Figure Skating Costume Minute: Yu-Na Kim Returns!
Queen Yu-Na:
Yu-Na Kim in her Short Program to "The Kiss of the Vampire" at the NRW trophy at Eissportzentrum on December 9, 2012 in Dortmund,
Germany.
Queen Yuna is BACK. In case you follow Figure Skating and are a fan (I'm both!), this weekend was the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Finals in Sochi Russia (Yawn...and so sad the stadium was more than half empty from the looks of it). But there was something more exciting happening thousands and thousands of miles away, in Germany: The Return of Yu-Na Kim. Reigning Olympic champion (and one of Korea's BIGGEST Stars!) Yu-Na Kim (or Kim Yu-Na), launched her competitive comeback at the NRW Trophy in Dortmund Germany.I had never heard of this competition and most --no, ALL--of my figure skating aficionados--hadn't either! They all jokingly said to me "Is this a contest created JUST for Yu-Na?".
After a little web research, I found out that no, in fact, this wasn't a figure skating competition created just for her but the NWR Trophy is an annual event organized by the skating union of North Rhine-Westphalia and has been sanctioned by the ISU since 2007. With more than 50 representatives of the media in attendance at the
previously rather obscure competition, Kim fielded many questions,
including some about why she chose NRW for her return. According to icenetwork.com, she said "I came to Dortmund and not to any other competition mainly because of
the date of the competition," (and) "When I started hard training
again this year, it took some time to build up my stamina again.
December is the best time to be in good shape again for a competition,
so we looked into the ISU calendar and decided to come here."
Yu-Na Kim getting congratulated by Sweden's Viktoria Helgesson, the Bronze Medalist of the 2012 NRW Trophy Dortmund Germany
Yu-Na Kim did very well. In fact she won. She received a score of 72.27 for her Short Program and 129.34 for her Free Skate which would have bested Mao Asada and won her the Gold at the Grand Prix Finals if she were competing. Now, let's discuss what I'm really interested in: Her Costumes!
For her Short Program, she skated to "The Kiss of the Vampire" and her costume was SPECTACULAR! It was an icy blue color with very expensive-looking crystals in silver, blue and "Vampire Blood" red. It also had a perfectly matching nude illusion shoulder/sleeve section.
The neckline had a "necklace" of sorts--highlighting all those colors in very well placed sequins. The entire costume was fabulous. If I was rating her on costume alone: a 10!
For her Free Skate to Les Misérables, Yu-Na did not disappoint--costume-wise. She wore a gunmetal gray chiffon costume with "Period" sleeves, sweetheart neckline and delicately sequined bodice. This is how I like to see my Les Misérables costumes interpreted. Jeremy Abbott take note!
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The back was great: It was all open and had a lower section of straps highlighting it. It was very "Elie Saab Couture"-meets-Figure Skating. Whoever is designing her costumes: Kudos to you! I, for one, am happy Yu-Na is BACK--including her very LUXE costumes!
Click Below to Watch her Short Program to "The Kiss of the Vampire" at the 2012 NRW Trophy this past weekend:
Click Below to Watch her Free Skate to Les Miserables at the 2012 NRW Trophy this past weekend:
