Just as New York’s Olympus Fashion week winds down to an end, the start of another fashion showcase will be kicking off over in Italy. I’m talking about the 20th Olympic Winter Games of course. WWD reported Thursday that designers Giorgio Armani, Moschino, and Roberto Cavalli will be dressing several of the Olympic teams next week, and that costume designer Gabriella Pescucci will be dressing the Italian team for the opening ceremony.

The paper also reported that clothing boutiques in Turin are preparing themselves for sporting fans that may want to take advantage of their time in their city and stock up on fine Italian fashions.

But for those of use who follow the bizarre world of fashion news, the real fashion showcase this month will be on the ice during the women’s figure skating competition. It’s no secret that the event is one of the Winter Olmypic’s most popular spectacles, whether more for the off-the-ice drama, the fancy jumps and twirls, or the outfits the ice skaters wear is up for debate. Some lucky skaters with connections (or more money maybe) get their duds specially made by big time fashion designers like Vera Wang or Mark Bouwar, but for the rest, its just sparkles and spandex. In a recent article titled, “Bad Taste? Go Figure,”: Guy Trebay railed:

"Of all Olympic sports, figure skating remains a mystifying holdout of supremely bad taste in sports, with athletes competing in presentations that favor bugle beads, tassels, fringe, hair extensions (that's the men) and costumes that often seem designed to invoke a Moscow Circus send-up of 'Showgirls.'"

Bravo’s hit show Project Runway recently aired an episode in which the weekly challenge for contestants was to design a figure skating outfit (timed nicely, I believe, to coincide with the build up to the Olympics). Their finished pieces were judged with words like, “vulgar,” “over the top.” One columnist for the Village Voice commented on the show and gave a run down of fashion’s influence on figure skating, and vice versa.

"The truth is, there's hardly anything trendier than old school figure skating style these days. Think of all the leggings and leg warmers girls are wearing, and the ballerina shrugs, and sequins!"

Some seem to love it, some hate it, and others just find it fun and a source for inspiration. As long as the ice skaters are comfortable and nothing falls embarassingly out of place, I say let the fashion fly.