Fashion faux pas on ice

The 2010 Winter Olympics spurred controversy, but not the kind related to performance-enhancing drugs or Tonya Harding’s rage.

This year, figure skating fashion went beyond tassels, taffeta and bedazzled duds. From the creepy to the culturally insensitive, the costumes worn during the figure skating events have made the games more interesting to watch.

If you’ve ever seen figure skating, you know the sport involves more than athletic ability. Skaters and their coaches spend just as many hours selecting mood-setting music and flattering costumes as they do perfecting triple axels.

And by the looks of some of the outfits, maybe they should have put more thought into the former.

Belgium’s Kevin van der Perren became one of the most discussed male figure skaters after his performance in the skating championship’s short program but not for his seventeenth-place finish. The skater’s skeleton bodysuit made it hard to take him seriously, despite his highly praised performance.

I can only speculate, but van der Perren might have placed higher if he hadn’t competed as Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Ukrainian duo Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov must be fans of the Blue Man Group because all they were missing were blue face paint and trash cans to bang. 

Unlike van der Perren, hardly anyone talks about them because neck-to-toe blue unitards are pretty boring in the world of ice skating.

Anyone afraid of clowns would not want to see Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy. Their performance to “Send in the Clowns” in sad-clown face paint helped them win the bronze in the pairs free skate, but they looked ridiculously tacky.

At least their costume went with their music. Another German pair, Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende, dressed as a goddess and a gladiator in the freestyle event, and no one really knows why.

But the worst, and most offensive, costumes appeared when a Russian pair stepped onto the ice during the original dance competition.

Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin showed their Australian Aboriginal-themed dance during the Europeans in January. Their brown skin-toned bodysuits with red loincloths, strategically placed leaves and white body paint drew plenty of criticism from viewers and the Aboriginal community.

As a result, the duo altered their costumes for the Olympics — but not much. The bodysuits were a lighter shade of brown with less body paint, but by pairing the costumes with the unauthentic music and dance, the skaters have been accused of cultural theft.

The “folk/country dance” theme for this Olympics’ original dance portion spawned plenty of performances that didn’t live up to their cultural influences — Brits as American cowboys or Americans attempting a Moldavian folkdance, for example.

But the Russians really became a huge disappointment. Shabalin said at least he and Domnina are getting publicity after placing ninth in the competition. But does he not care it’s only because of their poor taste?

It’s fine if skaters want to set themselves apart from the competition through costumes, but there is a point where shock
value trumps style. 

At least skaters have the comfort of knowing that, judging from this year’s Olympics, if you’re going to wear something ridiculous, you have a shot at placing seventeenth in your event.