Fashion manages to find its way into every aspect of life these days, and this year’s Olympic Games is no exception. Of course, the setting of Paris, one of the world’s fashion capitals, guaranteed some sartorial focus on the worldwide event. Combine the stylish setting with the fact that luxury goods conglomerate LVMH is one of the Games’s premium sponsors and you’ve got the makings of one of the most fashion-forward Olympics yet.
LVMH’s involvement means the luxury will extend beyond clothing. Yes, one of the company’s houses, Berluti, is designing the opening ceremony looks for France, but LVMH-owned brands will be taking part in other ways as well. The coveted medals are designed by Parisian jeweler Chaumet, and those lucky enough to win one will be presented with the gold, silver, or bronze tokens on a Louis Vuitton tray, carried by medal bearers dressed head to toe in the brand. It’s safe to say every aspect of these upcoming Games will bear a touch of refinement.
The style showcase will begin on July 26th, when the world-renowned athletes board boats on the Seine to celebrate the opening of the 2024 Summer Games. Each country’s style will be represented with custom ensembles created for the specific occasion, showing off their national pride in the form of color choice, tailoring, and detailed finishes. But the fashion parade won’t end there. Every time an athlete steps on a court, field, or track, they will represent their country in meticulously chosen uniforms, designed by their respective nation’s brightest style stars. Below, a look at five of the designers who had the honor of dressing their country’s athletes for sports’s biggest stage, and what they have in store for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Ralph Lauren for the United States
For 15 years, Ralph Lauren has dressed Team USA for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic games. At this point, the brand has become as synonymous with the event as the torch, the five rings, and even the gold medal. In 2024, for the ninth time in a row, Ralph Lauren is returning to outfit the athletes once again.
When it comes to the opening ceremony, it’s about causal suiting, and the Team USA athletes will float on boats along the Seine in navy blazers with red-and-white piping details. Striped blue-and-white button-downs and light-wash denim will complete this classic, preppy look that feels as quintessentially American as Ralph Lauren itself.
For the closing ceremony, RL added a bit more of a twist, designing white, moto-inspired jackets bisected with a blue stripe and covered in Olympic-inspired patches. Paired with white jeans, the cotton jackets will make for the coolest victory lap for the Team USA athletes, many of whom will undoubtedly decorate their Ralph Lauren closing ensembles with some extra bling they earned over the previous two weeks.
Berluti for France
Considering Paris is hosting the 2024 Olympic games, it’s no surprise that all eyes will be on Team France and their uniforms. Of course, the host country (and one of fashion’s capitals) is not playing around, and they’ve tapped storied French brand Berluti to design the Team France ensembles for the opening ceremony. Berluti collaborated with French fashion editor Carine Roitfeld to come up with the design, a tuxedo-inspired jacket featuring Berluti’s signature burnished treatment on the lapels in the colors of the French flag. “We wanted something more classic, chic, for special moments. So I thought of Le Smoking,” Roitfeld told the New York Times, referencing the classic Yves Saint Laurent design. The jackets will be worn with white silk-cotton blend shirts, along with slacks and sneakers, though the women have the option of a silk wrap skirt.
And while the design looks relatively simple, there are many small but important details. Pocket squares and scarves in the same red-and-blue brandished treatment can be tucked into the jacket pocket or tied around the neck, while a subtle Olympic logo adorns the side of the jacket. Inside, there’s a label with the slogan “Artisan of all victories,” so the athletes feel the support from Berluti—as well as their whole country—when they don the jackets for the big event.
But after the athletes have crossed the Seine, they are in for another sartorial treat. Pigalle founder Stéphane Ashpool is partnering with French athletic brand Le Coq Sportif to create the outfits for every event from swimming to BMX biking. Like Berluti, Ashpool invoked France’s national colors, turning the classic tricolor into an abstract print.
Laura Weber for Ireland
In 1924, Ireland made its debut in the Olympic games. One hundred years later, the country has another big debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics: that of Laura Weber, the New York-based Irish designer who has created the opening and closing ceremony looks for her native country.
