Forget Paris Fashion Week, Olympic chic unveiled in Sydney

Our Olympians will wear the most technologically advanced uniforms, but the highlight is the inclusions of dresses for the first time.

Australian athletes model the various formal and informal uniforms, with state-of-the-art technology incorporated into them, for the nation’s Olympians at this year’s Games in Paris in July. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

It’s hard to compete with Paris Fashion Week for glamour, but the Australian Olympic team outshone the haute couture parades as they showed off their new official uniform on Thursday ahead of the Paris Olympic Games.

It was hard to miss what looked like a large, yet glitzy, group personal training session at Sydney’s iconic Mrs Macquarie’s Chair as the new athletic kits were unveiled by Australia’s chef de mission Anna Meares and federal sports minister Anika Wells on the edge of a glistening harbour with the coat hanger bridge serving as the perfect backdrop for the fashion show.

The uniforms may boast more Lycra than a weekend warrior peloton, but come July the Australian competitors will have all the gear and all the ideas thanks to state-of-the-art technology incorporated into every racer’s back singlet, pair of tights, swimmers and team uniforms.

Made in conjunction with Japanese athletic label ASICS, an acronym of the Latin phrase “Anima Sana In Corpore Sano” which means “a sound mind in a sound body”, the uniforms incorporate an arrow pattern signifying strength, steadfastness and determination – which is known as ­Japonism Yagasuri – in a nod to the creators.

After consultation with the AOC Athletes’ Commission, the ASICS Institute of Sport Science considered the high temperatures and humid conditions that athletes will face in Paris. As a result, the uniforms feature an advanced ventilation technology optimised specifically for the summer Games.

The uniforms will also be tailored for competitors from a range of different sports, and designed to suit the specific needs of individuals.

“Feeling comfortable in a uniform is really critical,“ said Ms Meares, who is Australia’s most decorated cyclist after winning six medals across four consecutive Olympic Games.

”We’re looking to have up to 480 athletes on the team for Paris and those bodies are all different … there are little nuances that each athlete and each sport requires.”

Every piece of the Olympic uniforms will also feature the traditional Australian green and gold colour scheme as well as Indigenous prints. It will the first time Indigenous artwork will be prominent on every item of the uniform.

Indigenous boxer Paul Fleming – who competed for Australia at the 2008 Olympics – helped created the Indigenous aspects of the uniforms, teaming with Torres Strait Islander artist David Bosun to create the designs.

“To have the artists work with the athletes … has been a great process and one that has bought great collaboration and a uniform that everyone is proud of,” Ms Meares said.

“The look good, feel good, go good thing, to me, is a really strong mantra for an athlete. And if you can cover off the first two which is look good, feel good, then go good should look after itself.”

In another first, athletes will also be able to wear dresses around Olympic venues in Paris. It’s expected to be hot and humid in the French capital during the Games, which run in the northern hemisphere mid-summer from July 26.

Ms Wells, wearing ASICS sneakers and a self-confessed “sports nut”, said the uniforms were not only special in their ­appearance and function but also in what they represented.

“Olympians sacrifice so much for their sport. That’s truly what makes you so special … Many of our greatest Olympians have to work part-time while competing against the world’s best where once every four years their success is decided by an inch, a millisecond,” she said.