The Olympic games. A time for athletic strength, talented individuals, country pride, and fashion? Its not a typical thought that comes to mind when thinking about the Olympics, but truly a prominent contender rising up. Designers such as Stella McCartney, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Hermes and Salvatore Ferragamo have all taken part in a recent competition to be the leading designer of the USA 2012 Olympic team’s official kit.
It all started in 2004, when Stella McCartney created the official garments for Team Great Britain. A line that was produced by Adidas, the Great Britain Kit catered for all 900 British Olympic and Paralympic athletes that competed in 46 various sports. According to Design to Win, an article by Vogue Writer, Ella Alexander, Stella McCartney’s Team GB Olympic kit is now being displayed at the Design Museum in London. This accomplishment by McCartney transforms the notion of fashion within the sporting world, and the concept of high fashion at the Olympic games.
Even the opening ceremony at the 2012 Olympic games, was littered with designer uniforms. Ralph Lauren featured the preppy Olympic uniform, United Colors of Benetton fitted the Swedish Team with a quirky striped yellow-and-blue pullover long sleeved top.
Yet, the most interesting fashion trend to come out of the 2012 Olympic games has been wearing flags as a fashion statement. It is not a secret that athletes come with great pride for the countries they represent, but the days of simply waving a flag and singing the national anthem have dissipated and become replaced with athletes wearing their countries flags wrapped around them like capes.
Athletes such as Usain Bolt of Jamaica, and Varun Pemmaraju of the United States have been no strangers to showing off this fashion trend at the 2012 Olympics. Pemmaraju stated, “I was going for the Superman, Captain America-look.”
Its not likely that top designers such as Stella McCartney and Ralph Lauren will be showcasing country flags in their Fall/Winter 2012 collections, but one can never know. A trend is a trend is a trend, it always starts small – only time will tell if this is just an Olympic fad.
Article by: Kamilla Nosovitskaya
