Haiti is, for obvious reasons, not exactly a Winter Olympic regular, but it has two athletes at these Games: Richardson Viano, an alpine skier, and Stevenson Savart, a cross-country skier. That makes them among the smallest delegations in the parade, but, nevertheless, they have won the opening ceremonies fashion game by a mile.
Their looks, which were created by Stella Jean, a Haitian-Italian designer based in Milan, were painted by hand to reference both nature and a work by the Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrié that depicts revolutionary Toussaint Louverture riding a red horse as he leads Haiti to freedom. Although International Olympic Committee rules that require political neutrality prohibited Jean from actually showing Louverture, she has foregrounded the horse, setting it against a background of wild greenery and a cloudless sky.
The result is technically proficient and ineffably elegant, and includes trousers, a zip-up jacket, a puffer skirt for the woman in the delegation, and a traditional Haitian tignon, or head wrap, which symbolizes dignity and resistance. The former ski champion Pietro Vitalini was involved in the creations.
If Cinderella (or her prince) went to a ball on top of the Dolomites and wanted to bring with her the power of the tropics, this is what she might wear. The result is an assertion of national pride and identity.
How much that matters is reflected in the fact that the similarly symbolism-infused outfits that Jean made for Haiti for the 2024 Paris Olympics are now on display in the Olympic museum in Lausanne.
Indeed, along with photos of the Winter Olympic looks, Jean posted a quote from Gandy Thomas, Haiti’s ambassador to Italy, on her Instagram account that speaks to the point of the Olympic designs.
“We may not be a winter nation, but we are a nation that refuses to be confined by expectations,” went the statement. “Absence is the most dangerous form of erasing. And we choose to be present.”
The athletes’ clothes make this impossible to miss.
Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.
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