Spinning Dreams

Abstract

For the audience, the costumes are a requisite part of the Olympics' most scintillating prime-time event, and, with this year's kneecapping creating a soap opera context, viewers will inevitably be larger in number and more curious than usual. Costumes may be a tad more modest than in the 1988 Olympics, when Ms. [Katarina Witt] cavorted in azure ostrich feathers and bikini-style briefs under a diaphanous skirt. Sniped a rival's coach, "We're here to skate in a dress, not a G-string." Soon after, the International Skating Union, which governs the sport, banned bare midriffs, unitards and "excessive decoration."

"I'll slit my wrists if he can't get into it," Mrs. [Lauren MacDonald Sheehan] remarked about Mr. [Scott Davis]'s black spandex pants with an attached black and royal blue spandex shirt. "I had my husband try it on, but it's not the same thing. It's crazy working like this."

Katarina Witt's controversial 1988 outfit. (Allsport USA)(pg.1); The designer [Vera Wang] has skated in national championships. (Edward Keating/The New York Times)(pg.6); Drawing: "The Making of an Outfit," This is the dress [Nancy Kerrigan] is expected to wear in her short program next week for the Olympic competition in ladies figure skating. It was created by the designer Vera Wang. The dress, one piece with briefs attached at the waist, took more than 50 hours to make and would sell for $9,600, if the designer had not donated it to the skater. It is all hand sewn. BODICE, SKIRT AND BRIEFS: two yards of white spandex, used on the reverse side for a matte finish. The skirt is made of double thickness and is six and a half inches in front, eight and a half in back. HALTER NECK AND BANDS UNDER ARMHOLE: black stretch velvet, which moves with the body and doesn't pull away when the skater raises or tucks her arms. SLEEVES: held in place by elastic loop around middle finger, to keep them from riding up. WRISTS: rhinestone and pearl "bracelets," hand-embroidered around the wrists. SHOULDERS, ARMS AND BACK: black sheer stretch Illusion, a see-through fabric that creates a sexy peekaboo effect. RIB CAGE AND ARMHOLES: reinforced with triple stitching in areas of greatest stress, with regular thread. (Vera Wang)(pg.6)

On fashion's food chain, figure-skating outfits are considered a petit four, falling somewhere between Las Vegas showgirl get-ups and circus regalia. Consisting of a yard or two of stretch fabric, a few wisps of chiffon and a heap of sparkles, they sometimes look like something a skater's mother could make -- and occasionally does.

A leotard with a flippy skirt and some glue-gunned appliques, however, isn't the stuff Olympic dreams are made of. The idiosyncrasies of ice couture are so complex that the seemingly simple costumes, some so small they can be crumpled up and held in one hand, require a designer to be part Balenciaga, part aerodynamicist.

For skaters, the goal is to create an enchanting "visual package" without having something disastrous happen -- like in 1988, when Katarina Witt fell out of the front of her costume during a camel spin. Or more recently, when Tonya Harding popped the back of her dress and had to submit to emergency repairs before resuming her performance.

For the audience, the costumes are a requisite part of the Olympics' most scintillating prime-time event, and, with this year's kneecapping creating a soap opera context, viewers will inevitably be larger in number and more curious than usual. Costumes may be a tad more modest than in the 1988 Olympics, when Ms. Witt cavorted in azure ostrich feathers and bikini-style briefs under a diaphanous skirt. Sniped a rival's coach, "We're here to skate in a dress, not a G-string." Soon after, the International Skating Union, which governs the sport, banned bare midriffs, unitards and "excessive decoration."

Although most skating styles still take their design cues from Flo Ziegfeld, not Giorgio Armani, there are some elegant exceptions, like the couture creations by Vera Wang.

"You can't believe the technology and handwork that go into these little bitty dresses," said Ms. Wang, the bridal and eveningwear designer who creates costumes for the skater Nancy Kerrigan. "You have a tiny surface to make a fashion statement, and everything has to fit like a second skin. This isn't some dress you're going to stand around in at a cocktail party. It has to survive a flying sit spin."

