Agnes Zawadzki

This dress was designed for Agnes Zawadzki’s 2010 long program to one of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodys.

We wanted to get as close to a traditional Hungarian dress as we could without overwhelming the dress with detail. Agnes is Polish and she really loved this music, so I wanted to be as authentic as I could with the design.  I dyed the fabric to get a darker red color since I was unable to find a hue of red that I felt suited Agnes’ skin tone. We decided on adding the fringe, and since I didn’t want this to look like a ‘jazzy’ fringe, I hand-knotted random areas of the skirt.  I felt the design had to include a floral element to stay true to the Hungarian style, but adding flowers of any kind to a skating dress is tricky. It is very easy to get a look that is too juvenile for a Senior Lady skater.

Agnes and I both loved the end result and we received quite a few positive comments on the dress. I have since done a number of Hungarian Rhapsody dresses that use some of these same details.