2011 Illusion Mesh Trainwreck Awards!

[mosca]

Welcome to the Sixth Annual Figure Skating Costume Awards! This star-studded three-day event celebrates the best, worst, and gayest in ice skating costumes. I choose the costumes from among the senior Grand Prix skaters' competitive programs (short program/dance and free skate/dance). They're eligible even if the skater later changed costumes.

Comments

[espresso_addict]

Rippon's costume doesn't look too bad in the photo. The thing I really hate is when they put the flesh-toned mesh over the boots, per Xiaoyu Yu. It makes the legs look really clumpy.

[mosca]

Rippon's costume seems to be love-it-or-hate-it.

The tights-over-boots look is deeply ugly and actually less common than a few years ago. callmesandy calls them "deformed Cheeto feet."

[serrico]

...it *does* look like they made it out of Clem.

*CACKLE*

I enjoy that you do this. Your snark entertains me. :)

[mosca]

I enjoy doing this! Amazing that it's my sixth round. Glad to make you laugh.

[lunabee34]

OMG.

*dies*

I love these posts. Drag Queen Han Solo, FTW!

Heeeee.

[mosca]

I am moving very quickly toward needing a Drag Queen Han Solo icon.

[lunabee34]

You will be the envy of all your friends. :)

[notemily]

ahahaha I love that last photo with the netting COVERING HIS FACE.

[mosca]

Yeah, that photo screams CONSTRUCTION PROBLEM.

[thefourthvine]

I cannot get over the perfection of that last photo. Poor costumes are not just an aesthetic issue! (Also, what is that - that thing on her dress? Is it a heart? On a vine? Or is it, as I first thought, a Venus flytrap?)

[mosca]

Construction is especially a safety issue in ice dance. Since skaters don't practice in their competition costumes, they often don't know they're going to be blinded or tripped until the competition itself.

It's a heart on her chest, being eaten by the snake that runs up her torso.

[thefourthvine]

They don't practice in their costumes? Not even once? That seems - um. Well, liable to lead to tripping or blinding or, you know, the whole thing falling off. Can the costumes only be worn once?

It's a heart on her chest, being eaten by the snake that runs up her torso.

...I'm going to assume, for reasons of sanity, that there is a perfectly good reason for that.

[mosca]

Some people practice in the costumes once, maybe. Sometimes, they're barely ready in time for the first competition, since they're custom and handmade. Often, the skaters avoid wearing them outside of competition to prevent damage, and also because they're impossible to clean and start to smell interesting after a while.