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Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Columbus fashion designer skates into the national spotlight by creating costume for defending champion
10tv.com: When Austin Tootle was asked to design a costume for 16-year-old U.S. national skating champion Isabeau Levito, he was stunned.
“I mean, she's number one in the USA to go to the Olympics. So, if it does, well, then I could be a figure skater designer to an Olympic designer,’ he said.
3 comments:
Ana Schroeder
said...
I know absolutely nothing about figure skating, much less figure skating fashion. I enjoyed getting to delve into this article especially because the customer, an Olympic-bound athlete, is 16 years old. I find it so interesting to design for that age as teens are very conscious of their bodies and have very specific likes and dislikes. However once you a certain what the customer wants, the designer has to cater to that while also catering to their personal style as well as making a piece appropriate and professional-looking figure skating attire. I loved how collaborative the design seemed and you can tell that both the designer and the customer trust each other. I also know that the physical demands of figure skating are extreme. So the material must be able to hold up to the physical demands. I enjoyed the comment on the rhinestones as I had no idea that costumes shrink when rhinestoned.
This article opened my eyes to all the possibilities and opportunities within fashion design. I want to go into costume design and specifically, I’m really interested in doing costume design for ballet because that’s one of my favorite art forms and I have a lot of respect and admiration for it. However, I never thought of designing for a different artistic sport kike figure skating. This is probably the only Olympic sport I watched during the Winter Olympics so I’ve seen a lot of videos but I actually don’t really know anything about it really. I went skating for the first time last month and I thought I was going to die. Costume designing for a movement-heavy activity like figure skating must be so different. I thought it was interesting how he talked about how clothing is also about the way it moves on the body and not just how it looks. It’s also really cool that it seems to be a collaborative effort between the designer, the figure skater, and all of the assistant designers that actually do the construction of the piece.
I’ll admit that I’m disappointed that this article didn’t have a picture of the costume created for this competition, but I am excited to see it debut nonetheless. This idea of costume designing for figure skating competitions makes complete sense to me. They are very theatrical events in nature, and skating along to music has always striked me as similar to dance performances (with the added bonus of knives on your feet). Figure skating outfits are always so pretty to look at, and I’m excited to see what a figure skating outfit designed by someone with a theatrical background will look like. Designing outfits that are pretty, unique, and able to tell a story is difficult enough to do without having to factor in the ability to have it be in a costume that is also able to be used by an athlete that jumps, twirls, and contorts their body in various ways competitively.
3 comments:
I know absolutely nothing about figure skating, much less figure skating fashion. I enjoyed getting to delve into this article especially because the customer, an Olympic-bound athlete, is 16 years old. I find it so interesting to design for that age as teens are very conscious of their bodies and have very specific likes and dislikes. However once you a certain what the customer wants, the designer has to cater to that while also catering to their personal style as well as making a piece appropriate and professional-looking figure skating attire. I loved how collaborative the design seemed and you can tell that both the designer and the customer trust each other. I also know that the physical demands of figure skating are extreme. So the material must be able to hold up to the physical demands. I enjoyed the comment on the rhinestones as I had no idea that costumes shrink when rhinestoned.
This article opened my eyes to all the possibilities and opportunities within fashion design. I want to go into costume design and specifically, I’m really interested in doing costume design for ballet because that’s one of my favorite art forms and I have a lot of respect and admiration for it. However, I never thought of designing for a different artistic sport kike figure skating. This is probably the only Olympic sport I watched during the Winter Olympics so I’ve seen a lot of videos but I actually don’t really know anything about it really. I went skating for the first time last month and I thought I was going to die. Costume designing for a movement-heavy activity like figure skating must be so different. I thought it was interesting how he talked about how clothing is also about the way it moves on the body and not just how it looks. It’s also really cool that it seems to be a collaborative effort between the designer, the figure skater, and all of the assistant designers that actually do the construction of the piece.
I’ll admit that I’m disappointed that this article didn’t have a picture of the costume created for this competition, but I am excited to see it debut nonetheless. This idea of costume designing for figure skating competitions makes complete sense to me. They are very theatrical events in nature, and skating along to music has always striked me as similar to dance performances (with the added bonus of knives on your feet). Figure skating outfits are always so pretty to look at, and I’m excited to see what a figure skating outfit designed by someone with a theatrical background will look like. Designing outfits that are pretty, unique, and able to tell a story is difficult enough to do without having to factor in the ability to have it be in a costume that is also able to be used by an athlete that jumps, twirls, and contorts their body in various ways competitively.
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