Design Digest #3
Fashion Olympics
This week all eyes are on the Winter Olympics, as the five-ringed circus descends on the fashion capital that is Milan. Unsurprisingly the fashionistas are all over the athlete’s outfits, especially what they wore during the opening ceremony. Here are a few of my favourites.
For sheer effort the team outfit from Haiti is hard to beat. Created by Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean, the ballgown-length puffer skirts feature the surreal image of a red horse emerging from a green jungle. The print was originally intended to portray Haiti’s revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture, based on a painting by American artist Edouard Duval-Carrié, but at the last minute the International Olympic Committee disallowed the design on the basis that uniforms cannot feature political propaganda. The designer and her team had to work through the night and hand-paint the uniforms with the revised design which jettisoned the general and retained the horse. Luckily, at least for Stella Jean, the Haiti team only fielded two athletes.
The other standout design was by Moncler for Brazil. True to the Moncler brand signature, the collection features puffer jackets, trousers, skirts and capes. There were even pufferised Bermuda shorts and safari hats. The outfits look super sleek in glossy black and the jackets are lined with the Brazilian flag inside. Thank you, Brazil, for bringing a slice of Copacabana to Cortina.
The crowd favourite was undoubtedly the outfit of Team USA, designed by Ralph Lauren. The Stars & Stripes intarsia sweater looks cosy and sharp, paired with a white toggle coat which has already gone viral. The look could easily have degenerated to Americana pastiche meets Paddington bear but instead came across as fresh and contemporary, perfectly in tune with the preppy trend sweeping the fashion world this season.
When it comes to blending sports, fashion and marketing few brands can beat Nike. For the Milano Cortina games they introduced the Air Milano Jacket, an inflatable puffer inspired by the technology behind the Nike Air shoes. The super lightweight jacket is inflated with a small battery operated fan, transforming it from a windcheater to a mid-weight puffer in seconds. The Milano Air Jacket is instantly recognisable with its distinctive quilting, which looks a bit like the button tufting on a chesterfield sofa. You will see them worn by Team USA athletes in medal ceremonies.
Incidentally, the Milano Air Jacket is marketed under Nike’s ACG collection of performance gear. As part of ACG’s relaunch, Nike rebranded a commuter train from Milan as the All Conditions Express, refitting the carriages with quirky seating and stores of outdoor gear. Everything is drenched in electric orange, which does impart the train with an EasyJet crew room vibe, but as far as immersive branding experiences go this is worthy of a gold medal.
Sports and fashion brands are not the only ones joining the Winter Olympics marketing frenzy. Swedish ceramics designer Gustaf Westman brought out the Curling Bowl, a snacking bowl cum glass holder inspired by curling stones. It teams perfectly with his Chunky collection of bright and bubbly tableware, perfect for converting your tabletop into snackfests of Olympic proportions.
If the cheerful and curvaceous aesthetics of Westman’s designs appeal to you then you would love the Fiat Topolino XS concept car. Topolino means little mouse in Italian, which explains the super cute body and googly-eyed headlights (though we are disappointed with the lack of pointy ears and a long tail). Designed by Wini Camacho as an extra small version of the (already minuscule) Fiat Topolino quadricycle, The Topolino XS can go topless and even comes with a rear-mounted luggage rack designed for a matching case that resembles giant round of parmesan cheese. Sadly, the Topolino XS remains a speculative design concept for now, which is a pity as I would love to see Jeremy Clarkson test driving one.
Other eye-catching new products spotted this week include the Buké collection of table lights, crafted by Swedish designer Simon Skinner from vintage glassware sourced from flea markets and charity shops. These include glass bowls, cups, ashtrays and decorative ornaments, some of which have been sandblasted to disguise flaws and to create a more uniform appearance. The name of the collection alludes to the process of assembling the glass pieces, which is akin to putting together a bouquet of flowers. The end results are just as delicate and elegant, even if they look ever so slightly phallic.
The ceramic sculptures by Dutch designer Vera van der Burg look equally poetic but they are created in a rather more intriguing way. In her project Text-to-Clay, she trained an AI model with images of her ceramic works, augmented by prompts such as “ceramic sadness” or “ceramic female pain”, to generate AI images of new, imaginary creations. She then recreates these otherworldly designs in clay and feeds images of the successful sculptures (some of the more extravagant designs don’t survive the kiln) back to the AI model to generate yet more new images in an iterative process of creation. This shows how designers, instead of fearing the “creative” powers of AI, are actively co-opting AI as creative partners in their quest for ever more original ideas. Perhaps there is hope for humanity after all.
On this note, I’m delighted to introduce you to the charming comics of Oki Sato, the founder of Nendo.
They are not only amusing but also shed interesting insights on the inner workings of one of the most influential product designers working today. Enjoy!
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The Nike Therma-FIT Air Milano Jacket is absolutely GENIUS ! 😎
I'd love to wear that, whilst riding on my topless Wini Camacho version of the Fiat Topolino !
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