For Ms. Kerrigan's short, technical program at the Olympic competition in Lillehammer, Norway, Ms. Wang created a white spandex dress with black stretch velvet inserts and sleeves of black Illusion, a sheer stretchy synthetic fabric, edged at the wrists with rhinestones and pearls. It is based on a cocktail dress from the designer's ready-to-wear collection for Barneys New York.

For the long, freestyle program, the skater plans to wear the designer's tour de force: a flesh-colored spandex and Illusion dress shimmering with 11,500 rhinestones. The stones are heat-pressed onto the surface of the fabric without any stitches or metal backs. Otherwise, the costume would be so heavy Ms. Kerrigan would never be able to launch a triple lutz.

The thousand-points-of-light creation was inspired by a slithery, chiffon-and-rhinestone gown Ms. Wang designed for the actress Sharon Stone. Ms. Kerrigan fell in love with it while browsing through the designer's New York couture salon.

"It's one of my favorite dresses," Ms. Kerrigan said. "The kids at my rink where I train told me they kept watching the dress instead of me because it looks so amazing."

Skating fashion is no longer cut from the same inexpensive, no-frills pattern that was around in Dorothy Hamill's day. In 1976, Ms. Hamill whirled off with a gold medal while clad in a pink stretch jersey dress sewn by a friend's mother. The outfit was eclipsed by her wedge hairdo.

"I remember traipsing to New York to look for rhinestones to put around the neckline," Ms. Hamill said. "I think the dress cost $75, which was very expensive in those days."

By contrast, Ms. Kerrigan's rhinestone-strewn show stopper is priced at $13,000; her white and black dress is $9,600, Ms. Wang said. The designer has donated both outfits to the skater. She was asked to design Ms. Kerrigan's costumes by one of the skater's coaches, Mary Scotvold, an old acquaintance of Ms. Wang.

Ms. Kerrigan had planned to wear the rhinestone costume in the national championships last month before a clubbing attack on one of her knees forced her withdrawal. Now, the dress will glide onto the ice at Lillehammer without having had a test run in competition.

"I'm nervous about how the dress will work technically," said Ms. Wang, a former figure skater who competed in national championships. She tries the costumes on herself to see how they move. "Who knows if the stones on the sheer Illusion will catch and rip as Nancy pulls out of a tuck? I'm definitely worried."

Not half as worried as Lauren MacDonald Sheehan is about the "Zorba the Greek" outfit she designed for Scott Davis, the men's national champion. She made Mr. Davis's outfit after measuring him for a pattern, but never actually fit the costume on him.

"I'll slit my wrists if he can't get into it," Mrs. Sheehan remarked about Mr. Davis's black spandex pants with an attached black and royal blue spandex shirt. "I had my husband try it on, but it's not the same thing. It's crazy working like this."

In-person fittings would be ideal, but Mrs. Sheehan, a former figure skater who is the wife of an Air Force flying squadron commander, lives on a military base outside Del Rio, Tex. She buys her sewing supplies at Wal-Mart, orders beads from Seventh Avenue and has clients send her fabric.

Despite the logistical difficulties, Mrs. Sheehan, who has been designing costumes for 17 years, has become the fashion darling of the skating world, in part because she understands the sport and in part for her elaborate beaded designs. She has whipped up the Olympic finery of Kristi Yamaguchi, Debi Thomas and Jill Trenary. For Lillehammer, Surya Bonaly, the French skating champion who was decked out in Christian Lacroix extravaganzas at the 1992 Olympics, plans to wear a white spandex and chiffon dress with crystal and gold beading created by Mrs. Sheehan. She said her women's costumes start at $1,200, and men's at $800.

A typical skating outfit is one piece, lightweight and reinforced at the shoulders, armholes and rib cage to withstand torsion. When skating, women are distracted by briefs that crawl up their derrieres, while men dislike pants that are cut too loose. Ideally, the costumes feel like a second skin.

