Liu Qiuhua: Retro chic

"I hope our Chinese fans can wear our new collection of vintage uniforms for China's Olympic delegations as they watch the Beijing Games and cheer for our athletes," said Liu Qiuhua, a young designer from Li-Ning.

Li-Ning has provided the award ceremony clothing for China's Olympic delegations since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

To help China remember the highlights of its Olympic history, Li-Ning has developed a series of vintage clothing for the country's Olympic delegation that will hit the market soon.

"The price will be quite affordable at around 200-300 yuan apiece ($30-45)," he said.

The uniform worn by the Chinese delegation at the Sydney Games in 2000 was proving hard to beat in terms of stylistic flourishes, he added.

"That was so far the best design featuring traditional Chinese images such as the dragon and phoenix," he said. "Meanwhile the rainbow design (for Athens 2004) played with abstract and international design language."

Previous efforts were simpler.

"The red and yellow 1992 collection was very simple and straightforward with only two Chinese characters for the word 'China' on the front.

"Then we only made a few changes for the 1996 version, which also used the colors of our national flag."