Reflective revealed

The item in my earlier photograph is one of the gauntlets that were part of the ice-show costume described in this previous post.

I thought I had lost it. I was surprised to find it in my mother's house. It must have come with a pile of stuff when I moved out of my New York apartment, to my parents' home in New Jersey and then, just like everything else, packed and shipped to Texas, some thirty years ago.


Here are the gauntlets, elbow-high with cuffs of magenta sequins and rhinestones. They are made of a kind of chain-mail, heavy and supple. One is turned so you can see the zipper on the underside of the wrist. They are so tiny I couldn't get my hand inside.



The skirt is a fall of strung bugle beads attached to a draped waist.

Beneath the skirt, flesh-colored chiffon panties glitter with individually sewn beads.


Here's a headdress crest - I don't have the thing it attaches to. It's hard to tell whether it goes across the head or whether it works like a Mohawk haircut, front to back.


Here's a detail of the crest and its applied decorative glitter. Bit of glitter are glued into the feathers, too.


I was unable to get a good overall photo of the bra with its silver paillettes, but here is a shot of the inside of the garment - the flesh-colored bra is structural. The decorative cover overlays it, fastening separately, so that it doesn't take the strain from the skater's movements.


All the hardware is heavy-duty, and sewn on strongly by hand. The elastic is reinforced by a criss-cross stitching. It's interesting to see how sturdy these fantastic things had to be, in order to work during a show.


The piece is fragile, the weight of the beading pulls at the skirt's delicate chiffon underbody, easily tearing it. I would be frightened to try to put it on.

I had already accepted the loss of my ice show costume long ago, so finding it again was both nostalgic and meaningless to me. It remained behind, and will be sold with the other items at my mom's house later this spring. If someone really wants to buy it, email me and I will provide contact info for the sale.