CNN, INSTAGRAM, LISA MCKINNON, Instagram/Lisa McKinnon
By Karin Caifa
(CNN) – Before the sequins and the sparkle, there are sketches, hand stitches, a design niche and even rules of the sport to consider when making a skating costume.
Los Angeles-based designer Lisa McKinnon, who started skating at age 4, began making her own costumes when she was 12. Her craftsmanship caught the eye other skaters.
“Other people noticed and they started asking me to make them things too,” she says. “I was only about 15 or 16 when I was making actual competition costumes for the national champion in Sweden.”
For the 2026 Olympic games in Italy, McKinnon designed costumes for U.S. figure skaters Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito.
“The figure skating community is actually quite small in a way,” McKinnon says. “When you’re making costumes like myself, a lot of it is word of mouth. They ask, ‘Oh wait, hey, where did you get that from? Who made that for you?’ That’s how it started for me.”
McKinnon’s process includes detailed production and collaboration with skaters to ensure the creation adheres to the International Skating Union’s regulations for the costumes. For example, no part of the costume can fall on the ice or the skater will be penalized in their score.
McKinnon says working with Glenn included conversations with her and her choreographers. However, when creating Levito’s costume, “it’s also a very open process, and that one was like totally just what I was feeling when I was listening to the music and also what I think she would look good in.”
Naomi Brunson, of Springfield, Virginia, has always dreamed of designing ice skating costumes, and is inspired by McKinnon’s work and others who make skating costumes.
“There’s so many talented designers out there, and a lot of respect between designers,” she says. “They have this amazing gift, and Lisa McKinnon … is just spectacular, so it’s fun to see.”
Bruson is new to crafting skating costumes and has worked with junior and senior level skaters and a couple of nth U.S. National Team.
The work takes time. Brunson says she takes about 10 hours for research, which includes conversations about a skater’s music and choreography, sketches, material selection, and fittings. Building the costume can take anywhere from 10 to 40 hours. Brunson even makes her own lace and estimates that she hand-placed more than 120,000 rhinestones last year.
McKinnon also admires the work of fellow designers during the Winter Olympics, but admits seeing her own designs on ice hits differently.
“When the skater is wearing something that I have created for them, and it just hits all the notes and it just gels together with their looks, their performance, their skating, the music, the choreography,” McKinnon said. “That’s when it just feels really amazing.”
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