Skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo may represent China in the Olympics, but they wear American-designed costumes.

The simple, striking royal purple and black ensembles the duo wore in Saturday's short program came from designer Jef Billings, who also outfitted American singles skaters Todd Eldredge and Sarah Hughes. In addition to the Olympians, Mr. Billings designed the costumes for the Target Stars on Ice show, which is scheduled for Gund Arena in Cleveland on March 1 and the Palace of Auburn Hills near Detroit on March 2.

For the competitors, Mr. Billings has a specific goal: to highlight the athletes and their feats. For that reason, he prefers the clean lines that the Chinese duo wore Saturday.

"She didn't have a lot of fabric flying off her," he said in a telephone interview Monday. "Both [costumes] were pretty body-conscious. I thought they looked great."

"With amateurs, I try to make them look less costumed than they would in a show," he said. "You want to showcase a person's skating as much as possible."

There's also a certain amount of playing to the judges, he added. "In a competition, you are constantly aware of what judges like or don't like."

When he designs a costume, Mr. Billings considers three main factors: the costume's comfort and flexibility, the program's music, and the skater's appearance.

"In competition, almost everything is superseded by comfort and the weight of the costume," he said. "In Stars on Ice, I can be more flexible, maybe a skirt can be heavier. They don't jump in the opening, so a few years ago, I put all the girls in leather pants."

Costumes must match the mood of the music. Sequined zebra stripes would not work with a dreamy selection, and a flowing, romantic chiffon costume would clash with a fast-paced song. In fact, when Mr. Billings watches figure skating, he considers how well the costume is suited to the music - "Does it enhance or detract?"

The final leg of the design tripod is the skater's body and appearance. While many spectators may not figure that fit, slim skaters could have figure flaws, they do, Mr. Billings said.

"In competitions, I make the skaters look as well as they can look. Some have sloping shoulders, some carry more weight in their hips," he said. That means he gives as much consideration to necklines, shapes, and pants as any fashion designer - and possibly more.

With Shen and Zhao, his goal was to accentuate the man's shoulders and upper body and give him a classic wedge shape. With her, "I just wanted it to be simple and fit well, enhance the program, and connect her to him."

"I have very, very strong opinions about what people should wear," he added. "If you look at Russian skaters and the Europeans, the costumes are much busier, much more elaborate" than the typical American skater's attire. "I find it distracting."

And he doesn't mince words about the fashion victims and villains he has seen on the ice.

"I'm just not a fan of the long shredded skirt," he said. "In one competition, every girl looked like she was in the gym scene from the movie Carrie. I was looking for dripping blood!

"And all of the dance guys these days . . . they have to have a long ponytail. I heard there's one skater who has a weave, a ponytail woven into his own hair. I don't know what that's about. I guess the Russians have been more successful, and they have ponytails, so now everybody's trying to look that way."

Although Mr. Billings has designed costumes for many years - he got his start as an assistant to Bob Mackie on The Carol Burnett Show - even he slips every so often.

A few years ago, in Mr. Billings' second year with Target Stars on Ice, he decided to design the women's costumes to make them look as if they had been dusted with diamonds and gold. He dressed the men in black and gold. He had just two weeks to make all the costumes, and he never had a chance to see the costumes on the women on the ice under the lights.

The group arrived at Lake Placid, N.Y., the day after Thanksgiving, ready to be videotaped the following Sunday. They donned their costumes and skated onto the ice, as Mr. Billings and producer Sandra Bezic watched.

"The guys came out and looked handsome," he recalled. "The girls come out, and I know I'm in trouble. I had eight girls who looked like they had no busts and were six months pregnant. Their skirts were sticking up, the diamonds were catching on the fabric. And the lights were yellow, the wrong color.

"On the loudspeaker, I heard Sandra's voice: 'Jef, could you come up here?' It was a huge disaster. I had 48 hours to salvage or re-create these costumes."

It was after 7 p.m. in New York. He called a fabric shop in Los Angeles that had not yet closed, and asked them to ship overnight yards of black silk. When he received the fabric Saturday morning, he replaced everything below the chest level with silk and Lycra.

"They looked like cocktail dresses that were heavily beaded on top," he said. "We were all thrilled with how it ultimately looked.

"It was my biggest disaster and my biggest success in problem solving."

First Published February 13, 2002, 7:24 p.m.