The Olympics are coming to the capital of fashion. Expect a shape fit for a Paris runway
PARIS: Of course they call it the city of light. But Paris is also a city of fashion, one of the world's most influential fashion capitals for decades, nay, centuries (remember Louis XIV?)
Therefore, it is not surprising that fashion designers around the world are busy preparing the uniforms of their national teams for their unique attention. When it comes to elite Olympic fashion – whether for the opening ceremonies or for the competition – all runways lead to Paris.
Stella Jean will be in attendance, styling each of the dozen or so Haitian athletes herself. Jean, an Italian-Haitian designer living in Rome, figures she has exactly two seconds on opening night to make an impression on the world — an impression that could reverberate for years. “For these athletes, it's a victory just to be here,” says Jean, whose brightly colored design is meant to highlight the cultural vitality of the Caribbean nation.
At the other end of the size (and budget) spectrum is Ralph Lauren, who for the ninth time will dress hundreds of Team USA athletes for the opening and closing ceremonies. Representing a casual look of blue jeans and blazers, Lauren is of course one of the richest designers in the world along with Giorgio Armani, who has been designing the Italian uniform since 2012.
Countless other designers have jumped in – including, this year, younger, “indie” labels looking to make a splash. It is also an opportunity to highlight qualities such as sustainability in fashion and adaptability, as in design for the Paralympic Games.
“Designers and manufacturers are realizing now that this can be a huge platform for them to do a lot of things,” says Alison Brown, who co-hosts Keep the Flame Alive, an all-Olympic podcast. For example: “Sustainability is now the buzzword for the whole Olympics,” she says.
And style too – because, well, Paris.
“You always want to represent your country and you want to represent athletes. But it seems like the pressure to do it is well up this time around,” says Brown.
A few details that appear on different uniform models:
Canada: Emphasis on inclusiveness, adaptability
During the development process, the team at Lululemon, which is dressing Canadian athletes for the second time, says they listened carefully to the athletes and how they felt about the clothes. “When you feel your best, you perform at your best,” says Audrey Reilly, creative director of Team Canada at the sportswear company.
She recalls listening to Alison Levine, a paralympian who uses a wheelchair, and learning that the athlete had nothing suitable for training, so she wore medical scrubs.
“I was shocked that a professional athlete would have to do that,” Reilly said in an interview. So we said, “Let's investigate.” One of the results was the “Sitting Carpenter Pants”, part of a collection that was meant to be inclusive and adaptable. Other features include special zippers that make it easier to get the garment on and off, and knee pockets so an athlete like Levine can access her phone while exercising.
The collection covers all aspects of Team Canada's journey, from travel to games, to opening and medal ceremonies, to training – everything but competition. To combat the expected scorching heat in Paris, Lululemon, who contracted the team for four games, paid special attention to ventilation and moisture.
And for the opening ceremonies, the designers created what they call a “tapestry of honor.” It is hand-painted and constructed into fabric, including 10 animals — nine representing the provinces of Canada and one representing France. “We wanted to remember all of Canada, coast to coast and north to south,” Reilly says.
Haiti: “They know their bodies are the flag”
Stella Jean is used to creating beautiful clothes. But beauty for beauty's sake was not the focus of her design for Team Haiti. It was all about the message.
“This will be the first good news from Haiti in three years,” she says, and the appearance of the athletes is a counter-message to news of political upheaval, poverty and natural disasters. “So I felt a responsibility to say as much as possible about the country.”
For this, Jean has collaborated with Haitian artist Philippe Doddard, whose vibrant paintings will be incorporated into the ceremonial uniforms, a brightly colored skirt for women and trousers for men, paired with traditional items such as a chambray shirt. The design was constructed from “leftover” fabric—yes, it's sustainability, but not because it's trendy, Jean says, but because it's both a tradition and a necessity in Haiti.
Jean calls the Haitian athletes “ambassadors.”
“These ambassadors will be there in Paris,” she says, “and they all know, even if they're very, very young, how important their presence is—and that it's not just about enforcement. They know their bodies are the flag.”
