BEFORE THE SPORTING action begins proper, there is fashion to rank.
The uniforms of the nations competing in the Olympic Games have over the years become a significant talking point ahead of the Opening Ceremony.
Remember Tonga’s flagbearer and taekwondo competitor Pita Nikolas Taufatofua? His oiled-up look was a worldwide hit at Rio 2016, one he repeated at the winter games in Pyeongcheng two years’ later (he’s also a cross-country skier).
Fashion, at its best, is provocative and portrays a deeper meaning. A conversation starter, even if it divides opinion.
“I absolutely love the uniform, it’s so fashion forward,” was the opener from one journalist in the press room after the flagbearers – hurdler Sarah Lavin and golfer Shane Lowry – were revealed wearing the Laura Weber-designed outfit this afternoon.
“The white tracksuit that we just saw?,” exclaimed another reporter with incredulity.
Ireland’s uniform is objectively more than just a tracksuit though – it is over three years in the making, is topping the best-of lists across the world (WWD; The Independent; The Conversation; the BBC calls them epic) as we await the teams journey along the Seine, and was made in-house at one of the country’s top designer’s studio in New York.
Part of the fashion-in-sport conversation now is not only identity, but sustainability and comfort.
Weber manufactured the outfits in the Garment District of NYC from a special type of fabric called ECO-Hybrid taffeta, created using recycled T-shirts and plastic bottles.
Sport and fashion are having an intertwining moment right now, according to Weber who has been based in New York since 2013 and is seeing the plentiful collaborations happening between fashion houses and US athletes.
“America is just killing it with that,” she tells The Journal at the flagbearers’ reveal at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris.
“There are so many collaborations with sports stars – they are our new influencers. I think that the Irish athletes are the perfect example of what Ireland has to represent in terms of influencers on the world stage.”
The big business deals are also a sign of the growth of female sport across the world, a change Weber started noticing about six years ago.
“The real turn in it has taken time, but it’s about time. My god, it’s the first Olympic Games that there is equality in the number of men and women and I just think it’s so phenomenal to show up and represent Ireland in this way.”
Team Ireland athletes were given individual tailoring sessions with Weber for tonight’s look. That’s not typical for the event.
“I love to over service,” says Weber, who designed for Jill Biden ahead of her husband’s presidential inauguration in 2020. (Beyoncé is also on her client list.)
“I’m definitely a perfectionist and I love to make everyone feel their best selves,” she adds, herself dressed in an immaculate cream suit to complement her work.
“I think the only way we could do that is to ensure we tended to every athlete and fit them with what felt good – if they wanted a bigger waistband, a tighter leg, a roomier jacket, that was so important. I think that I wanted everyone to show up in the way that they felt their best selves.”
Sarah Lavin’s county badge, which adorns the sleeve of the jacket, was personalised to the extreme – featuring her favourite colour pink, something deduced by Weber through a good social media stalk.
The county badges have proved to be the most universally popular element of tonight’s uniform – although they started out as somewhat controversial.
“It was a huge conversation over eights months to really get to this point… is it really a good idea? Will they feel divided? Will it actually unite the athletes having different individual counties on their sleeves?
“But I really sold it as, ‘These athletes may not know each other, they may never get to meet up until the opening ceremony’, and so it was about getting them together and having that talking point of, ‘Let me see your patch. Let me see your county. Where are you from?’ And they get to talk about that right there and then and it’s a really lovely moment for them.”
But the deeper meaning of the feature is to offer a nod to the “families, villages and communities are the people who have shown up for these athletes every single day and have supported them to get them to this point in their career”.
Her work, which will be on show from 6.30pm (Irish time) today, is being recognised along with that of Michel and Amazonka Choigaalaa of Mongolia and Stella Jean for her work on Haiti’s kit.
Originally trained in textile design at Ireland’s National College of Art and Design, Weber dismissed the idea of green for tonight’s uniforms.
Her friend, three-time Olympian Natalia Coyle, had showed her Team Ireland’s previous uniforms while the pair worked on the modern pentathlete’s embroidered wedding dress, and she decided she needed to pitch something bold.
She believes ditching the green for “monumental white” was her most radical design choice. As this year marks Ireland’s centennial games – having first entered as a nation in 1924 – she wanted a nod to the Greeks who wore white in the ancient ceremony.
Other details include the Irish flag subtly woven into the pant piping, hand-embroidered emerald shamrock brooches on the lapels of each jacket and, of course, a pocket that fits a smartphone.
The closing ceremony outfits, also designed by Weber, have been fitted with a star strap around the neck of the jacket in the hope they will frame medals on at least some of our athletes after the next two weeks’ of competition.
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