Figure Skating Costumes Through the Years- The Scandalous 90s

Hi everyone! Hope you have a great weekend coming up! I was out on a snow day while writing this, even though we haven't seen one flake yet. Gotta love living in the South. 🙂

Anyway, there is a lot to cover on this post for figure skating's most drama-filled decade: The 90s! Also known as the time I recorded every competition on VHS to re-watch over and over. Those were the days, man. I also started taking beginner skating classes in 1996.

I'm trying my best to keep my focus on the costumes for this one, but I'm sure there will be a few digressions. Let's begin!

Standard Ladies Competition Dress, Part 2

First, we have the "Standard Ladies Competition Dress", 90s style. This is similar to the "standard competition dress" of the 80s, with long sleeves and short skirts, but with some variation. In these dresses, there is more variety in the type of fabrics used, and the embellishments are somewhat less gaudy than their 80s counterparts. From these pictures, you will notice another predominantly 90s trend:

 Midori Ito (Japan)

 Oksana Baiul (Ukraine)

 Kristi Yamaguchi (USA)

 Oksana Baiul (Ukraine)

Chen Lu (China)

Ah, yes, the infamous poofy bangs. Every 90s girl had them. I spent a lot of time in the mirror with my curling iron trying to get it just right. You know you had them too, don't even lie...There were often matching scrunchies to go with these dresses too.

Dudes in Puffy Sleeves

Musketeers and knights, fully of chivalry. Classic romantic looks that have not been seen much since that time.

 Phillipe Candeloro (France)

 Alexei Urmananov (Russia)

 Viktor Petrenko (Ukraine)

Todd Eldredge (USA)

I don't have much else to say on these, but they all had good hair going with the costumes! Phillipe's Three Musketeers program and Todd's First Knight program were some of my favorite men's programs of the time.

Flowing and Romantic

In the 90s, we start to see more variety in costuming for pairs and ice dancers. A lot of different fabrics are used, and we start seeing more watercolor costumes. There are a lot of Romeo and Juliet programs and costume motifs as well.

 Maia Usova and Alexandr Zhulin (Russia)

 Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat (France)

 Jenni Meno and Todd Sand (USA)

 Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko (Russia)

Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler (Canada)

We have a variety of hairstyles with these looks as well, updating as the decade progresses. Love Anissina and Peizerat's costumes. They have just the right amount of detailing and drama and the colors look great on them.

Ice Dancers Being Dramatic

In these pictures, you will see one of the big ice dance rivalries of the 90s between Grishuk and Platov and Krylova and Ovsiannikov.

In this photo, you see Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov of Russia at the 1994 Olympics. She looks just like most of the early 90s lady skaters did, with the "Standard Competition Dress", poofy bangs and matching scrunchie.

Fast forward to the 1998 Olympics, where she has changed her name to Pasha and is channeling Marilyn Monroe. I linked a video on this in my Top Ten All Time Favorite Ice Dance post. That post also features this next couple, their rivals and arch-nemeses Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov.

This dress from their "Carmen" free dance is fierce! It could still be worn today. Damn, the seething hatred in her eyes is palpable! You just don't get this good drama these days in skating.

Sleek minimalism

Mirroring the minimalist trends of the 90s, several skaters opted to tone down on the frippery in favor of a more subdued look, particularly for more serious programs.

 Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov (Russia)

 Nancy Kerrigan (USA)

 Paul Wylie (USA)

Paul Wylie (USA)

These looks stand out in their simplicity and little embellishment. The audience can focus more on the skating without the costumes distracting from it.

Bold and Beautiful

The 90s brought us several expressive skaters with the outfits to match. Some had particularly bold and loud colors. Surya Bonaly and Ilia Kulik provided my favorite flashy and loud costumes of the decade.

With Surya, you also get the bonus of a backflip! Backflipping instantly makes any costume more awesome.

For Ilia, here we have his costume from his 1998 Olympic gold medal performance to Rhapsody in Blue. Certainly an unconventional choice for the Gershwin song.

I don't know which program this is for, but he looks like a harlequin here. That's not a bad thing; it's actually pretty cool. 

The Super Masculine and the Super Feminine

Yuka Sato has a graceful skating style and wears the costumes to accentuate this and her musical choices:

Next, we have Elvis "manly man" Stojko, who combined rock music and his love of martial arts into his skating style.

This one here totally has some Chazz Michael Michaels vibes to it!

The Rise of a Bright Skating Star

I cannot mention the 90s without mentioning Michelle Kwan's meteoric rise to stardom. Her costuming was also some of the most iconic of the decade, matching her music and performance flawlessly. Her style signals a transition to the modern era of skating dresses. We still see many of these styles in the world of competitive figure skating today.

Wait! Isn't this about The Scandalous 90s?

Oh, right. Here you go.

Till next time friends!

Peace out from Icy Trails!!