The Paris 2024 Olympic Games kicked off today with a grand opening ceremony that saw the athletes greeting the crowds from boats along the Seine. Yet, while the competitions haven't started yet, an unlikely winner emerged on the Internet weeks before the Olympics - MichelAmazonka.
This Ulaanbaatar-based label, known for its couture and ready-to-wear garments that merge Mongolian tradition and culture with a contemporary twist, designed the opening and closing ceremony outfits for the Mongolian team at the Olympics and Paralympic Games.
The kits quickly caught the attention of fashion and sports fans, especially on TikTok, for their stylish couture designs rooted in tradition.
MichelAmazonka created two main designs for the male and female flag bearers and marching athletes. Mongolian athletes, who will compete in nine different sports including cycling, shooting, and wrestling, were outfitted in these uniforms. The garments were meticulously created by 42 Mongolian workers over several months in the label’s studio. Each complete set took an average of 20 hours and went through six stages of production, resulting in beautifully crafted pieces.
These uniforms truly stand out for their design, craftsmanship, heritage, and attention to detail - qualities that are often missing in Olympic kits by more famous designers.
The designs incorporate the national colors of blue, red, and white, as well as various embroidered traditional patterns and motifs on the vests worn over the pleated robes - an updated version of the traditional deel, a robe-like garment still worn by Mongolians.
These include the "Soyombo" symbol from the national flag, natural elements such as flowers, mountains, birds, and the sky, symbolizing Mongolia’s vast landscapes and natural beauty, and the Nine White Banners, referencing the banners entering the stadium during Naadam, a Mongolian festival held every July, celebrating horseracing, wrestling, and archery. Motifs associated with Paris and the Games, like the Eiffel Tower and the Olympic flame, also feature prominently. Gold and silver threads used in the embroidery hint at both medals and elegance. Female athletes' outfits are accessorized with ceremonial earrings and embroidered bags, while male flag-bearers donned traditional pointed archery hats (buryats). Another nod to archery is in the flag bearers' sleeves (called Mongolian archers' sleeves), which help the archer shoot efficiently and further. Additionally, male athletes wore a belt and traditional Mongolian boots (gutals).
The accompanying video and photoshoot were more reminiscent of a fashion magazine than a sports event, perhaps contributing to the growing number of fans.
Interestingly, the MichelAmazonka fashion house wasn't originally selected to design the uniforms. They were focused on creating collections for the traditional Naadam.
However, when the initially selected company withdrew, the Mongolian National Olympic Committee chose MichelAmazonka to be the official outfitter for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Seizing this opportunity, the label quickly designed and completed the uniforms in just three months, starting in April of this year.
MichelAmazonka was established in 2015 in Ulaanbaatar by sisters Michel and Amazonka Choigaalaa, and is headed by their sibling, CEO Munkhjargal Choigaalaa. Since its inception, the brand has strived to bridge the gap between global and local designers by merging their passion for underground ethnic hand-sewn embroideries and embellishments with European styles.
The two sisters are equally talented: Michel excels in crafting silhouettes, while Amazonka specializes in the details, including calligraphy and monograms. Their creativity is inspired by their own family; their mother, an avid embroiderer, influenced their decorative aesthetic, and their maternal grandfather, a monk, wore intricate designs.
While the sisters hope to expand, they currently focus on producing smaller collections due to limited production capacity. Despite this, their ambition and creativity are evident, as shown by their impressive output of 12 collections (one for each month) in 2018 alone.
MichelAmazonka is not new to designing outfits for athletes. They previously created the Mongolian team's outfits for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.
There are valuable lessons for young fashion designers and fashion design students here: never forget where you come from, revisit your past to envision the future, and always read the brief carefully.
In this case, the designers had to thoughtfully consider color, national pride, and identity while ensuring adaptability to the Paris climate, especially considering the heatwaves often hitting European cities in the summer (though it rained during the opening ceremony in Paris). Therefore, the uniforms were made from lighter materials.
Mongolia is renowned for its cashmere production, but MichelAmazonka has demonstrated that there is more to the local fashion scene than just cashmere. Their designs for the Mongolian team stood out for their thoughtful integration of traditional elements and modern aesthetics.
Yet there are further connections with these Olympic Games and fashion that also saw other independent or younger designers emerging, including Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean who included Philippe Dodard's artwork in her uniforms for Team Haiti or Justin Chou of Just in XX who designed suits for Taiwan's (competing as Chinese Taipei) athletes.
Chou's uniforms feature details from contemporary artist Paul Chiang, national treasure indigenous artisan Aing Banday, and twined flower craftsman Peggy Lin, and were made using fabrics from the major Taiwanese textile manufacturers New Wide Group and Junmay Label & Textile who have demonstrated exceptional technology on the sustainability front.
Countries with large delegations played more safely turning to big brands (it would have been impossible to adopt the level of handmade details provided by MichelAmazonka for designs destined to teams with a large number of athletes), so Ben Sherman and Ralph Lauren supplied uniforms for Team Great Britain and Team USA, respectively.
France’s team went all out with contributions from Pigalle's Stéphane Ashpool (who designed with Le Coq Sportif training uniforms and competition outfits, as well as ensembles for medal ceremonies, media interviews and official events), Dior, Kenzo, and Berluti (these are all owned by the LVMH conglomerate and it is worth remembering that Louis Vuitton has a partnership with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and LVMH is also sponsoring several French athletes who have been signed as Vuitton brand ambassadors).
Kenzo designed suits for the judo team, while Berluti, in collaboration with style advisor Carine Roitfeld, provided opening and closing ceremony uniforms (though they had a luxury hotel reception vibe, and the women's sleeveless blazers didn't look as elegant as the men's View this photo; was that an attempt at making the blazers more sexy? or were they saving money?). Giorgio Armani’s Emporio Armani continued to dress the Italian athletes in a classic, albeit uninspired, manner; Yohji Yamamoto, under the Y-3 label, created instead the kit for Japan's national football team with Adidas.
MichelAmazonka gained significant exposure in Europe through their uniforms for the Mongolian team. Hopefully, we will learn more about the duo in the future, perhaps through a small exhibition in Venice dedicated to their collections.
This would be an ideal way to forge a new connection between Mongolia and Venice, considering how the Venetian explorer Marco Polo spent a significant amount of time at the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler, in what is now China.
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