MILAN — Moncler’s return to the Olympics after an almost 60-year hiatus was never meant to be just a standard partnership with a national team.
On the heels of the gargantuan production for the Moncler Grenoble fall 2026 show in Aspen, the brand’s ambitions in luxury performance will be in full display this month as it will outfit Team Brazil for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, kicking off Friday.
Building on its existing tie-up with Moncler Grenoble brand ambassador Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the 24-year-old Brazilian Norwegian Alpine skier, Moncler was revealed last year as the official sponsor of the Brazil Olympic Committee and technical sponsor of the Brazilian Snow Sports Federation.
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But as Brazil’s flag-bearers Pinheiro Braathen and Nicole Silveira, a skeleton racer, make their appearance at Friday night’s opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro Stadium and in Cortina d’Ampezzo, respectively, their outfits will reveal a collaboration between Moncler and Oskar Metsavaht, the Brazilian designer and artist who’s behind the hip Osklen brand, which he established in 1989.
“One year ago they invited me to do this collaboration on the uniforms of the Brazilian team and it was for me a super interesting challenge since the beginning, because I admire Moncler, I admire Remo’s [Ruffini, Moncler’s chairman and creative director] vision and what he did for Moncler, reviving it, and now bringing it back to the Olympics, and of course to be recognized as a Brazilian designer,” Metsavaht told WWD in an interview days before arriving in Milan.
In his first brainstorming sessions with Ruffini, the latter expressed his wish to see the Olympic legacy of Moncler reflected in the project — hence the creative process started with the brand’s archival pieces from the ‘60s.
“That [era] is interesting for everybody working in fashion design. The ‘60s are always an inspiration, also in sportswear. So those vintage-style pieces were very inspirational besides being linked with the history of Moncler,” the designer said.
Metsavaht sought to combine Moncler’s heritage and current DNA with an alpine ethos and the Brazilian spirit, reflecting both the country’s mixed cultural richness and its ties with winter sports (unexpectedly, Metsavaht said, Brazil has about 200,000 skiers).
He did that by embracing a rather conceptual, unexpected route.
“As a designer I’ve been doing technical winter pieces for quite some time and I have knowledge on that — the biophysics, ergonomic issues [involved] — but my task was to bring the Brazilian soul into it,” he explained. “My contribution was much more about [fueling] the artistic side of it.”
Besides his art and design gigs, Metsavaht’s background includes stints as an athlete. Currently an avid surfer, he competed in the 1997 FIS Giant Slalom Snowboard event in South America, securing third place in Valle Nevado, Chile.
A graduate in medicine, Metsavaht’s first pieces of clothing ever designed were part of the outfit for a 1986 expedition to Aconcagua Mountain in the Andes, which he joined as the group’s physician and head of research for the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
That experience triggered his interest in toying with fashion and sportswear for the outdoors.
“The Olympics’ opening ceremonies are something like the Greek gods coming to a city and a country to stay for 20 days. So [the pieces are a] celebration of the athletes as our semi-gods,” Metsavaht mused.
“Since the beginning, my idea was to be minimalistic…I like to highlight the Brazilian culture in a more minimalistic way, without losing the real spirit of it… [but] I wanted something majestic, too,” the designer said.
Pinheiro Braathen and Silveira will be outfitted in voluminous all-white puffy capes crafted from recycled nylon laqué and inspired by Moncler’s Karakorum jacket, originally created for Italian mountaineers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli for their first expedition and ascent of the peak K2 in 1954.
The reverse sides of the capes are intarsia-ed with the Brazilian flag, to be subtly revealed as the two flag-bearers make their way through the ceremony’s venues.
“White is the color of beginnings; when you begin something, it always starts from white paper. It’s also a nod to a white mountain [marked by the footprint] of one’s skiing or snowboarding style,” Metsavaht explained.
“People would think that the Brazilian uniforms would be super colorful, that’s expected from Brazil. But I think white equals sophistication, I like the purity of it and Brazilian [colors] coming in a subtle way, as if Brazil was — conceptually speaking — rising under,” he said.
Underneath, Pinheiro Braathen will wear a puffer vest and shorts with streetwear cred, which Metsavaht said reflect the athlete’s personal style, while Silveira will don a puffer jacket and padded full skirt.
Asked if the Moncler Grenoble brand ambassador and flag-bearer provided any suggestions, Metsavaht said he asked for the uniforms to convey joy and the sense of happiness triggered by the Brazilian expression “vamos dançar,” or “let’s dance,” in English.
The rest of Team Brazil will sport dark blue outfits comprising puffer jackets with matching shorts for men and skirts for women, all featuring a bright green lining nodding to the colors of the country’s flag and accessorized with coordinated hats.
All uniforms bear the Brazilian star, the Brazilian Olympic Committee crest and the Moncler logo and all athletes will wear Moncler Altive winter boots to complement their outfits.
A UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainability and a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for UN Ocean until 2030, Metsavaht is also an environmental advocate and founder and president of Instituto-E, a Brazilian nongovernmental organization promoting sustainable design thinking. He is the creative director of OM.art studio and OM.group, the latter focused on investments and business management at the intersection of sustainability, lifestyle and design.
