Which type of costume do you think suits Mao best?

zarinaballerina wrote:

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

After seeing SA ladies, I thought Haruka's costumes were very nice (the best in her career so far!). Anybody know who designed them? I'd like the same designer to make something for Mao.

Pochinko, I was thinking the same when watching Haruka. Her costumes are alwys beautiful, especially this years short program costume , I'm all for Mao going to her costume designer.

Wonder who does her costumes...maybe an American designer since she works with Yuka?
Yep, esp the SP costume! I'd even love to wear it myself to a party (if I can fit in it... )!
It's both classic and modern at the same time, plus I think it's a good design to show Haruka's flexibility.
Also sexy too, but only in an elegant way.
And her FP costume is so full of fantasy mode charm...there's a fake skin part around the shoulders to her clavicle but it hardly shows. Now, that is the kind of work I want to see in Mao's fake skin parts!

Btw, I was thinking how to improve Mao's Swanlake costume...it's nice, but I thought it needs a bit more elements esp in the upper body...just my idea, has a little Miki and Sasha touch in it maybe. Hope you guys like it more or less.


original costume


my version


original costume (back and headpiece)


my version (back and headpiece)

Pochinko, your version is beautiful. i wish we could somehow send it to Mao. At first, I was really happy, when I saw she isn't wearing a choker, but I agree with those who said that this costume would look better with a choker.

zarinaballerina wrote:

Pochinko, your version is beautiful. i wish we could somehow send it to Mao. At first, I was really happy, when I saw she isn't wearing a choker, but I agree with those who said that this costume would look better with a choker.

Thanks zarinaballerina! I wasn't so crazy about chokers eversince 'Masquerade Waltz', but I felt this 'Swanlake' costume definitely needed something around her neck or chest. And I wanted to get rid of any fake skin. If they can't come up with a nice color for fake skin on Mao, whoever does the job should just drop it and make her wear long or no sleeves period! I also liked the feather looking stuff on her hands, but thought they were a bit too small so I colored that part white which gradates into transparent white on her arms.

Pochi, I love your design I just want to suggest two things: 1) A more transparent white in the arms, shoulders and back, and 2) Please, send your desing to Mao , etc.

Pochi! That alteration is so beautiful!
Isn't there a way to send that to Mao?
If anyone from her team could see the whole 'before-after' effect it creates!
This could easily be one of her best costumes (along with your ideas!)!

Thanks everyone for your compliments. I'm really flattered.

I took Ken's advice and made the white parts a bit more transparent. I couldn't make it too transparent cause then it would look like fake skin, and I'm quite sure they're never gonna get the right color for her.

I'm sure Mao won't have much time to change it, nor even have the time to look at my designs. Just did it for fun cause I was suffering insomnia again.

But maybe I'll send it to IMG so it might come in useful for her future costume designs.

I so much want her to look her best!

It´s a beautiful dress Pochinko, I dont know what is the difficult for to do a nice dress????, I mean, you are nor designer, right? and your dress looks better than the real.

I like the tone of this fake skin in Mao (4cc 2009):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aokDNpnbV1A

Pochinko, your version of the dress is so lovely! I usually don't like the chokers either, but in this case, it makes it much more balanced. I like the sleeves as well (both of your versions, actually).

chapis wrote:

It´s a beautiful dress Pochinko, I dont know what is the difficult for to do a nice dress????, I mean, you are nor designer, right? and your dress looks better than the real.

I like the tone of this fake skin in Mao (4cc 2009):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aokDNpnbV1A

Thanks chapis, glad you like it! And no, I'm not a fashion designer...a web designer maybe, but I know almost nothing about fashion. So I didn't design anything much, just made a few changes that's all. I think Mao's original Swan Lake dress is basically very nice on her. Just the fake skin color, and the way it kind of dangled around her neck bothered me. Maybe they were preparing to attach a choker to the neck part, but decided not to in the last minute...in some photos you can clearly see that the neck part is too big for Mao. And yes, the blue dress she wore only once for Claire de Lune was pretty well made. I think the brightness is okay, but the color balance might be a bit too yellowish maybe?

illani wrote:

Pochinko, your version of the dress is so lovely! I usually don't like the chokers either, but in this case, it makes it much more balanced. I like the sleeves as well (both of your versions, actually).

Thanks for the compliment too illani. I tried my best not to make it look too much like a choker, at least not the kind of chokers she wore when Mao was with Tat. I actually imaged the neck part of Yuna's blue dress for her FP in Vancouver Olys season. That would be hard to call a necklace, but you would think twice before you'd call it a choker as well. I'm really happy you liked the sleeves. At first I thought of making her wear gloves, but I kind of felt that it would take the balletic image away. But I wanted the way Mao moves her wrists and fingers to stand out more in the pro, so I decided to color her arms white slightly up to her elbows. That's the part I like best in my version.

Mao is a 2 time World Champion and an Olys silver medalist. The original dress is designed nicely but it lacks the...um...say, dignity(?) for a skater like her to wear, esp since it's Swan Lake. It's one of those classics Mao was born to skate to at some point. I really want to see her more well dressed when she skates to it.

Sorry if the below video that I happened to find had been posted before.
The clips starting with Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra are being
gathered based on the comments about Mao's costumes on Twitter.
They are split between popular and unpopular ones.

I was just glad to see her performances and listen to the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFItjXRKPcE&feature=related