So before I commented on Fumie Suguri's Halloween SP dress, but after seeing her LP dress, I think I know what's going on here. Aside from the orange fixation, Fumie's two dresses seem to be the poor man's versions of two of my all-time favourite costumes, worn by Sasha Cohen mainly in the 2002-03 season. See what I mean:




This is more than just a slight resemblance. Especially the LP dress, that's a blatant rip-off of Sasha's Rachmaninoff dress, also known as The Dress. I don't know how Sasha pulls off putting purple, orange and gold together, but she does. Sasha's dress works because the purple is a bluish shade that constrasts quite nicely with the splashy orange skirt, and the gilt-edged plunge neckline is exquisitely designed. Fumie's dress, while not awful, misses the mark because, although it's hard to tell with these pics, the purple of her dress isn't quite as blue as Sasha's, and it looks funny with the pale orange. And the gold-embroirdered neckline isn't nearly as nice. Granted, Fumie's hair looked very cute, and her dress really isn't all that bad, but not up to her usual standards.

The SP dress isn't as obvious a copy of Sasha's Malaguena dress as the LP dress is of the Rachmaninoff dress, and I probably wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the aforementioned similarity. But the all black with a bright underskirt of Fumie's dress certainly seems to take its inspiration from Sasha's dress. Now, my question is, who is responsible for this costume-copping? Was it the work of a lazy costume designer, or was Fumie deliberately paying homage to two of Sasha's classic dresses? If so, it's too bad that Fumie's dresses comes across as deeply discounted versions of Sasha's. 

[Photos: Sasha - Jay Adeff; Fumie - Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images]

Meanwhile, for the second straight weekend, one of my favourite costumes has gone tragically unphotographed. This time 'round it was American Alissa Czisny, who wore a cute, chic, black-and-white strapless number to complement her music from the Sabrina soundtrack. Channeling Audrey Hepburn is always a good idea, especially if you have the fresh-scrubbed sweetness to pull it off. Anyway, I'm sure pictures of Alissa in this dress will be far easier to track down this season than photos of Kiira Korpi might be. Still, the moral of the story is, the photographers should take shots of all the skaters, not just the ones they feel like.

Aside from being happy that Canada finished 1-2 stop the ice dance podium (with my favourites Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir [could they get any cuter?!] taking silver in their first Grand Prix event!), I'm actually astounded at how nice Tessa's and Marie-France Dubreuil's FD dresses were. These dresses deserve big, detailed photos:


In the few short years I've been watching them, despite their youth, Tessa Virtue and her adorable partner Scott Moir, have managed to take the crown of best-dressed ice dancers out there, and quite possibly the best of all figure skating disciplines. Basically every costume Tessa wears is exquisite, and Scott's simple, dapper ensembles are a welcome respite from the suffocating ruffles, sequins and unrestrained frouff we see from other male dancers. Tessa's periwinkle frock features a tasteful square neck on an elegantly embroidered bodice with sweet cap sleeves. The open (but not too open back) is punctated with a pretty bow in tonal ribbons. If Tessa keeps this up, she's heading towards Shae-Lynn Bourne territory.

The other couple du jour is of course gold-medal winners Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, who will tentatively take the title for most-improved costume-wise (and possibly skating-wise too). These two have made some incredibly dodgy choices in the past, but recently have been spot-on sartiorally speaking. Gone are the days of misguided First Nations homage, dominatrix tango dancer, and shredded kimono sleeves (and subsequent Olympic wardrobe malfunction). Instead we have sumptuous frocks for Marie-France and natty evening ensembles for Patrice. Marie-France's jaw-droppingly gorgeous cream dress was the perfect choice for the music, "At Last". I love the beaded straps and criss-cross back, the mini-ruffles on the sweetheart neckline, the luxurious bodice embroidery, and the drop-waisted sash/bow. Also note the soft, multi-layered skirt. Genius design, I say. All in all, it was a good night for Canadians. And I'm in love with these costumes so much that I'll probably just keep posting photos from every competition these folks enter.



[Photos: Skate Canada - Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images; D&L #1 - Gérard Châtaigneau; D&L #2 - Susan D. Russell; D&L #3 - Margaret Burwell -- All 3 D&L photos found at their official website]