For silver medal-winning Olympic figure skater Karen Chen, her custom costume holds an extra-special sentimental touch for the star.
In a video shared on Team USA’s Instagram account, the 22-year-old explained the details of her pretty purple costume, revealing that her mom actually designed the look.
“She probably does 90 percent of the work and I do like 10 percent and by 10 percent I just tell her like, ‘Oh that looks good,'” Chen said. Adding that her mom puts “blood, sweat, and tears into” her costumes.
What’s even more special is that her mom added a sweet touch to the look by a strategically-placing stones to look like a butterfly. “My free program I’m skating to a ‘Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto’ and so I just want to be a pretty butterfly on the ice,” Chen said.
During her time on the Olympic ice she performed in a slightly tweaked version of purple butterfly costume from the one in the video (which she wore during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January). She also chose a darker black long-sleeve design with matching gloves and dark blue crystal embroidery down the middle for her second appearance at the games.
The Olympics butterfly brought her good luck, with the athlete winning a silver medal in the team event.
She took to Instagram to celebrate her big win writing, “truly what a journey of so many emotions these past few days. 🤧 so proud & thankful to be a part of this team! 🇺🇸✨ #WinterOlympics.”
While Chen’s costume brought the sentimentality, we rounded up other dazzling ice skating costumes from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games that deserve a second look. Catch up on the minimal and sleek costumes from Nathan Chen to the colorful creations from Russia’s team here.
