Best and Worst (Apparel) of 2014/2015 - Part 3, Into the Blue

In 1902, a Londoner decided to enter the figure skating World Championships, thus becoming the first professional female figure skater and prompting the ISU to create a separate discipline for women. Her name was Madge Syers and she competed wearing ankle-long skirts, cotton shirts and hats. I wonder what she'd say if she saw some of today's costumes...

Madge was able to wear heavy, layered outfits because she didn't perform a lot of elements, but as figure skating took flight and the women's discipline became more difficult, female skaters had to gradually lose fabric to be able to perform. Nowadays, there is a science to how the ladies' costumes are made. They have to be aerodynamic, in other words to allow air to flow easily so that they can move freely and jump. That doesn't mean they cannot be absolutely gorgeous though.

The ladies have complete freedom to choose the themes of both their routines, which means that they can wear whatever they want. This season's short programme saw a lot of elegant ladies in bright colours, but the costume that impressed me the most was:

Polina won the gold medal at the Four Continents Championships this season
Photograph: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images North America

Her short programe music was composed by
Johann Sebastian and Gustavo Montesano
Photograph: Streeter Lecka / Getty Images
North America

Polina Edmunds skated to a medley of Spanish songs, so she followed the same rules the ice dancers' did in their short dance. Her costume looked like a shorter, bluer flamenco dress, with ruffled sleeves and skirt to make it accurate. But the beauty was in the details. The  floral pattern on the torso, lower back and outer layer of the skirt was absolutely gorgeous. The back was not quite bare, but designed as a continuation of the floral pattern. She probably chose to wear blue instead of the traditional red because her routine was not your usual passionate Spanish dance associated with red. 

Polina is only 16, so her music and costume reflected that. She looked her age - on the border between the child and the woman - which is another reason why I like her apparel so much. Unlike other skaters, she did not try to age herself to sell the routine, but approached the Spanish dance with the curiosity and innocence of a teenager. Although the costume was entirely blue, it came in three different shades so as not to be monotonous. 

There were no bad costumes in the short dance this season, just costumes that could have been better or that didn't really fit the skater's silhouette. For a long time, I thought Elizaveta Tuktamysheva had the worst short programme costume, what with it being so sombre and plain, but compared to previous seasons, the Russian has actually improved costume-wise. Besides, her short programme costume matched her free skate costume and I quite like that. So instead, I decided that the worst short programme costume was:

Satoko is Japan's current national champion
Photograph: Xiaolu Chu / Getty Images Asia

Her short was set to The Magic Flute
Photograph: Atsushi Tomura / Getty Images Asia

I know, I know, Satoko Miyahara was adorable in her blue and yellow costume, but the tailoring just looks off to me. The shoulders did not compliment her figure at all and that...let's call it 'skirt', looked like what girls imagine their skirts look like when they walk down the street and get a little too self-conscious because people are looking at them in a 'funny' way. Seriously, I'd like to know what the thought-process was here. Did they run out of fabric? If it had been left to fall down naturally instead of being tucked in like that, this costume would have been a lot prettier. I do like the snowflake/star pattern though and despite the fact that blue and yellow should never be combined, there was not enough yellow here to make the combination hurt your eyes. But the tailoring, my God, the tailoring!

Those are my choices for best and worst costumes worn by the ladies in their short programmes this season. Do you agree? Next week, I'll take a look at the free skate costumes.