The Olympics are coming to the fashion capital. Expect uniforms worthy of a Parisian runway
PARIS: Sure, they call it the City of Light. But Paris is also the City of Fashion, one of the world’s most influential fashion capitals for decades, even centuries (remember Louis XIV?)
So it’s no surprise that fashion designers around the world are busy getting their national team uniforms ready for their exclusive spotlight. When it comes to high-end Olympic fashion, whether it’s the festive opening ceremonies or the competitions, all runways lead to Paris.
Stella Jean will be there, personally dressing each of Haiti’s dozens of athletes. Jean, an Italian-Haitian designer based in Rome, thinks she has exactly two seconds on the night of the opening ceremony to make an impact on the world, an impression that could resonate for years. “For these athletes, being here is a victory,” says Jean, whose bright, colorful designs are meant to highlight the Caribbean nation’s cultural vitality.
At the other end of the size (and budget) spectrum is Ralph Lauren, who will dress hundreds of Team USA athletes at the opening and closing ceremonies for the ninth time. Lauren, who sports a casual look of blue jeans and a blazer, is obviously one of the world’s richest designers, along with Giorgio Armani, who has designed Italy’s uniforms since 2012.
Countless other designers have gotten involved, including, this year, other young “indie” brands looking to make a splash. It’s also an opportunity to highlight qualities like sustainability in fashion and adaptability, as in Paralympic designs.
“Designers and manufacturers now realize that this can be a huge platform for them, for a lot of things,” says Alison Brown, who co-hosts a podcast about all things Olympics, “Keep the Flame Alive.” For example: “Sustainability is a huge buzzword now for this whole Olympics,” she says.
And so is the style, because, well, Paris.
“You always want to represent your country and you want to represent the athletes. But it feels like this time the pressure to do it well has been turned up a notch,” Brown says.
Some emerging details on various uniform designs:
Canada: Focus on Inclusivity and Adaptability
During the design process, the Lululemon team, which is dressing Canadian athletes for the second time, says they listened carefully to the athletes and how they felt in the gear. “When you feel your best, you perform your best,” says Audrey Reilly, creative director for Team Canada at the sportswear company.
She recalls listening to Alison Levine, a Paralympian who uses a wheelchair, and finding that the athlete had no training gear, so she was wearing a doctor's coat.
“I was shocked that a professional athlete would do that,” Reilly said in an interview. So we said, “Let’s look into it.” One result was a “sitting carpenter pant,” part of a collection designed to be inclusive and adaptable. Other features include special closures for easy on and off and knee pockets so an athlete like Levine can access her phone during a workout.
The collection covers all aspects of Team Canada’s journey, from travel to the games, to the opening and awards ceremonies, to training — everything but the competition. To combat the expected scorching heat of Paris, Lululemon, which has a four-game deal with the team, paid special attention to ventilation and wicking.
And for the opening ceremonies, the designers created what they call a “pride tapestry.” Hand-drawn and engineered into the fabric, it features 10 animals, nine representing Canada’s provinces and one representing France. “We wanted to evoke all of Canada, from coast to coast and north to south,” Reilly says.
Haiti: “They Know Their Body Is a Flag”
Stella Jean is used to designing beautiful clothes. But beauty for beauty’s sake was not a consideration in her designs for the Haiti team. It was all about the message.
“This will be the first good news to come out of Haiti in three years,” he says, the athletes’ appearance a counter-message to news of political unrest, poverty or natural disasters. “So I felt a responsibility to say as much as I could about the country.”
For this, Jean is collaborating with Haitian artist Philippe Dodard, whose vibrant paint will be incorporated into the ceremonial uniforms: a brightly colored skirt for women and pants for men, paired with traditional pieces like a chambray shirt. The designs were made from “leftover” fabrics—sustainability, yes, but not because it’s trendy, Jean says, but because in Haiti it’s both a tradition and a necessity.
Jean calls Haitian athletes “ambassadors.”
“These ambassadors will be there, in Paris,” she says, “and everyone knows, even if they are very, very young, how important their presence is, and that it’s not just about performance. They know that their bodies are a flag.”
USA: “Nothing says America like blue jeans”
For the latest Summer Games in scorching Tokyo, Ralph Lauren outfitted athletes with something truly awesome: technology that dissipates heat through a fan-like device positioned behind the neck.
