Fashion designer Masha Ma on challenge of designing Team China Olympic outfits

Ma, one of the Chinese designers world knows best, worked for a year on uniforms Team China medal winners will wear at Rio Games. It is the first time a designer of her stature has been involved

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Olympic champion diver Guo Jingjing (third from left), boxer Zhou Shiming (second from left), table tennis champion Wang Hao (left), tae kwon do star Wu Jingyu (fourth from right), weightlifter Lu Xiaojun (third from right), and gymnasts He Wenna (second from right) and Zhang Chenglong pose in the outfits Chinese athletes will wear to medal ceremonies at the Rio Olympics.

Published: 3:30pm, 1 Jul 2016Updated: 5:51pm, 12 Jul 2016

Chinese fashion designer Masha Ma says she felt “really honoured” to be chosen to design the outfits China’s champion athletes will wear when they receive medals at this year’s summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The designs for Team China were unveiled this week at a ceremony in Beijing’s National Aquatics Centre (the “Water Cube”) attended by a number of former Chinese Olympic champions.

“I felt really honoured to be selected for this project. It took a year,” says Ma, who shows collections for her eponymous high-fashion label on the catwalks of Paris each season.

“It was definitely a big challenge for us, we’ve never done such a huge project before and it’s for the whole country ... There’s Stella McCartney for the UK Olympic team and Giorgio Armani for Italy’s team, but it’s the first time China has enlisted an [individual] brand designer to inject their creative and aesthetic strength into an Olympic uniform.”