Watching the Olympics, I see flashes of patchwork here and
there. Is it just me? Do I see patchwork
everywhere I look? I first noticed it on snowboarders' jackets, they look like
big warm quilts.
A quick internet search confirmed that they were actually
designed based on a patchwork quilt. "The designer turned to America ’s
heritage for inspiration. And nothing represents Americana more than handcrafted patchwork
quilts and the American flag, which are both at the heart of the 2014 uniform."
After a long hunt, Burton
designers found the perfect vintage quilt at an antique fair. Then, they brought
it home to Vermont where it was deconstructed
and re-constructed by a veteran Vermont
quilt maker in order to get it ready to replicate onto the outerwear fabrics. The
end result is that the quilt pattern on the jackets looks like it was
hand-stitched with patchwork squares – just like the original. And an exact
duplicate of the vintage American flag is proudly featured on the jacket’s
sleeve.
Wait, there it is again, the colorful flags flying at the
Olympic site look like little squares of different fabric. A quick internet
search confirmed that this, too, is definitely patchwork, designed on purpose to
look like a quilt.
The goal was to represent a diverse range of emotions and
feelings, connecting concepts like Motherland, Family, Culture, Time, Olympism,
Peace, Nobility, Friends, Memory, Honour, Dreams, Beauty, Freedom, Pride,
Warmth, Happiness, Greatness, Reliability, Victory, Creativity, Hospitality,
Creation, Future, Russia, Planet Earth.
We had a wealth of choices to represent Russia ’s rich diversity, but in the
end we settled on something familiar, warm and welcoming: the patchwork quilt.
How cool is that! Nothing goes with cold and snow like a
warm patchwork quilt. Way to go Olympic designers!
