Does it feel like there has been an especially sharp focus on fashion at the Olympics this year? That would make sense, considering the event is taking place in Paris—the birthplace of couture—and is sponsored by luxury goods conglomerate LVMH for 2024. In reality, there has always been a sartorial aspect to the Olympic games, especially the Summer variety. Ever since the days when Florence Griffith Joyner ruled the track, athletes have been making statements with colorful suits and unexpected accessories—and the opening ceremonies always provide some exciting looks as countries kick off the Games with a stylish splash. Below, a look at the most notable fashion moments throughout the last 70 years, from the looks already making headlines at the 2024 games, all the way back to the space-age ensembles from Mexico City in 1968.
Kim Yeji, 2024
If you’ve been on Twitter recently, you’ve probably seen videos of Kim Yeji’s undeniably cool demeanor and look. The first-time Olympian, hailing from South Korea, competed in the women’s 10-meter air pistol event on July 28, taking home silver thanks to her impressive aim. It wasn’t just Kim’s skills that won over the public, though, but her whole aura. The 31-year-old wasn’t even wearing anything too over-the-top—a black Fila anorak, track pants, and a white baseball hat. But the way she zipped up the jacket to her chin and wore her short bob pulled back exuded a fierce energy. Plus, her custom Sauer sneakers were a great touch, as were her shooting glasses, which she peered out of when taking aim. That look was finished off with a child’s blanket topped with an elephant head dangling from her waist, a good luck charm from her five-year-old daughter.
Team Haiti, 2024
While Team Haiti wasn’t the largest group at the opening ceremony this year, they were certainly one of the most stylish. Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean created the uniforms for the athletes’ trip down the Seine, working with Haitian painter Philippe Dodard and using his artwork titled “Passage” throughout the designs, including on a full skirt and straight-leg pants. On top, the women wore sleeveless blazers made from recycled fabric, while the men donned work jackets modeled after a popular Haitian style—and inspired by Jean’s grandfather.
Team Mongolia, 2024
Haiti wasn’t the only country to make a statement with its opening ceremony looks. The designs for Mongolia, created by Ulaanbaatar-based label Michel & Amazonka, also nabbed the public’s attention ahead of the event on July 26. Sisters Michel and Amazonka Choigaalaa opted for more traditional uniforms inspired by Mongolian deels. Small details in the looks referenced Mongolian culture, like an image of the Nine White Banners on the vests, signifying Naadam, the country’s mid-summer festival, where athletes compete in events like wrestling, horse racing, and archery. The athletes wore these vests with pleated skirts as well as wide-leg pants, with the women carrying embroidered bags and then men donning archery hats.
Team Liberia, 2024
Rounding out the list of most fashionable uniforms this year is Team Liberia, who wore creations by Telfar, the cult New York-based apparel and accessories brand founded by Liberian-American designer Telfar Clemens. For the 2024 opening ceremony, Telfar opted for a simple but strong look, draping the Liberian athletes in long black tunics with mesh inserts and a neckline that resembled the shape of Africa. The chests boasted the Telfar logo while “Liberia” climbed down the bodice in bold, unmistakable letters.
Clemens’s collaboration with Team Liberia began in 2021, when he outfitted the team for the delayed 2020 Olympics. In addition to the opening ceremony looks, the brand also designed performance attire for the country’s athletes to wear throughout both the 2020 and 2024 Games; the 2024 varieties feature the same graphic lines and pronounced lettering as the tunics.
Momiji Nishiya, 2020
In 2021, the delayed 2020 Olympics introduced skateboarding to the roster of events for the first time. Of course, with the skateboarders came the skateboarding uniforms. Skateboarding, and the style surrounding the sport, has roots in Southern California, so it makes sense that the Olympic uniforms would also feature a SoCal streetwear edge. Nike stepped up to outfit many skateboarding teams, including Japan’s—and it was then-13-year-old Momiji Nishiya who took home gold for her country in the women’s street event, wearing a colorful and cool Nike-designed look.
Brazil Synchronized Swimming, 2012
Usually, synchronized swimming suits are one and the same—sparkly, colorful, artistic, and beautiful—but in a manner that has come to be expected. That’s why the suits Brazilians Lara Teixeira and Nayara Figueira wore for the women’s duet event at the 2012 Olympics in London were so exciting. The women donned anatomically accurate pieces depicting crystalized neon spines on the back and the nervous system on the front. The use of nude fabric made the design look like it was tattooed on the competitors as they leaped in and out of the water. And while synchronized swimmers don’t always wear swim caps, Teixeira and Figueira completed the bodily fantasy with brainy toppers.
