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On the Ice => Sitting on the Boards Rink Side => Topic started by: AgnesNitt on June 07, 2013, 08:46:57 PM

Title: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: AgnesNitt on June 07, 2013, 08:46:57 PM
What skating was like in the 40's. This picture shows the typical underpinnings.

(http://www.corsetiere.net/Spirella/LGC_1940_skaters.jpg)
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: 4711 on June 08, 2013, 12:00:04 AM
not just for skating!

with a summer average of WELL over 80....yes, I am counting....although, I am sure it made for a nice, shapely figure! :)
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: fsk8r on June 08, 2013, 12:48:11 AM
I wonder when the boots started being white?
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: AgnesNitt on June 08, 2013, 04:36:44 PM
I wonder when the boots started being white?

Sonja Henie started the fashion, but they seem to have come in black for ladies for years afterwards. I don't know when it became traditional for girls to skate in white.

I just wanted to add, I had to wear a back corset for a sprain for a couple of weeks, I think a girdle like that might have helped.
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: Kitten23 on June 10, 2013, 11:22:35 AM
I wear something similar to a truss when I skate thanks to back issues.  So pretty under fancy skating clothes. 88)
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: rosereedy on June 10, 2013, 12:57:20 PM
Reminds me of the girdle/compression garment I had to wear after my tummy tuck and lipo surgery.  Looked just like that minus the stocking holder things.
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: Doubletoe on June 10, 2013, 02:09:23 PM
Hmm. . . Sonja Henie was already wearing panty hose and a skirted leotard in the 1930's . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCvz0r_dKpA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCvz0r_dKpA)
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: Kitten23 on June 10, 2013, 02:41:22 PM
But that's Sonia while in a (I think) Warner Brothers movie.  They had access to costumes and underpinnings that the average woman didn't, even if she was an Olympic Skater.
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: Doubletoe on June 11, 2013, 02:55:59 PM
But that's Sonia while in a (I think) Warner Brothers movie.  They had access to costumes and underpinnings that the average woman didn't, even if she was an Olympic Skater.

But you'll see that Cecilia Colledge in the 1936 Olympics wore something very similar (see video below).  It's quite possible that they wore garters and stockings for figures, but I find it hard to imagine women ever wearing them when skating in freestyle competitions where they had to do spirals and spins!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOq6pFqMY1Q (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOq6pFqMY1Q)
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: AgnesNitt on June 11, 2013, 04:56:57 PM
But you'll see that Cecilia Colledge in the 1936 Olympics wore something very similar (see video below).  It's quite possible that they wore garters and stockings for figures, but I find it hard to imagine women ever wearing them when skating in freestyle competitions where they had to do spirals and spins!


I happened to read a few days ago about Sonja wearing tights for her first movie. I think it was $35 a day for 3 pairs of hose a day. That's $400-600 in today's money.

I think Cecilia may be bare legged.
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: techskater on June 11, 2013, 09:19:50 PM
More than likely she was.  My coach went bare legged outside in the winter in the 60s
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: blue111moon on June 12, 2013, 07:44:22 AM
Carol Heiss has talked about skating bare-legged outdoors in Lake Placid.  I'm guessing that was the norm for the time. 
ETA:  Also it wasn't until 1959 that Dupont created the stretch nylon fiber that made pantyhose and tights possible.  It was the mini-skirts of the '60 that popularized tights and pantyhose.
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: Doubletoe on June 12, 2013, 06:17:22 PM
I happened to read a few days ago about Sonja wearing tights for her first movie. I think it was $35 a day for 3 pairs of hose a day. That's $400-600 in today's money.

I think Cecilia may be bare legged.

Yikes, I can't even imagine how cold they must have been, especially when you factor in the wind chill outdoors!  Shivering legs make it awfully hard to skate (Can you imagine doing figures with knees knocking together?).  Those women were incredible!
Title: Re: Count your blessings ladies
Post by: Neverdull44 on June 13, 2013, 10:12:44 AM
No tights?  What about when they fell?  Ice burn.  >:(