The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games opened yesterday, after being rescheduled to this year due to Covid-19. Needless to say these are rather controversial games as Coronavirus is still spreading: just a few days ago there were rumours the Olympic Games may have been cancelled as a few athletes at the Olympic village had tested positive, casting a shadow on the event. So far, fears, anxiety and uncertainty dominated the news rather than a healthy dose of enthusiasm for some great sport events.
The opening ceremony offered some distraction and a little bit of entertainment from a fashion point of view as well. Some trends emerged for example in yesterday ceremony, but they didn't hint at colours, shapes or silhouettes, but at themes and moods.
Japan went for example for a national moment but in a contemporary key when Japanese singer performed the national anthem in an evening gown by costume designer Tomo Koizumi, a favourite with entertainers and fashionistas since he showcased his collection of gargantuan organza gowns at New York Fashion Week in 2019.
Famous for his huge multi-coloured confections, this time he went tor a monumental gown in white painted along the hem in the colours of the rainbow.
There was a transnational moment when the Italian team arrived: after designing the suits for the Italian team at the 2020 European soccer championship, Emporio Armani created the uniforms also for the Olympic athletes. Japan has always been an inspiration for Giorgio Armani, so the uniforms featured the Rising Sun reinterpreted with the colours of the Italian flag, while the word "Italia" was written in Kanji, Japan's vertical writing system (the letter T in the word was also inspired by the Torii, the entrance gateways to Jinja shrines).
Kenya looked particularly striking as for the occasion the uniform of the athletes attempted a reappropriation of the Maasai attire.
A reference pilfered for decades by all sorts of fashion designers, the Maasai were honoured with simple yet striking uniforms in a vibrantly bright red and blue plaid print.
The team's female athletes wore Maasai print dressesi with a caped bolero jacket and the male athletes wore matching shirts with black trousers. The dresses looked particularly simple and functional, yet elegant.
Team New Zealand went for minimal black and grey uniforms matched with white sneakers, but flag bearers Sarah Hirini and David Nyika donned the Te Māhutonga, a kākahu (cloak).
The Te Māhutonga was created in the occasion of the Athens Olympics in 2004 to build cohesion in the team. It is a collective work of art, made by different artisans using fibres and feathers. After each Olympic Gamees the cloak is returned to weaver Rānui Ngārimu, of the Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa (the national Māori weavers group) who designed it and restores it after every Olympic event (the feathers are particularly fragile).
The cloak includes flax fibre and feathers of different endangered birds - khe kiwi, kākāpō, toroa (albatross) and tieke (saddleback). New Zealand is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) that ensures that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of species, which means that special permits must be obtained at every Olympic Games to carry this masterpiece of craft out of the country and into another country and then back to New Zealand.
It looks like there is more to see and appreciate then in the Olympics opening ceremony, than just some uniforms often created by famous fashion designers.
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