USA: “Nothing Says America Like Blue Jeans”
At the last summer's games in hot Tokyo, Ralph Lauren outfitted the athletes with something cool—literally—technology that dissipates heat via a fan on the back of the head.
For hot Paris, it represents another type of cool: good old American jeans.
“Nothing says America like blue jeans, especially when we're in Paris,” said David Lauren, the label's director of branding and innovation and son of the founder, after unveiling the design in June.
Ralph Lauren says in his ninth time dressing Team USA for the opening and closing ceremonies, it will fit each athlete personally. They will be wearing blue jackets with blue and white stripes and blue jeans for the opening ceremony.
The team will wear white jeans with matching red, white and blue jackets for the closing ceremony. Lauren called the closing ceremony “more visible, more fun, a little more exciting.”
India: Blending Old and New
Indian designer Tarun Tahiliani is known for his ability to combine traditional elements with a modern sensibility. And that's what he and his menswear brand Tasva tried to do for his country's Olympic team.
Tahiliani told GQ India that when he started researching uniforms for India's opening ceremony, he noticed a trend of countries incorporating their national flag designs. So he started working on a design with tricolor shades of saffron, white and green.
For men, Tahiliani started with the kurta, a typical Asian long and loose shirt. He paired it with a bundi, or traditional sleeveless jacket. He told the magazine that he wears bandanas every day, inspired by his father, who was an admiral in the Indian Navy.
After feedback from the Olympic Committee, the designer ditched the feminine, uniform-like look in favor of a saree that he says “can fit any body type, which is exactly what we want for our female athletes.”
All designs include saffron and green embroidery. “The aim is to create outfits that will enable our athletes to represent India with pride and confidence,” Tahiliani said.
Italy: a combination of elegance and tradition
Italian athletes will be elegantly dressed in Emporio Armani uniforms, as they have done at every Olympics since 2012.
The catwalk tracksuit is emblazoned with the words “W Italia”, short for “Eviva Italia” or “Long live Italy”. This motto can be applied to the designer Giorgio Armani himself, who turned 90 on July 11.
“Finding new solutions for a sports uniform that must combine elegance with practicality is always an exciting challenge for me,” Armani said last year, when the national uniform was presented at the spring-summer 2024 fashion show for the young and sporty Emporio Armani . brand.
Sports suits of athletes are made in Armani blue, which has long been the color of the designer's daily uniform, in the form of a T-shirt or an elegant pullover.
Athletes will have no excuse for not knowing the anthem: the beginning is printed on the collar of T-shirts, and the entire first verse is printed on jackets.
Britain: four nations, not one
The 60-year-old British clothing brand Ben Sherman, known for its menswear, is creating the British Olympic uniform for the third time and this year wants to remind the world that Britain is made up of four nations, not one.
His design for the opening and closing ceremonies “embody the unity and diversity of Britain, reflecting the rich tapestry of our nation's identity”. – says the label's creative director, Mark Williams.
Williams described in an email his new Four Nations floral motif, which features a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock, serving as “a nod to the unique identity and history of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”.
Williams emphasizes that this motif is not purely decorative, but is meant to send a message of cooperation and unity. Its floral motif appears in blue and red on polo shirts worn with a bomber jacket, as well as on colorful socks in collaboration with the Happy Socks brand.
South Korea: inspiration from the national symbol
South Korea's athletes will be wearing uniforms inspired by the country's round national symbol, the 'taegik', which is at the center of its flag. The red-blue circle represents the harmony between the negative cosmic forces of the blue part and the positive cosmic forces of the red.
According to Youngone Outdoor Co., an official partner of the National Olympic Committee that manufactures and distributes North Face apparel, the motifs on the North Face-branded uniforms also include one of the four black trigrams (groups of stripes) in the corners of the flag. South Korea. The trigram used symbolizes water.
The uniform for the awards ceremonies includes an ink-style jacket with an image of the indigo blue waters off the country's east coast, a red belt and black pants, Yangon says.
Team Korea's uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies were designed by Musinsa Standard, a private label managed by South Korean online fashion store Musinsa. The all-light blue uniform includes a jacket, a lining engraved with a traditional white and blue porcelain pattern, a traditional belt and trousers.
