Olympic Figure Skater Karen Chen's Butterfly Dress Was Designed By Her Mom

After winning her first silver medal, Karen Chen took to Team USA’s Instagram account to give fans a closer look at the skater dress her mom made

Karen Chen was fighting some nerves before completing her program in the figure skating team event. She had aggravated an ankle injury on the ice warming up before the performance. Her last go at the Winter Games hadn’t been her best, and she felt like she had a lot to prove.

Fortunately, Chen took to the ice in a skater dress custom-made and designed by her mom — a lavender, long-sleeved dress with an intricate pattern of crystal butterflies and flowers in a deep V formation — and nailed her event, securing the silver medal for Team USA in the figure skating event.

“I’m wearing my figure skating dress that my mom [Hsiu-Hui Tseng] actually made for me,” Chen explained. “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.’ ”

“She does all the hard work, and she puts like… blood, sweat, and tears into it,” Chen continued as we got a closer look at all the intricate details her mom included on the front of the dress. The amount of patience to thread some of those smaller crystals or beads already has our head spinning.

Chen’s favorite part of her custom outfit are the butterflies, which are a tribute to the song Chen skated to in the team event

“I think my favorite part is this butterfly down here, 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’ and so I just want to be a pretty butterfly on the ice.”

Chen placed fourth with her program with a score of 131.52. After all was said and done, the Olympic medalist took to her personal Instagram to celebrate her team’s victory.

“Truly what a journey of so many emotions these past few days. 🤧 so proud & thankful to be a part of this team! 🇺🇸✨ #WinterOlympics” she captured a set of photos of her on the ice, including one of her in the butterfly dress. She also shared a photo during one of her earlier programs, along with a snap of her with other members of the figure skating team masked and showing off their medals.

You can watch Chen’s performance in the women’s free skate figuring event on YouTube.