Beijing: There aren’;t many Olympic sports that involve sequins, leather and spandex. But figure skating is the notable exception, with the rink a kaleidoscopic disco of glitter and glamour. Here’;s AFP’;s pick of some of the most interesting costumes from the Beijing Olympics:
– Two very different Eltons –
There were two Elton John programs at the Beijing Games — but with very different sartorial interpretations.
Canada’;s Paul Poirier and Piper Gilles turned up to the ice dance in matching fluorescent orange unitards, an homage to John’;s own notoriously flamboyant style.
“You walk out and people are like, ‘You guys are like a sunset’;,” Gilles told the Washington Post. Asked by the Post what the best thing anyone had said about their costumes was, she answered: that “we have great butts”.
At the other end of the spectrum was gold medalist Nathan Chen’;s “Rocket Man” costume. There wasn’;t a sequin in sight on the American’;s orange galaxy-printed shirt, which looked more like a running top than a traditional figure skating costume.
Chen said it was designed by celebrity fashion designer Vera Wang and was “modern chic aesthetic”.
“You don’;t really argue with Vera Wang,” he chuckled. “Whatever she gives you — ‘Ah, cool, I’;ll take it.’;
In contrast, his teammate Karen Chen’;s costumes are all made by her mother. She told The New York Times she had stayed awake for 20 hours, four days in a row making the latest one. “I barely slept at all, but I wanted to make something really special,” she said. “I know in the future I won’;t have this chance because she will have a different life, and I will miss this.”
“I love it so much,” Chen told AFP. “She does like 98 percent of the work, I just put in like two percent and by two percent just like ‘Oh that looks good’;.
“Latvia’;s Deniss Vasiljevs doesn’;t always get as much fashion support from his parents.
Asked what he thought they would be thinking after his free skate, he said: “My dad is probably complaining about my hair.”Vasiljevs’; ponytail, the only one in the men’;s event, stayed resolutely intact despite its owner’;s dizzying spins and jumps.
“I started my season with my hair like a rooster,” he said. “I was just trying different things and somehow it’;s holding and I’;m happy.”
Some at the Games have used their clothes to showcase their countries’; culture. Donovan Carrillo, Mexico’;s first figure skater in 30 years, performed his short program in a dazzling gold and black shirt custom-made for him by a Mexican designer — “I love it!” he told journalists afterwards joyously.
He followed that up by emerging from his free skate in a jacket adorned with Mexican “lucha libre” wrestling face masks.
“I’;m super happy because since I was a kid I always liked to watch it with my dad,” Carrillo said. He said one of the people involved in the team jacket’;s design was Hubertus von Hohenlohe, Mexico’;s only athlete at the 2014 Sochi Games, best remembered for his own idiosyncratic mariachi ski suit.
In pairs, China’;s Peng Cheng and Jin Yang’;s outfits are inspired by Chinese ink painting and handstitched using traditional embroidery techniques from Suzhou, a city close to Shanghai.”It is very delicate,” said Peng. “They were specially made for the Olympic Games.”
