Saturday, October 8, 2016

Skating Costumes Through the Years: The Fabulous 50s!

In the 50s, things get really interesting. American figure skaters are coming more to the forefront, and ice shows are reaching continents and countries previously unreachable, due to the invention of the portable ice rink. All of these shows had beautiful programs. Here are some examples:





There's also this one, in which the extreme close-up is quite terrifying:

She appears to be hating life or about to go psycho. Either way, I'd leave this one alone...

As you can see from these programs, the ladies show costumes are getting more revealing. Take Gloria Nord and Aja Zanova as examples...


Aja's skating fascinator is on point!!! Seriously, I have no idea how that thing is staying on. They both appear to love a stag jump. In addition to the change in ladies show costumes, the men's show costumes got more flamboyant.

The sleeves and embellishment embody what figure skating is all about! He looks awesome! There were still some that preferred an ensemble with a bit less bolness. Here is Robert Blakey in one of the Ice Capades shows:

This was a tailored tuxedo type of look which was prevalent for men's competition wear at this time too. This show costume still has a little more embellishment than what you would see in a competition costume.

In 1959, Holiday on Ice made a really bold and courageous move, one that had been unprecedented by any of the other shows. The show wanted to go to Moscow. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, there was not much to see other than Soviet-sanctioned entertainment. The government subsidized competitive Olympic and World athletes but did not appear to be fond of shows. Many notable skaters signed up for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring the ice show to an oppressed audience who had not gotten to see it. There was a lot of risk, but also reward. This picture below shows the Holiday on Ice cast meeting with Nikita Kruschev.
I put this up not necessarily to comment on the outfits, but to commemorate this important moment in skating history.

The 50s had its share of interesting competitive times as well. In 1952, we saw Dick Button take home his second gold medal. Here is another photo of him wearing his signature sweater look.
Later in the decade we saw the Jenkins brothers come on the scene: Hayes and David Jenkins both like the dapper tuxedo look.

Hayes Jenkins would later marry another figure skater: Carol Heiss.
The Ladies competition in 1956 marked the beginning of the great rivalries between American ladies figure skaters. Her competitor was Tenley Albright.
The two ladies were different in many ways. It's almost an old tale at this point that you see over and over. Carol Heiss came from a blue collar family in the New York area that worked very hard to get her into the figure skating club there. Tenley Albright was the daughter of a doctor and was well known in the Boston skating community. Their differences even extended to their wardrobe, with Heiss having a younger, bright-eyed, school girl look, and Albright donning ladylike dresses.

This duo was competitive from the mid-50s and into the next decade. Heiss had captured the World Championship in 1955, but Albright was the victor of the 1956 Olympic Games.

Looking at all these photos, there is still a stark contrast between the competition costumes, and the show costumes, will it remain this way, or with their paths ever cross! We still have a lot to cover so stay tuned to find out!

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