#chambray

'...Stella Jean says she created uniforms on a humble budget for Team Haiti, one of the smallest delegations in the Olympics with just seven athletes...

...The look takes its white, red, and blue hues from the Haitian flag, with the men’s uniform consisting of a light blue jacket, an adaptation of the guayabera shirt worn by men in the Caribbean, vibrant trousers channeling Naïve folk art, and a Fular scarf. The women’s look features a skirt in the same material, paired with a light blue shirt and structured jacket with a cinched waist. Philippe Dodard, an acclaimed Haitian painter, designed the fabric for the trousers and skirt. 

Wearing these uniforms at the Paris Olympics takes on an even deeper meaning for Haiti, once known as Saint-Domingue, a French colony that fought for its independence during the Haitian Revolution, the first successful resistance movement led by enslaved people against the French colonial regime from 1971 to 1804. “It’s hugely symbolic,” says Jean, who is Haitian-Italian, adding that she merged Haitian fabrics and motifs with Western silhouettes as “a tool of counter colonization.”

Jean ran into some issues as she worked to create her designs. Export embargoes in Haiti made sourcing chambray, a cotton-like material, for the women’s shirt difficult. “I used one of my dresses that my grandmother gave to me, because we were not able to source it otherwise. I hope she will forgive me because she's not here anymore,” Jean says, joking that her design unintentionally became more sustainable.

Throughout the process, she recognized the rare opportunity to present the world with a positive news story about Haiti, as the country struggles with a recent history of political violence, coups, and the deadly 2020 earthquake. Ongoing violence at the hands of armed gangs has displaced approximately 580,000 people, per U.N. figures.