Issey Miyake's 1992 Olympic Uniform Revisited by Anatolik Belikov Studio

Anatolik Belikov's fascination with the project began in 2018, when he excavated his reference archive on are.na. Among the images was a photograph he had likely saved back in 2012 – the earliest days of his design career.

The subject: a uniform designed by Issey Miyake for Lithuania's Olympic team at the 1992 Barcelona Games, created just after the country regained independence. Iconic and rarely forgotten by designers or visual researchers, the uniform represented one of the most distinctive Olympic looks ever created. The original promotional imagery was photographed by Irving Penn, the legendary 20th-century photographer whose influence shaped modern commercial photography.

Issey Miyake 1992 Olympics Lithuania uniform. Editorial from Arena magazine summer issue.

The Remake

Around 2018, Belikov and his studio decided to recreate the uniform. What began as a project between commercial commissions developed into an intensive process spanning nearly a year. With limited references and original pieces locked away in archives and museums, much of the work relied on studying fragmentary images and details.

The initial plan was to release the piece during the 2020 Olympics. That moment passed, and the project was shelved. A revised target – February 2022 and the Beijing Olympic Games – seemed within reach.

On February 24, 2022, Russia's invasion of Ukraine began. Anatolii and his team were forced to relocate, and the project was postponed indefinitely.

Issey Miyake’s 1992 Olympic uniforms for Lithuania. 3D Animation by Anatolik Belikov Studio. Image © Anatolik Belikov Studio

Issey Miyake’s 1992 Olympic uniforms for Lithuania. 3D Animation by Anatolik Belikov Studio. Image © Anatolik Belikov Studio

The Deeper Meaning

Years later, after extensive reflection, Anatolii understood why the uniform had captivated him so deeply. The project embodied a particular kind of connection: a Japanese designer creating for a newly independent European nation, shot by an American photographer – disparate elements that, like stars in the night sky, revealed unexpected alignments when observed closely.

Issey Miyake’s 1992 Olympic uniforms for Lithuania. 3D Animation by Anatolik Belikov Studi; Music by Mujuice.. Video © Anatolik Belikov Studio

Being displaced from both Russia and Ukraine (neither of which he could return to) gave the uniform new resonance. It became a meditation on longing and the universal language of creativity. As Belikov reflects: "All ideas and inspiration come from one common place, with no borders or time. An infinite pool. Cosmos."

Ideas travel across borders, generations, and decades, disappearing and resurfacing transformed. This project itself exemplified that truth: a piece of history from 1992, rediscovered nearly thirty years later, then rebuilt and reimagined by a studio on the opposite side of Europe.

Six years in the making, the uniform feels to Anatolii as though everything happened yesterday, is happening now, and will continue to happen.

Issey Miyake’s 1992 Olympic uniforms for Lithuania. 3D Animation by Anatolik Belikov Studio. Image © Anatolik Belikov Studio

Issey Miyake’s 1992 Olympic uniforms for Lithuania. 3D Animation by Anatolik Belikov Studio. Image © Anatolik Belikov Studio

Issey Miyake’s 1992 Olympic uniforms for Lithuania. 3D Animation by Anatolik Belikov Studio. Image © Anatolik Belikov Studio