The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held last August because of Covid-19, provided not just great fashion commentary, but gave us lessons about mental health and camaraderie.
The Beijing Winter Olympics kicked off last Friday with the opening ceremony directed by Oscar-nominated Zhang Yimou, famous for his martial-arts epics "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" (he also directed the 2008 Beijing opening ceremony) and, despite thrilling choreographies, grand light displays and an emphasis on peace and world unity, the event reignited geopolitical tensions.
Pandemic restrictions reduced the cast of the show at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest (designed in 2008 by Herzog and de Meuron and Ai Weiwei – who was later imprisoned by the Chinese government for 81 days for "economic crimes"…), from 15,000 to just 3,000 performers.
Snowflakes represented the unifying theme of the event inspired by a Li Bai poem and, fashion-wise, the opening ceremony featured a few notable moments courtesy of young Chinese designers.
London College of Fashion graduate Chen Peng, recipient of the the Yu Prize last year and well-known for his desirable and trendy down puffer jackets (he also collaborated with Moncler on an upcycling project), created costumes for different sections.
For the "Spring Awakening" performance, inspired by China's 24 solar terms, the Chinese designer created a green gradient jumpsuit expressing energy and vitality for 450 performers carrying flexible glowing poles representing green stalks. The choreography mimicked the effect of spring buds coming out of the ground.
He then created futuristic uniforms that reflected lights for the hockey team performers in the "Olympic Rings in Ice" section, getting inspired from Chinese ice lanterns and ice sculptures.
Chen Peng's kidswear for the final performance "Snowflakes" featuring kids holding white dove lanterns, comprised a white jacket with red decorative motifs.
Feng Chen Wang designed the outfit for the flag-bearers - China's first winter sports world champion Luo Zhihuan; 1998 Winter Olympics silver medalist Li Jiajun; 2010 Winter Olympics figure skating pairs champion Shen Xue; 2006 Winter Olympics freestyle skiing aerials champion Han Xiaopeng; 2010 Winter Olympics short track speed skating champion Zhang Hui, and 2014 Winter Olympics speed skating champion Zhang Hong.
Their uniform comprised a down puffer jacket in glacial white and sky blue, symbolizing the mountains and rivers of China interconnected with the rivers and mountains of the world, alongside iconic buildings and Olympic landmarks.
While the two designers brought modern styles and functional silhouettes at the opening ceremony (some of the puffer jackets wouldn't have looked out of place on a runway for the next A/W season), the uniforms for the Victory Ceremonies look more traditional and were mocked and described as "unbearably ugly" and old fashion by users on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
For this occasion three sets of clothes were designed: "Lucky Snow and Cloud" (in sky blue and sunlight red, worn in all snow event competition venues and based on the Chinese traditional symbols of "snow" and "clouds"); "Great Landscape" (with blue and white landscapes, used in all ice event victory ceremonies; inspired by a famous Chinese painting, "A Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers") and "Flying Snow in Tang Dynasty" (used at the Medals Plaza throughout the Games; inspired by the Chinese traditional fabrics of the Tang Dynasty, and incorporating flower and snowflake patterns).
There is also a craft twist when it comes to the medallists' bouquets: rather than being presented with real flowers, to reflect the Games' low-carbon concept, medallists will receive hand-knitted bouquets featuring different types of flowers - rose, Chinese rose, lily of the valley, hydrangea, laurel and olive, symbolising friendship, tenacity, happiness, unity, victory and peace respectively.
Based on a design made by Li Meili, inheritor of the traditional Shanghai wool-knitting technique, they were made by knitting, crocheting and crafting clubs in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang and Jiangsu recruited by the Hengyuanxiang Group, a wool manufacturer based in Shanghai and also one of the official sponsors of the Beijing Winter Olympics. It took the crafters 35 hours to make each bouquet and nearly 50,000 hours to finish all the ones for the victory ceremonies.
But the Beijing Winter Olympics aren't just about costumes and fun light displays on giant LED screens, as the games have highlighted the tense political situation.
China is proud that Beijing is the first city to host both summer and winter Games, but there have been protests and demos around the world against the International Olympic Committee (ICO)'s decision to award the hosting rights to China given its poor human-rights record, regarding the ongoing accusations of genocide against the Uyghur people in the country's Xinjiang region. Human rights experts accuse indeed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of detaining millions of Uyghurs in forced human labor camps in Xinjiang (China denies the camps exist and claims the workers' labor is voluntary) and have called the event the "genocide games". Besides, there are also concerns over the well-being of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai after she accused in a Weibo post (then deleted) last November China's former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of sexually assaulting her in his home.
Fourteen countries, among them the US, the UK, Australia and Canada are staging a diplomatic boycott in protest (meaning no official government envoys from these countries was sent to the Games but their athletes are competing as usual).
Besides, while the delegation from Taiwan didn't want to attend the opening ceremony, the IOC insisted they did, but as China objects to the country using the name Taiwan at the Games, their athletes marched under the "Chinese Taipei" banner (in accordance with the agreement struck by the Taiwan government and the IOC in 1981) and a neutral flag.
Despite the message of peace and unity by Thomas Bach, IOC president, who called for the athletes to live peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village, and performers reinforcing through the snowflake iconography the message of unity and people living in harmony, there was plenty of politics all around: Chinese President Xi Jinping looked on during the ceremony that also featured a gallery of controversial political leaders, from Russian president, Vladimir Putin, undecided on whether to go to war with Ukraine, to Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince accused of approving the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But it was the end of the ceremony that heated (pun unintended) the debate: Nordic combined athlete Zhao Jiawen and cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, lit the snowflake-shaped Olympic cauldron, officially declaring the games open. Yilamujiang is a member of China's Uyghur ethnic minority and, while he isn't the first Uyghur athlete to light the torch for China (Kamaltürk Yalqun did so at the 2008 Olympics and spent years protesting China's persecution of the Uyghurs), the decision to select him in this role seemed an answer to reports about China's human rights violations against the Uyghur population, almost a message to the West that China is not worried nor intimidated by the boycotts.
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