Our least favorite thing about costumes is when the MESH DOESN'T MESH. Too dark. Too light. Just not quite right. Bringing you some of our hand-picked mesh no-no moments.
Alisa Agafonova
Half of the Turkish Ice Dancing team with Alper Ucar has this clean-lined black bodice with beautiful bling bling on not skin tone mesh. How distracting! Can you imagine how rad it would’ve been if it looked like the jewels were sitting on your skin? Just dripping in bedazzlements. Your cousins, the Kardashians, are arguing about whether this fashion faux pas will work in their favor or not. Audible sigh.
Sara Hurtado
We’re not sure. Was the bottom supposed to mesh?
Evgeni Plushenko
Even the favorites fall victim to mesh that doesn’t mesh. We can still see your soul, Plushenko.
Carolina Kostner
This isn’t mesh, but you wore nude spankies that have bling on them. :(
Adelina Sotnikova
Not only did you mismatch your mesh once, you did it twice. You did it in your Short Skate. You did it in your Free Skate. Your leg tights, your neckline, your gloves (which make us cry) and your skin tone are all sorts of crazy different. Too red in the tights. Too brown in the neckline. The gloves are just no… No. Your tights went up off your skate. We’d be freaking out too. You may have won gold, but your mesh mishaps make us say “sashay away”.
This was one of those occasions where more bling was actually too much.
Bronze medalist Carolina Kostner, one of our favorites with her subtle blingitude, came out with this craziness at the Figure Skating Gala. It looked like a Swarovski sample catalogue. This is what these magical blings look like on nude mesh. Maybe if they had all been in one color of bling or a few colors of bling instead of all the Lucky Charms it would have worked… It was one of those instances where the sketch didn’t translate into real life. Her skirt was sitting up too high and then she had nude panty parts on her costume. It was all just so awkward that we had trouble watching her skate.
We know Johnny called it “Fabulous South Beach”, but we think he was being generous with that comment.
Carolina Kostner’s skate to Bolero was beautiful just like her and her choice in designer. Roberto Cavalli has designed Carolina’s costumes and it sure shows.
Just look at the subtle contrast between the mesh of her costume with opaque pieces and then the blingitude radiating from her. When she skates, the way she sparkles is just magblingficent. Such a nice juxtaposition to her short skate’s ethereal costume.
I’m just going to say now a significant portion of this will be me talking about Wakaba…
Entering the LP I thought “wow, the most nail-biting part of this will be seeing if South Korea can keep their two next spots for next year.”
I thought.
But I’m just going to say it now: South Korean ladies figure skating is on fire and only having one spot for next year… I mean? Will it go to Dabin? To Eun-soo? To someone else?! Ugh, stupid boots…
This is odd, but I was kind of rooting for Mariah Bell to pull through. I wasn’t expecting her to be one of the top two US ladies skaters, but… idk it’s super obvious that her coach has a lot of other skaters NathanAdamAshley and she’s just… there, meekly reminding USFS that she still exists.
Elizabet won my heart and it’s about 40% her skating to Celine Dion.
I raised an eyebrow at Viveca’s “Cinderella” LP partly because it showed me that it is possible to have a really good Cinderella music edit. (Side eyes Bradie Tennell’s choreographer/sound editor.)
So… I think Bradie’s uncharacteristic jump flubs at OG were a blessing because it felt like she got a bit more space to make her mark on her own terms. She’s beaten the other US ladies at OG and here and I’m excited about the opportunities she’s going to get firmly as US Senior Ladies’ Number One fingers crossed a better choreographer.
I hear Mirai isn’t retiring? Which, good, I want to see her pull out a 3A again in international competition.
WAKABOND.
I LOVE THIS PROGRAM SO MUCH. So this is the quick gush: it’s so well composed and the use of “Skyfall” was perfect. I love how the choreography constantly makes Wakaba go through several vertical planes and how it matches up with the music and the theme. That section in the step sequence where she’s spinning with her hands raised in finger guns and she then immediately drops down to her knees as Adele sings “when the sky falls”. “We will stand tall” as she collapses to one knee right in front of the judges. fucking genius.
And yes some of it is rather unimaginative. “Put your hand in my hand” while Wakaba throws out her hands and then clasps them together, but she fucking emotes, you can see the story there, this is not filler, she is truly a spy trying to get someone (JSU) out of a bad situation (only having two spots).
And that spiral position during “As the sky falls”? I swear it felt like I was seeing imaginary debris.
True star here was her jawline though. Wakaba acting like there were villains she was fending off and those sharp facial turns. THIS IS HOW YOU SELL CHOREOGRAPHY.
Honestly, the high was high.
Alina falling three times on her signature jumps was heartbreaking. The title was hers to lose and I feel like this is just going to be unnecessary fire for the Alina Haters/Evgenia Stans… when… Alina has been sick? With a cold? She’s exhausted? Let her enjoy her dog in peace!
I truly did think that Carolina would get the gold with how ready the judges seemed to reward her for… being 31, skating against these preteen phenoms, and holding her own. And when Alina fell… I didmessage a friend saying that Carolina Kostner could be the 2018 World Champion and we did have a minute just gushing about the possibility.
Oh well, her SP was fucking gorgeous.
Kaetlyn’s peak “Black Swan” was at the Olympics but I’m happy she finally has a world title.
Ugh Satoko. Her peak was also at the Olympics. I just want her to go home and rest and remember that she is a World Bronze Medallist.
It honestly never escapes me how many more titles and medals Kaetlyn and Satoko would have had their bodies not betrayed them and had Eteri not brought in her girls and absolutely exploited the system.
Tbqh I’m happy ISU is going to figure out how to tweak scoring this summer.
