Beijing 2022 uniforms show Chinese ‘spirit’
The organising committee for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, scheduled to run during February and March, respectively, recently unveiled the uniforms to be worn by staff, volunteers and technical officials throughout the events.
Designed by a Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology (BIFT) professor named He Yang (who was also responsible for designing the Beijing 2008 Games uniforms), the uniforms present the graphical motifs of the Beijing 2022 Games in the style of traditional Chinese ink and brush paintings.
Ms He, who is also director of BIFT’s National Costume Museum, told local media that her work on the project was greatly inspired by folk design, which she said teaches that “the best design expresses the richest feelings with the fewest things”.
Relying mainly on a palette of “glowing red, Great Wall grey, sky blue and snow white” (with black elements), the designer relayed that she had made sure to “pay [special] attention to the white space”, a key consideration for traditional Chinese visual artists looking to blend together a harmonious composition. Ms He also painted “snow white” as an auspicious hue, referencing the Chinese saying that “a timely snow promises a good harvest” when speaking with Xinhua.
The relatively muted white and grey colours were broadly used to tone down the more highly saturated colours in her palette, so as not to “affect the Games” by causing athletes “visual confusion” due to being too eye-catching, for instance. “Great Wall grey” was also used in the uniforms for the Beijing 2008 Games, a colour which Ms He told reporters represented the “objectivity and fairness” of the technical officials wearing the garments.
Meanwhile, the “glowing red” and black colours used reflect the dedication and enthusiasm of staff, she said, whereas “sky blue” could be suggestive of volunteers’ “youthful vigour”.
Drawing a comparison between the 2008 and 2022 uniforms, Ms He described the latter set as more complex, due to their functional requirements for withstanding cooler temperatures.
For example, the materials used for the 2022 Games needed to be warm, breathable, windproof, light and moisture permeable. “The Olympics is not a testing ground for technology, so we used the most mature and safest technologies in the industry,” she emphasised.
Key considerations included incorporating anti-slip soles on the bottoms of “thermal” boots and the use of a “unique” and “heat-storing” cotton with a three-dimensional composite structure.
High-strength and tear-resistant materials have been used on gloves and for shoes, moreover, to ensure articles’ resistance when bent or flexed in low-temperature climates. A “high-performance” composite polymer film was used to coat the uniforms’ outer fabric to ensure wind and water repellence, furthermore.
Ms He added that the “spirit” of the Olympics and traditional Chinese culture was “fully unified” across her designs for the 2022 Games. “This is the mission and responsibility of the Chinese designer,” she said.
Image: Xinhua. Credit: Zhang Chenlin
