TELFAR CLEMENS DESIGNED LIBERIA’S 2021 OLYMPIC UNIFORMS
The Olympics is set to be a fashion affair this year as Telfar Clemens announced in the New York Times that he would be sponsoring and designing team Liberia’s uniforms.
It all started when Emmanuel Matadi, a Liberian athlete, contacted Telfar after seeing how his girlfriend was obsessed with their bags. Of course, it only made sense being Telfar is a fellow Liberian himself. “I didn’t even know if he made clothes,” Matadi told The New York Times.
The Liberia native is best known for his vegan leather gender-neutral bag, called “the shopping bag.” Telfar bags feature vegan leather and double strap handles, and cross-body straps. Clemens brand, Telfar, is praised for highlighting the importance of Black fashion and bridging the gap between luxury goods and accessibility.
Although this is excellent news for Clemens, he was pretty nervous. He was not in favor of the cost associated with sponsoring a team, and he admitted to never designing athleticwear before. However, Clemons decided he was up for the challenge. He is creating 70 pieced for the team, including sweats, unitards, duffel bags, and track spikes with the Liberian flag and Telfar logo throughout the design.
In addition, Clemens is taking full advantage of this opportunity by introducing athleticwear to his core collection. He will also be dropping pieces “inspired by the Olympics,” that will be available to everyone. “These are clothes we want to sell for the rest of our lives,” he said.
Unfortunately, we will have to stay tuned to see what the complete collection will look like when Team Liberia makes their debut at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“It will be an evergreen collection,” he explained to the paper of record. “These are clothes we want to sell for the rest of our lives.”
