Best and Worst (Apparel) of 2014/2015 - Part 7, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Tango

Many people confuse pair skating with ice dancing. Even though there are very few similarities between the two, they seem one and the same to the untrained eye. Perhaps it's because those unfamiliar with the sport can't understand the point of having two categories for couples. There is a point of course because pair skating is not dancing on ice. Pair skating contains a lot more elements that are significantly more difficult than dancing: jumps, throw jumps, death spirals, side-by-side spins, etc. In order to be able to perform them without costumes getting in their way, pair skaters have to wear aerodynamic clothes, which the ice dancers don't.

Because of the restriction in length and shape, you'd think pair costumes are less fabulous. Not a chance! This season, especially, was full of gorgeous dresses paired with dashing attires for the boys. Ironically though, neither one of the best costumes of the season was a dress:

The Russian pair skated to music from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Flying Daggers
Photograph: Jamie McDonald / Getty Images Europe

They are the European silver-medalists
Photograph: Oleg Nikishin / Getty Images Europe

I can already hear you disagreeing with me on this one. With Yuko Kavaguti, Meagan Duhamel and Valentina Marchei looking like the belles of the ball, how could I think Ksenia Stolbova & Fedor Klimov's costumes were the best? Well, I value originality almost above everything else. When a skater decides to do or wear something that I've never seen before, I get as excited as a child on their way to Disneyland. And the Russians definitely got me excited this season.

I don't have a lot of experience with Chinese cinematography, but I know they incorporated elements from different ninja costumes into their attires, which shows they put some thought into them. The colour combination of black and white was a reference to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is one of the films on whose soundtracks they skated.

Ksenia's choice of wearing a jumpsuit instead of a dress was very appropriate because she embodied a female warrior. Although women have been known to fight in beautiful dresses that flutter in the wind in Chinese films, it's simply more sensible to wear pants. The shoulder pads looked futuristic, but are in fact part of a ninja's costume. The delicate floral embroidery was another element from Chinese culture, where flowers are often found on dresses. The back of the costume was sexy and gave the whole outfit some pizzazz. All in all, her costume was glamorous, bad-ass and pretty, all at the same time.

Fedor's attire was also inspired by a ninja's. He wore shoulder pads too, but they decided to mix it up a bit, so his were of a different variety. The eye-catcher of the costume was definitely the portrait of that awesome dragon in the middle of his chest. I would have loved to see a tiger as well in there - they could have combined the two animals in an epic symbol - given the theme they were skating to, but I'll take what I can get.

If Ksenia and Fedor's costumes got my attention because of their originality, the worst costumes worn by a pair in the short programme this season caught my eyes because of the opposite.

There are a couple of themes in figure skating that someone always seems to skate to like Romeo and Juliet, Phantom of the Opera or Tango of Roxanne. So when a skater chooses to skate to these themes, you'd think they'd make sure their version of it is memorable, unlike any other ever seen before. Unfortunately, when it comes to most skaters, that's not true.

El Tango de Roxanne has become so famous few people know it is in fact a version of the song Roxanne by The Police
Photograph: Atsushi Tomura / Getty Images Asia

Alexa and Chris are the champions of the United States
Photograph: Streeter Lecka / Getty Images North America

There are two things I like about Alexa Scimeca & Chris Knierim's costumes: the red flower in her hair, which is an important part of any tango costume, and the choker around her neck, which gave the outfit a bit of sophistication. Unfortunately, the costumes themselves do not make an impression on me.

I'll begin by saying that I don't necessarily think every girl skating to El Tango de Roxanne should wear a red dress. None of the dancers in the film (Moulin Rouge) wear red in the tango scene. They do look like 19th century courtesans, though, and Alexa simply didn't. You might say she didn't need to - she and her partner were not playing Satine or Christian, they were merely skating to the tango. That's true, but the thing is that you can't skate to El Tango de Roxanne and not play a character if you're a girl. Roxanne has become such an iconic figure, as part of Moulin Rouge or not, that you simply can't escape her aura. She is the temptress, the seductress whom falling in love with is a curse. She draws power from her ability to seduce, so anyone taking the character on has to look the part. A simple black costume with loads of glitter on won't do it. And why the glitter? I know figure skating costumes, as a rule, have plenty of glitter on them, but I would have loved to see some lace instead, maybe a replica of a corset, even something resembling a garter - that's what Roxanne would wear.

Chris' costume was also out of sync with the theme, mostly because of how well it matched Alexa's. With El Tango de Roxanne, you want the girl to stand out because she has the lead role. To do that you can't make her partner wear a costume that was literally cut out of the same piece of fabric. They did exactly that unfortunately, so, in my books, this is going to be just another El Tango de Roxanne performance that will get lost in the spiderwebs of time.

These are my two choices for best and worst apparel of the pairs' short programme. Come back next week to see which pairs had the best and worst costumes in the free skate.