Beads are tightly anchored so as not to pop onto the ice and endanger a skater. (Mrs. Sheehan sews them on with dental floss because it is so strong.) Sleeves are sometimes prevented from riding up by elastic that loops around the middle finger. Men's pant legs are secured by Velcro straps fastened beneath the boot, while women's briefs are occasionally pasted down to their tights or skin with glue or double-faced tape so they don't ride up.

"Skaters are on autopilot when they compete," Mrs. Sheehan said. "Their costume is the last thing on their minds. But as a designer, you're always thinking, 'I hope they didn't miss that jump because the crotch was too tight.' "

Costume collaborations, which may involve a skater's coach and mother, sometimes require a designer to pull off a few diplomatic double axels.

Ms. Wang lobbied for ice blue or pale pink. Ms. Kerrigan vetoed pastels. "I'm not a pink person," she declared. They compromised with neutrals.

Mrs. Sheehan tried to dissuade Ms. Bonaly from wearing white and gold. "I told her it was a mistake to go out there looking like "Swan Lake" and that she should wear something brighter," the designer said. "But she's firm about what she wants, and I have to go along with it."

The skating world's first trend-setter was Sonja Henie, the Norwegian skater who was an Olympic champion in 1928, 1932 and 1936, who shortened her hems from ankle to knee to facilitate jumps and trimmed her dresses with fur. But it wasn't until the 1980's that high technology met high fashion in a glitz blitz of lightweight plastic sequins, synthetic fabrics and razzle-dazzle "Dynasty"-inspired designs.

There are some indications, however, that the voltage is being lowered on flashy get-ups. Ms. Witt, whose vampy, feather-and-glitter numbers caused a tempest at the 1988 Olympics, plans to appear in Lillehammer in a simple red lace dress she designed herself and had made in Berlin, said Elizabeth Weigand, her agent. "She may get something new from an American designer -- if there's time," Ms. Weigand added.

For her short program, Ms. Witt will be clad as Robin Hood, in leggings, a long-sleeved shirt and tunic, without a single spangle. Ms. Kerrigan's short-program dress, which Ms. Wang described as "almost monastic," is made with white spandex used on the reverse side so it is less shiny.

Mrs. Sheehan eliminated the silver sequins from Scott Davis's "Zorba" costume because "they were just too much." For his black and copper "West Side Story" outfit, she used a subtle sprinkling of jet beads.

"It's easier to convince the men to go simpler," Mrs. Sheehan said. "I'm trying to move away from elaborate beaded dresses, but I'm having difficulty getting the girls to go easy on the glitz."

Still, she added, "the greatest costume in the world won't help you if you're sliding across the ice on your hands and knees."

Photograph

Katarina Witt's controversial 1988 outfit. (Allsport USA)(pg.1); The designer Vera Wang has skated in national championships. (Edward Keating/The New York Times)(pg.6); Drawing: "The Making of an Outfit," This is the dress Nancy Kerrigan is expected to wear in her short program next week for the Olympic competition in ladies figure skating. It was created by the designer Vera Wang. The dress, one piece with briefs attached at the waist, took more than 50 hours to make and would sell for $9,600, if the designer had not donated it to the skater. It is all hand sewn. BODICE, SKIRT AND BRIEFS: two yards of white spandex, used on the reverse side for a matte finish. The skirt is made of double thickness and is six and a half inches in front, eight and a half in back. HALTER NECK AND BANDS UNDER ARMHOLE: black stretch velvet, which moves with the body and doesn't pull away when the skater raises or tucks her arms. SLEEVES: held in place by elastic loop around middle finger, to keep them from riding up. WRISTS: rhinestone and pearl "bracelets," hand-embroidered around the wrists. SHOULDERS, ARMS AND BACK: black sheer stretch Illusion, a see-through fabric that creates a sexy peekaboo effect. RIB CAGE AND ARMHOLES: reinforced with triple stitching in areas of greatest stress, with regular thread. (Vera Wang)(pg.6)