36 of the most daring figure-skating costumes of all time
Lia Ryerson,Talia Lakritz
- The ISU dress code dictates that figure skaters have to cover their hips, midriffs, and behinds.
- Many figure skaters wear outfits with illusion panels that appear sheer.
In 1986, Katarina Witt's polychromatic costume featured a bare midriff.
Witt won the silver medal at the 1986 World Figure Skating Championships.
Witt's blue dress at the 1988 Olympics is the reason figure skating now has a dress code.
"The Katarina Rule" dictates that women's hips, midriffs, and behinds are covered.
Her red dress with a sheer chest panel at the 1988 Olympics abided by the Katarina Rule.
Witt took home the gold medal at the 1988 Games.
Laëtitia Hubert's mostly sheer dress was decorated with strategically placed flames over her midriff and chest in 1992.
The 1992 World Junior champion skated to the song "Dead Can Dance" by Rakim.
Russia's Oksana Grichtchuk's studded black costume in 1994 was unusually rock 'n' roll for figure skating.
Grichtchuk and Yevgeny Platov won the gold medal at the 1994 Olympics with routines set to "Rock Around the Clock" and "I Will Always Love You."
Surya Bonaly, the only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on one blade, wore a costume decorated with fringe, as well as a plunging neckline and beads, in 1998.
Fringe is risky to wear on the ice, because ISU guidelines state that points will be deducted if a part of a skater's costume becomes detached.
Tae Hwa Yang and Chuen Gun Lee's costumes at the 2002 Olympics featured a wild zebra print.
The ice-dancing pair placed 24th at the 2002 Games.
Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio's flapper-inspired costumes reflected the character of their music.
The ice-dancing pair won the bronze medal.
Galit Chait wore a red dress with a daring thigh slit in her 2002 Olympic performance with Sergei Sakhnovski.
The Israeli ice dancers finished sixth.
Tanith Belbin's bedazzled red dress and Benjamin Agosto's plunging neckline pushed the boundaries of the ISU dress code at the 2006 Games.
Belbin and Agosto were silver medalists at the 2006 Games.
Sarah Meier's one-piece with a flesh-colored side panel gave the illusion of a mostly bare torso in 2006.
Meier of Switzerland wore the ensemble to the Exhibition of Champions for the 2006 Skate America figure-skating competition, where she placed fourth.
The front of Isabelle Delobel's neon yellow outfit consisted of a sheer panel and sparkles, while her skating partner Olivier Schoenfelder wore a matching bandana.
Delobel and Schoenfelder finished just shy of the podium in fourth place at the 2006 Olympics.
Russia's Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov skated in barely there cheetah-print costumes at the 2006 Games.
Navka and Kostomarov won the gold medal.
Shizuka Arakawa's deep blue dress featured multiple sheer cutouts at the 2006 Olympics.
Arakawa became the first Japanese skater to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating, and she won Japan's only medal in the 2006 Games.
Tanith Belbin's bright pink costume from 2007 didn't feature the standard illusion panels that allow these outfits to skirt the modesty rules.
Illusion panels are often sewn into figure-skating costumes to skirt the ISU rule that states, "The clothing must not give the effect of excessive nudity inappropriate for the discipline."
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder's coordinating outfits in 2007 were risky due to all the detachable fringe and beading.
They would have faced deductions if any beads or fringe came loose.
Aliona Savchenko's 2008 gleaming turquoise two-piece was held together with plenty of sheer paneling.
Savchenko and her skating partner Robin Szolkowy won the gold medal in pairs figure skating at the World Figure Skating Championships that year.
China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao's coordinating costumes in 2009 were mostly made of sheer fabric.
Dan and Hao didn't place at Skate America, but they previously won silver at the 2006 Games in Torino.
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy's shiny, bright outfits and multiple cutouts were hard to miss at the 2009 ISU European figure-skating championships.
Savchenko and Szolkowy took home the gold medal.
Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin's "Aborigine-inspired" outfits at the 2010 Games were deemed offensive.
Domnina and Shabalin purported the outfits were Aboriginal-inspired, but they were instead denounced as offensive and exploitative.
Bev Manton, chairwoman of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, called the costumes "no more authentic or Aboriginal than the shiploads of cheap Aboriginal tourist trinkets that pour into our country from overseas" in an editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Additionally, the ISU states: "At ISU Championships, the Olympic Winter Games, and International Competitions, the clothing of the Competitors must be modest, dignified and appropriate for athletic competition — not garish or theatrical in design. Clothing may, however, reflect the character of the music chosen."
Miki Ando's Cleopatra-inspired blue dress relied on sheer fabric and cutouts to stay in place during her 2010 routine.
Ando's outfit paid tribute to her music choice of "Mission Cleopatra."
The long, sheer panel down the bodice of Cynthia Phaneuf's dress strategically held the entire costume together.
Phaneuf, a figure skater competing for Canada, finished in 12th place at the 2010 Games.
Russia's Oksana Domnina wore a daring dress held together by illusion panels while skating with Maxim Shabalin at the 2010 Olympics.
The pair won bronze at the 2010 Games.
Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski's fiery, sheer costumes at the 2010 Olympics were comprised of illusion bodices, vibrant flames, and sheer paneling.
The ice dancers came in ninth place.
Ksenia Makarova's purple dress with an illusion panel drew attention to the decorative design on her bodice at the 2010 Olympics.
Makarova finished in 10th place at the 2010 Olympics.
Johnny Weir's glimmering, sheer black suit at the 2010 US Figure Skating Championships was designed to dazzle.
Weir told Philly Mag, "I'm very flamboyant, I have a crazy dress sense."
He won the bronze medal at the 2010 US Figure Skating Championships.
Germany's Nelli Zhiganshina wore a plunging white leotard with sheer paneling at the 2014 Games.
Zhiganshina and her skating partner Alexander Gazsi — who wore a sweater vest, shirt, and bow tie — finished in 11th place, and the German figure-skating team placed eighth.
Kexin Zhang's strapless dress gave the illusion of completely bare — albeit glimmering — shoulders as she competed for China in 2014.
Zhang finished in 15th at the 2014 Games, while Team China placed seventh.
Shizuka Arakawa wore a light blue dress with criss-crossing straps of fabric in 2015.
It was a similar design to the dress Arakawa wore at the 2006 Olympics.
Mao Asada's mostly sheer costume at Skate America in 2016 featured abstract black cutouts over the bodice.
Asada came in sixth place at the event.
Ashley Wagner's outfit made it appear as though she was only wearing one sleeve.
Wagner's outfit actually incorporated a deep illusion sleeve and plunging bodice. She was featured in a body-positivity issue of ESPN in 2017.
Yura Min's red dress came unclasped while she skated at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, but she completed the rest of the routine without a hitch.
The South Korean Olympic skater handled the wardrobe malfunction with aplomb, knowing that stopping to fix it would only cost her and her partner, Alexander Gamelin.
Min told The Detroit Free Press' Jeff Seidel that she was holding up her costume by keeping her arms tight to her body.
"I was like, 'Oh no!' If that comes undone, the whole thing could just pop off," she said. "I was terrified the entire program."
Mae Berenice Meite made waves in Pyeongchang when she performed her short program in pants.
Meite's unitard featured a jeweled bodice and black pants — a rarity in women's figure skating.
US figure skater Ashley Cain-Gribble also wore pants to the 2022 US Figure Skating Championships, where she and skating partner Timothy LeDuc won gold.
Katharina Mueller and Tim Dieck of Germany competed in the 2022 Olympics with costumes inspired by the Joker and Harley Quinn characters.
The pair skated to a jazz version of "Toxic" by Britney Spears.
French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron wore matching outfits consisting mostly of sheer illusion panels at the 2022 Games.
Papadakis and Cizeron are widely considered the gold medal favorites.
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