Image: Via Twitter @TELFARGLOBAL
Tokyo Olympics: Liberian athletes’ performance gear a design success
Liberian designer Telfar Clemens is the man behind the out-of-the-box uniforms for Liberia’s Olympic team.
Image: Via Twitter @TELFARGLOBAL
The Olympics and sports as a whole tend to squeeze out any bit of national pride people have and that manifests in the design of Olympic uniforms. Liberian American designer Telfar Clemens designed the avant-garde uniforms for Liberia’s Olympic team for this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
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LIBERIA KITTED OUT IN TELFAR FOR OLYMPICS
Telfar will be Liberia’s first sponsor for the Olympic Games in 20 years. The designer and new favourite of the contemporary fashion world with his “Bushwick Birkin” made him a pandemic success story.
His out-of-the-box unisex designs for the Liberian Olympic team received praise at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Friday23 July. Looks include a one-shouldered tank and track pants/shorts.
WHO IS TELFAR CLEMENS?
Sprinter Emmanuel Matadi told the New York Times that he got the idea to enlist Clemens to make the Liberian Olympic outfits after listening to his girlfriend, who follows the Telfar Instagram account, couldn’t stop talking about the designer’s bags.
According to the interview, Matadi who didn’t know that Telfar actually designed and made clothes, was intrigued that Clemens was Liberian.
Matadi mentioned the idea to Kouty Mawenh, Liberia’s Olympic attaché and a former Olympic competitor, who saw the relationship as an opportunity to merge Liberian talent to the advantage of both the athletes and designer.
According to the New York Times article, Clemens said he was on board almost immediately, even though the sponsorship, which includes travel and food, is the biggest outside investment his company has made.
Clemens had never designed performance gear before. He and Babak Radboy, his artistic director and business partner, had been contemplating a line of Telfar athletic clothing for a while and the Liberian Olympic project was the perfect opportunity to get going.
LIBERIA’S OLYMPIC LOOK
The opening ceremony looks featured a gown-inspired silhouette that takes on a sportswear design, all finished off with an updated version of Telfar’s recognisable “T” logo on the chest.
The baby-blue running uniforms are small running shorts that lie above the hamstring with Liberia written on the backside. The tops feature the ‘half tank’ — a tank top with the straps pulled to one side to create an asymmetric shoulder-baring line, which has been incorporated into a unitard and running compression top.
According to the New York times, Telfar made approximately 70 pieces in four months, working remotely with factories in China, Portugal, Vietnam and Italy.
Clemens was given full creative freedom by Liberia for the designs and he did have worries about how the athletes will take to the uniforms.
They don’t look like anything that exists, I want to open up the conversation about what sport and competition and performance really means, said Clemens to the New York Times about his pieces.
Clemens hosted a fitting party in New York for the Liberian Olympic team, where his aunt cooked traditional Liberian food and the athletes got to try on their gear for the biggest sporting moment of their careers
