2006 Olympic Gala I really don't have the time to carefully dissect the fashion disaster that was the Olympic exhibition, so I'm going to economize. As for the gala itself, not bad, although I almost fell asleep. Skaters need to come up with more non-Josh Groban/Sarah Brightman/slow operatic ballads. So thank you to Jeff, Sasha, and a few select others for picking more lively music.



Unsurpringly, my pick of the night was worn by Sasha Cohen. This isn't just a favourite-skater bias, I do think she has very good taste in costumes. This is a great shot of Sasha's amazing Russian split from her Don't Rain on My Parade (from Funny Girl!) program. I like this dress because it's simple yet glitzy enough for an exhibition program. That's a beautiful shade of blue that you don't see much, and the keyhole cutouts at the neckline look pretty cool.



While Shizuka Arakawa's dress, which looks suspiciously like she just wrapped a scarf around her chest, certainly wasn't the worst of the night, I'm featuring it because it could've been so much better. Shi-chan also chose a great shade of blue, which looks even better up close because you can see the rich swirls in the fabric. The fabric and colour is right, but the design is tacky. Without that enormous diamond-shaped midriff cutout, this would have been a gorgeous dress. I don't even mind the side cutouts. What could have been a classic dress for Shizuka goes into the all-too-common Vegas showgirl style of figure skating fashion faux pas's, all because she lost the middle of her dress.  ¶ 9:46 AM