While this is her first time undergoing such a task, Weber actually has some experience in this Olympic space. She embroidered the wedding dress of three-time Irish Olympian Natalya Coyle back in 2021, and aided in the embroidery of the Team USA Ralph Lauren uniforms when she worked for the brand upon first moving to America a decade ago. Now, she is taking on the task herself, creating two jackets for the athletes to wear at the two respective ceremonies, as well as a cotton jersey t-shirt, trousers, and sneakers. The opening ceremony jackets are white, double-breasted designs, a departure from the country’s go-to green. “I felt white really represents what the opening ceremony is about: the athletes going into the games with a blank canvas, feeling anything can happen,” she told Team Ireland. The design features each specific athlete’s county emblem, as well as four shamrocks, representing Ireland’s four provinces. Of course, Weber had to include her signature embroidery throughout the design, and each jacket will feature the athlete’s name, personalizing the piece even further.
When it came to the closing ceremony look, Weber decided to return to Ireland’s tried-and-true hue, creating a deep green jacket with a more retro cut, inspired by a piece worn by Irish track star and former Olympian Sonia O’Sullivan. Gold strapping details across the bodice form a five-pointed star, but if the athlete is lucky enough to score a medal during the games, their ribbon will deliver the sixth point when worn with the jacket.
Michel & Amazonka for Mongolia
During the Olympics, the focus typically remains on the host country and those who take home the most medals—the U.S., Russia, and Great Britain all being some of the usual suspects. But this year, Ulaanbaatar-based label Michel & Amazonka is garnering attention for Mongolia, despite the country’s relatively minor representation at the Summer Games with just 42 athletes.
Sisters Michel and Amazonka Choigaalaa have created four looks for the opening and closing ceremonies—two for the men and two for women—inspired by traditional Mongolian deels with a modern edge. Featuring embroidered vests, billowing sleeves, and high collars, the uniforms are extremely intricate, and each took more than 20 hours to complete. They highlight the red, gold, and blue of the Mongolian flag, as well as the country’s national symbol, the Soyombo. In addition to the vests, pleated skirts, and straight-leg pants, the women’s outfits come with ceremonial earrings and embroidered bags. The men’s offering includes an archery hat, belt, and traditional Mongolian boots.
While many uniforms for this year’s Olympics are fairly simple and straightforward, the artistry of Michel & Amazonka’s designs has struck a cord with the Internet; the Mongolian looks have already gone viral ahead of the opening ceremony. Likely, they will only stand out more when all 42 athletes join together, floating along the Seine.
Kevin Germanier for the Closing Ceremony
The athletes are not alone this year in the privilege of getting decked out in high-fashion designs. During the Olympics’s closing ceremony, to take place on August 11th, athleticism will meet spectacle in a finale at the Stade de France titled “Records.” There, more than 100 performers will engage in an extravagant display as acrobats, dancers, and world-renowned singers take the 30,000-square-foot stage. All of them will be dressed by Kevin Germanier, the Paris-based Swiss designer who fancies himself the “bead master.” Germanier is known for his colorful, heavily textured, eye-catching looks, as well as his focus on sustainability. For Paris to choose an independent designer like Germanier, when the city is home to some of the biggest, most storied design houses in the world, is notable. But Germanier’s designs are art pieces in themselves, and will no doubt stand out on the grand stage of the Olympic’s closing ceremony.
“The only thing [Thomas Jolly and Daphné Bürki] asked me is to create a fantasy,” Germanier told WWD of the Paris Olympics’s artistic director and costumes director. “Come on, it’s Paris 2024. We must show it’s the capital of fashion. If we don’t, we’d be in trouble.” As of now, the costumes are being kept under wraps, but Germanier has hinted that he is using deadstock materials as well as some more unconventional textiles. Creating for performance, with “no pressure to sell garments or please a buyer,” has definitely inspired the designer, so expect extravagance—something we already know Germanier can absolutely deliver.