Project Runway's Skating Fashion

Last night, the local station aired the Project Runway Season 2 Episode 7: "On Thin Ice". Ok we get all shows waaay late in Singapore, so this topic should already have been beaten to death 6 months ago... (this was first aired on Jan 18, 2006) Funny, though, that I never heard anything about it on the mailing lists & news groups - or I must have been too busy and missed the discussion!

Anyway, since I was home last night, I thought I'd just take a look to see what the designers would come up with...

Goodness gracious, what are figure skating dresses doing on a runway? I was kinda surprised they didn't make the models come out in skates as well! It would really have been interesting to see how much more creativity there would be in designing right down the tights to the boot covers!

Emmett's design was offensive... do non-skaters really think a little frilly counts as a skirt? Santino's design was completely impractical, though I must say, under all the feathers and ruffles, the bodice does look kinda neat.

One major thing that has been overlooked in these designs is that many of the free-skating elements requires rotation - none of the dresses look like they'd spin very well!

Seems like designing figure skating dresses requires some different skill, and knowledge of figure skating! The look goes beyond just parading the dress around - the design has to be elegant and practical. Not restrictive, not bulky, not heavy, not too many things hanging...

It was cool that they got Sasha in as one of the judges. The design she chose was just about the least of all evils. Good for her!