Christian Louboutin collaborates on closing ceremony looks for Cuba’s Olympic athletes

Christian Louboutin is the latest high-profile designer to step into the Olympic arena, joining forces with recently launched French e-tailer SportyHenri.com to create an eye-catching uniform that Cuban athletes will wear on formal occasions including the closing ceremony of the Rio Games.

According to the SportyHenri.com website, the collaboration, which was unveiled at a July 21 event in Lisbon, Portugal, came about after the famed footwear designer, who has a fishing cottage in Lisbon, and the website’s founder, former French professional handball player Henry Tai, traveled to Cuba for a photo shoot.

The focal point of the resulting uniform is a crisply tailored two-button, notch-lapel jacket — a red one for the men and a beige version for the women — that takes inspiration from the guayabera shirt (four patch pockets on the front, vertical pleat details on the back) familiar to the Caribbean region. Details include a Cuban flag patch on the left breast pocket and a five-point star on the back. Worn over white, button-front shirts, the jackets were designed to pair with the athlete’s choice of navy blue knee-length shorts, cropped trousers or skirt.

Rounding out the uniforms – and almost stealing the focus altogether — are some seriously luxe-looking star-emblazoned kicks; calf-leather high-top sneakers and loafer styles for the male athletes and kitten heel sandals for the female athletes.

Unfortunately, armchair athletes looking to score some of the Christian Louboutin X SportyHenri.com wares will be disappointed since the announcement of the collaboration includes the following statement: “The designs were created solely for use of the athletes of the Cuban National delegation to celebrate their participation at Rio 2016 and will not be sold, neither [online] or retail.”

For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me @ARTschorn.

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