For hot Paris, he proposes another type of trend: good old American jeans.
“Nothing says America like blue jeans, especially when we’re in Paris,” said David Lauren, the brand’s chief branding and innovation officer and son of the founder, when the model was unveiled in June.
For his ninth go-round of dressing Team USA for the opening and closing ceremonies, Ralph Lauren says he will dress each athlete personally. For the opening ceremony, they will wear tailored navy blazers with blue-and-white striped Oxford shirts and those blue jeans.
For the closing ceremony, the team will wear white jeans with matching red, white and blue jackets. Lauren called the closing ceremony looks “more graphic, more fun, a little more emotional.”
India: Mixing Old and New
Indian designer Tarun Tahiliani is known for his ability to blend traditional elements with a modern sensibility. And that’s what he and his menswear brand Tasva attempted to do for his country’s Olympic team.
Tahiliani told GQ India that when she started researching India's opening ceremony uniform, she noticed a trend of countries incorporating their national flags into the design. So she started working on a design that featured the tricolor hues of saffron, white and green.
For men, Tahiliani started with a kurta, a long, loose-fitting Asian shirt. She paired it with a bundi, or traditional sleeveless jacket. She told the magazine that she wears a bundi every day, inspired by her father, who was an admiral in the Indian Navy.
After feedback from the Olympic committee, the designer abandoned a uniform look for women, opting for a sari, which he says “can flatter any body type, and that’s exactly what we want for our athletes.”
All designs incorporate saffron and green embroidery. “The aim is to create outfits that give our athletes the ability to represent India with pride and confidence,” Tahiliani said.
Italy: a mix of elegance and tradition
The Italian athletes will wear the elegant Emporio Armani uniforms, as they have done at every Olympics since 2012.
The podium suit is emblazoned with the words “W Italia,” short for “Eviva Italia,” or “Long live Italy.” The motto could be extended to designer Giorgio Armani himself, who turned 90 on July 11.
“Looking for new solutions for the athlete's kit, which must combine elegance and practicality, is always an exciting challenge for me,” Armani declared last year, on the occasion of the presentation of the national team's uniform during the Spring-Summer 2024 fashion show of the young and sporty brand Emporio Armani.
The athletes' tracksuits are in Armani blue, which has always been the colour of the designer's daily uniform, both as a T-shirt and as a thin pullover.
Athletes will have no excuse for not knowing the national anthem: the beginning is printed on the inside of the collar of their polo shirts, while the entire first verse is on the inside of their jackets.
Great Britain: Four Nations, Not One
Ben Sherman, the 60-year-old British clothing brand known for its menswear, is designing Great Britain’s Olympic kits for the third time and this year is looking to remind the world that Britain is made up of four nations, not one.
The design for the opening and closing ceremonies “represents the unity and diversity of the UK, reflecting the rich tapestry of our nation’s identity,” says the brand’s creative director, Mark Williams.
Williams described in an email his new floral design, which features four nations including a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock, as “a tribute to the unique identities and histories of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
Williams emphasizes that the motif is not purely decorative, but is intended to convey a message of collaboration and unity. His floral motif appears in blue and red, on polo shirts, worn with a bomber jacket, and also on colorful socks, in a collaboration with the brand Happy Socks.
South Korea: Inspiration from a National Symbol
South Korean athletes will wear uniforms inspired by the country's circular national symbol, the “taegeuk,” which occupies the center of its flag. The red and blue circle symbolizes the harmony between the negative cosmic forces of the blue portion and the positive cosmic forces of the red.
The designs on the North Face-branded uniforms also include one of the four black trigrams (groups of bars) from the corners of the flag, according to Youngone Outdoor Co., an official partner of the country's Olympic committee that manufactures and distributes North Face apparel in South Korea. The trigram used symbolizes water.
The uniform for the medal presentation ceremonies includes a jacket depicting the indigo blue waters of the country's east coast, in an ink-painted style, a red belt and black trousers, Youngone explains.
Team Korea's uniform for the opening and closing ceremonies was designed by Musinsa Standard, a private label operated by South Korean online fashion retailer Musinsa. The all-blue uniform includes a blazer, the lining of which is engraved with traditional blue and white porcelain designs, a traditional-style belt, and pants.
