and Hubbell wore a plunging black dress with lots of silver art deco detailing and a short, scalloped skirt that was a hair longer in back. Terrific looks all around.
Russian skaters Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev placed fifth. Their short program outfits were eye-catching, with her in a fringed cobalt blue thigh-length dress with metallic detailing and him in solid black with an open shirt. Their long program looks were less successful for me, with him in an open-necked white dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves under a gray double-breasted vest paired with black pants, and her in a pretty but not terribly memorable burgundy and white chiffon dress. Not a bad look, but lacking pizzazz.
Pairs
Compare Bobrova and Soloviev's long program outfits to pairs gold medalists Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany's short program outfits. Massot is also wearing a white dress shirt with rolled sleeves paired with black pants and a gray dress vest, but the little pop of red in his bow tie provides so much more personality, and despite the lack of any bright color in Savchenko's fringed silver dress, it has so much more life and movement to it than Bobrova's dress - yet it would still be perfectly appropriate for an ice dancing routine. Savchenko and Massot also looked fabulous in tehir long program, with his dark to pale purple ombre shirt mirroring her purple to white ombre dress, with its narrow white belt, front bodice slit, and short straight chiffon skirt. Clean, simple lines, but enough details for some visual interest. Well done.
Silver medalists Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China proved that your outfits don't need to be matchy-matchy to work together. For their short program, Cong wore all black with an elaborate silver studded pattern (perhaps an eagle or phoenix?) on his shirt, which tied in just enough to Wenjing's plunging, deep burgundy dress with short skirt and lots of silver embellishments. Their long program outfits were a nod to their homeland, with Cong again in black, this time with a large silver dragon on the back of his shirt, and Wenjing in true red with a wrap-style dress with silver embellishments and a full, flared skirt. Just flashy enough without being too much.
Canada's Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford took home the bronze medal for their skating, but my personal gold medal for fashion. They made the matchy-matchy look work in their short program by both wearing midnight blue, with just a hint of sliver studding on Radford's shirt to pull it together with Duhamel's partly-sheer bodice with silver studding and short fluttery skirt. For their long program, Duhamel wore an absolutely stunning loose chiffon halter with turquoise and white embellishments along the top of the bodice, and Radford wore a chiffon shirt with sheer sleeves in an identical fabric. Just terrific looks.
Fourth-place finishers Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia wore two completely different yet totally striking looks for their two programs. For their short program, they wore black bases wrapped with blood-red ribbons, creating gorgeous lines for their spins and lifts. For their long program, Morozov wore all black except for a yellow and black polka-dotted necktie to match Tarasova's strapless polka dot dress with a few accents in reverse yellow-on-black polka dots. The look hovered on the edge of being obnoxious, but stopped just short.
And finally, rounding out both this category and this blog entry, we have France's Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres, who would look fierce skating in matching paper bags. For their short program, Cipres wore a long belted black jacket over a sheer black tank with a single cobalt-blue strap across the chest, and James wore a belted cobalt blue dress with lacing down the front and revealing side panels with spangled criss-cross straps. But it was their daring look for the free skate that earned them about a billion bonus points from me, as they broke with tradition with James wearing a black halter unitard with plunging front and criss-cross straps along the v-neck, and Cipres in a similar silhouette of black and charcoal gray. It showed off how incredibly muscular both male and female skaters are, and I absolutely loved it. Leave it to the French to bring haute couture to the ice rink!
