Designs on ice

When you picture figure skaters with their graceful elegance, flawless lines and seamless packaging, it's hard to imagine that the biggest challenge facing their costume designer is hiding imperfections in their bodies.

Award-winning designer Jef Billings -- in his eighth year with "Stars on Ice," which comes to Albany's Pepsi Arena on Sunday -- spends a good portion of his time doing just that.

"There are few skaters where I can say to you, that I don't have to hide something," said Billings. "Because skaters have bad bodies."

Billings has spent years diminishing the look of the "little boy build" phenomenon: no hips and enlarged rib cages as a result of developing other muscle groups.

Originally from Utica, Billings earned a bachelor of fine arts in theater from State University College at Oswego and spent the early 1970s teaching high school drama. He then went on to run a small dinner theater and pursue an MFA in costume design from New York University.

After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, where he landed an assistant position to designer Bob Mackey on "The Carol Burnett Show" after less than a week in the city.

But it was getting his first professional job for Northwestern University that led him to a career in figure skating. They were airing a prime-time TV special celebrating famous drama club alumnae, including Ann-Margaret, Candace Bergen, Patricia Neal and Carol Lawrence.

"I designed two costumes for Lawrence," said Billings, "and her manager at the time really liked what I had done. ... Six months later, another client of his called me."

That client was Peggy Fleming. Billings went on to design for nearly every female Olympic champion since 1968, including Dorothy Hamill, Oksana Bauil, Kristi Yamaguchi and Tara Lipinski.

Still, he used to downplay the skating work: "I used to say I was a costume designer for Sandy Duncan or Lily Tomlin. But after the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan drama (at the '94 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway), skating really took off."

Billings became the go-to guy for figure skating costuming by designing for seven Disney specials, and his 1999 Emmy-winning creations for Target's "Snowden on Ice," starring Ekaterina Gordeeva and Scott Hamilton.

"TV variety shows didn't exist anymore, and skating specials became their equivalent," he explained. "Everyone got greedy and they flooded the market with skating. But the skaters can only train and choreograph a few numbers a year. So you would turn on a TV show and see Rudy Galindo do 'YMCA' for the hundredth time."

Though all costuming involves taking into consideration the person's body type, skating in particular has more requirements.

"When I put someone in an evening gown, I don't have to worry that they're going to turn upside down and their butt is going to show," Billings said. "Theatrical numbers typically have a character or persona to emulate, and skating usually surrounds a particular music."

Last year's "Stars on Ice" theme, inspired by the film "Moulin Rouge," was very costume-driven. Billings describes this year as "Power Skating": The show is coming off an Olympic year with five pairs teams and gold medalist Alexei Yagudin. Katarina Witt is the only female singles skater, so maintaining a feminine quality proved challenging.

"When you think about women's skating costumes, I'm dealing with an area from the crotch to the neck," Billings said. "When you're doing an evening gown or designing for a formal event, you can use long skirts, short skirts, full skirts or pants."

"A lot of the way an outfit looks in the end depends on the shoe -- whether it's a miniskirt with a high boot or a high-heeled shoe. ... No matter what I design, the skirt can only be a certain length and I have to be aware of the physicality of the movement and allow for flexibility."

"It has to be durable, because it's going to be on and off their body 70 times in three months," he said. "It's going to be packed wet and have to be dry-cleaned or washed in a locker room a hundred times."

The individual skaters have no say over the group costume designs, but Billings tries to work with their concerns for their individual numbers. "All of the skaters in some form of another have their own insecurities," he said.

"Jenni Meno is very self-conscious about her hips and butt, where as some skaters are preoccupied with skirt length and covering their thighs ... (so) Meno's costume might be cut to fall over her hips a little softer than someone else's," Billings explained. "While Yamaguchi -- who has no butt -- doesn't care about the length. But she doesn't want it too tight across her backside."

On the other hand, he said, "It's harder to get diversity with the men. But I never have to worry about things like the length of the guys' pants, if their crotches are going to show or their busts are going to fall out."

Billings had the honor of creating the design for Sarah Hughes' Olympic performance in Salt Lake City, and has been asked to design her outfit for the World Figure Skating Championships in Washington, D.C., next month. "Competitive clothing is more difficult for a number of reasons," Billings said. "Other than dance -- and I think dance costumes are ludicrous -- you can't make it too costumey."

Billings is working on a tell-all book, with the tentative title "I've Seen them All Naked," and likens his profession to that of a hairdresser.

"We're like hairdressers and psychologists," Billings said. "In a fitting room, most people will tell you anything.

"As a designer, I not only see them physically naked, but I see them emotionally naked," he said. " ... There's a huge range of emotion. People are very forthcoming when you're working on their hair and costumes. You see them at their most vulnerable and insecure moments and their proudest moments."

And their most embarrassing moments: "There's the time Dorothy Hamill was skating in Vegas and her breast fell out of one of my costumes," said Billings. "Everybody likes to read about that stuff."

COLD SNAP

"SMUCKER'S STARS ON ICE"

When: 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Pepsi Arena, Albany

Tickets: $36, $46 and $56