Mirai Nagasu

I designed the wine-colored figure skating dress shown for International figure skating medalist, Mirai Nagasu’s short program in 2016.

Mirai, her choreographer, Jeffrey Buttle, and her coach, Tom Zakrajsek, chose Chopin’s Nocturne in C Sharp Minor for her short program. Classical music has always played an integral part in the history of figure skating, with skaters and choreographers around the world choosing from among the most well-known pieces. This piece, although it has certainly been used before, is a little more obscure in terms of it’s use for a skating program. It is a beautiful, romantic piece and we both felt that an updated classical dress design would be best.

We had quite a few discussions back and forth regarding this design. We both loved the idea of a dramatic, cascading necklace, but felt that the stoning pattern on the body of the dress should have a thorny, vine-like look to it, rather than a classic scroll pattern. During the production process, no detail was overlooked – including matching the flesh mesh color to Mirai’s exact skin tone.

In the end, the dress was absolutely stunning on Mirai, and we both have been amazed at the amount of positive comments it has garnered since it’s debut.