American figure skater Karen Chen, 22, has been competing at the 2022 Olympics in dresses designed by mostly her mother, NBC Los Angeles, reports.
“It’s hard to explain, but I just feel the best when I wear them,” Chen said, according to the New York Times.
The 22-year-old Olympian figure skater helped Team USA win a silver medal in the team competition last week with her performances in the short program and the free skate.
The purple dress she wore at her free skate performance “Butterfly’s Lovers’ Concerto” was handmade and arranged to perfection by her mother.
“She, like, strategically picked the stones and arranged them in a way so it looks like a butterfly because my free program I’m skating to a ‘Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto,'” Chen said, according to Insider. “I just want to be a pretty butterfly on the ice.”
Chen’s mother, Hsui-Hui Tseng, started making performance dresses for her daughter from very early on in Chen’s skating career. Although Tseng did buy pre-made dresses for Chen in the beginning, Chen complained a lot about the fabric.
“Her body is very sensitive, and so her dresses need to fit in a certain way,” Tseng told the New York Times. “So I said, ‘I’ll see what I can do’ and solved that issue on my own.”
Tseng has put a large effort into creating a new dress for Chen’s women’s single free skate happening on Thursday this week. Tseng worked hard to create something special for Chen, who is planning to retire soon from international competition.
“I barely slept at all, but I wanted to make something really special,” Tseng told the New York Times. “I know in the future I won’t have this chance because she will have a different life, and I will miss this.”
Chen plans to wear this new dress for her upcoming performance on Thursday.
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