Team Japan, 2004
The 2004 Olympics, held in Athens, was a successful one for Japan, as the country took home 37 medals, the most they’d ever won at the Games until that point. But the victories began before the first event, when Japan walked into the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, catching the world’s attention with joyful ensembles. The design concept was “show your colors,” and the women and men matched in long white trench coats covered in colorful peonies. The underside of the athletes’s bucket hats featured green, pink, and yellow, with each variety corresponding to the fans they held while making the walk around the stadium.
Cathy Freeman, 2000
There is little doubt that the hooded running suit Cathy Freeman wore to compete in the 400-meter race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics was a reference to the fastest woman ever, Florence Griffith Joyner. Freeman’s take on the suit, though, was more high-tech than the one Flo-Jo donned at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
According to Eddy Harber, who created the “Swift Suit” for Nike, Freeman’s body parts were measured, fabrics were tested, and various materials were then assigned to areas of the suit based on their performance. Those who worked on the Swift Suit claim it helped reduce five to ten percent of the drag added by normal running attire. The Australian athlete won gold that year, but whether she could have done so without the suit remains unknown. “Ultimately, I simply enjoyed the way it made me feel when I ran, even though I had a reservation about the way it made me look,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2020.
Team Japan, 2000
After years of adhering to a neutral color palette for the Olympic Games opening ceremony uniforms, Kazuko Tagawa, director of Nippon Uniform Center, went in a very different direction for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The designs were kept under wraps until just before the ceremony, with the athletes only getting to see them the day prior.
According to Tagawa, the capes’s colors reflected Australia’s “carefree nature and the city’s deep blue sky,” playing on the ecological theme the host country was embracing for the Games. Athletes wore all black underneath their colorful capes, which and lifted as they waved to the crowd, creating a kaleidoscopic effect.
Niconner Alexander and Ato Boldon, 2000
Teammates Niconner Alexander and Ato Boldon made quite the impression on viewers when they stepped out for the men’s 4×100 semifinals wearing matching sunglasses that rested on top of their heads rather than on their ears. Created by Oakley, the “Over the Top” glasses, as they were called, were made available to the public not long after the games, and ushered in a new era for the sunglasses manufacturer. The glasses were later seen in multiple films, including Blade 2, Spider-Man, and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over—and they still pop up on celebrities and sunglass fans today.
Michael Johnson, 1996
After failing to make the final for the 200-meter race at the 1992 Games, Michael Johnson had a lot to prove in Atlanta in 1996. Apparently, the American runner believed in the power of manifestation—and he took to the track in a pair of custom gold shoes. Like Freeman’s Swift Suit, Nike put in the work to make sure Johnson’s pair performed as necessary, customizing every aspect, even making each individual shoe a different size to fit Johnson’s slightly larger left foot.
“We worked for about a year and a half to make this shoe accomplish all of those objectives,” Johnson said, according to High Snobiety. “Then I asked [Nike’s senior director of athlete innovation] Tobie Hatfield: Can you make it in gold? And he said: ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ I don’t think they really thought I was serious. Then it dawned on them: He’s really going to wear gold shoes.” Johnson’s shoe-based manifestation worked: the then-28-year-old went on to win both the 200-meter and 400-meter race, the only man to ever do so.
Team Lithuania, 1992
Just two years after gaining independence, Lithuania arrived at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with something to prove—and they made their mark immediately thanks to their opening ceremony uniforms. The Lithuanian athletes wore looks designed by Issey Miyake, which showed off the green, yellow, and red of the country’s flag, and employed Miyake’s famous “Pleats Please” technique. It was the country’s team doctor, Edward Domanskis, who had the idea to ask Miyake to create the uniforms, and the Japanese designer did one better: he donated them for free.
But Lithuania’s parade of looks didn’t end there. Later, during the Games, the men’s basketball team showed up in tie-dye jerseys and shorts, donated by The Grateful Dead, who also helped sponsor the Lithuania basketball team’s participation in the Games.
Florence Griffith Joyner, 1988
Twelve years before Cathy Freeman took home the gold in her Nike Swift Suit, Florence Griffith Joyner (also known as Flo-Jo) originated the hooded running suit at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Breaking sartorial boundaries in her sport was nothing new to Flo-Jo, however, who was known for running in one-legged bodysuits, as well as long, decorated nails.
“Conventional is not for me,” she told the LA Times in 1988. “I like things that are uniquely Flo. I like being different. The outfits they give us are so standard.”
Decades later, Flo-Jo is still inspiring athletes like Serena Williams, Sha’Carri Richardson, and more—who reference the track star as both an athletic and style inspiration.
Mexico Olympic Guides, 1968
Indigenous Mexican art met ’60s psychedelia at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez took the lead on most of the visual aspects for the Games, but it was Irma Dubost and Julie Murdoch who designed these space-age shift dresses worn by guides leading participants around the Olympic Village. A graphic logo featuring the Olympic rings and “Mexico 1968” were hidden within the pattern of the dress, as well as its matching cape.
