I’m pretty much clueless when it comes to sports.

Ask my roommates, and they’ll tell you how I inquired, ‘Is this the Final Four?’ every time I saw a basketball game on TV during the month of March. Also, at risk of causing readers to throw their papers aside in rage, I will admit I have never been to a Syracuse University basketball game.

But before you pass out from the shock of my startling secret, let me share that there is one sporting event that I get excited about: the Olympics.

What’s appealing about the Olympic games is the spirit of international cooperation and its pure spectacle. Part of that spectacle is the athletes’ uniforms. This summer, when the world’s best athletes gather in London, uniforms will play an important role from the beginning to the end of the games.

This role is multifaceted and incorporates many of fashion design’s defining principles. A successful athletic uniform must be functional while making its wearer feel confident and comfortable.

Excitement is beginning to build with the opening ceremonies taking place July 27. Ralph Lauren and Prada announced they would outfit Olympic athletes this summer, the U.S. team and the Italian sailing team, respectively, according to an April 3 Daily Telegraph article. Each chose domestic designers, an important choice for showing national solidarity and pride at the games.

Those designs have yet to be released. But at the end of March, Adidas revealed Australia’s uniforms and British fashion designer Stella McCartney, who collaborated with Adidas, revealed her English Olympic team uniforms.

McCartney gave her designs a flashy presentation at the Tower of London. A video from the BBC showed a gymnast dressed in the team’s uniform rising from a platform on a pommel horse, matched with the music of British songstress Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine. A background of flashing lights completed the thrilling spectacle. Later in the presentation, more variations of the uniform were revealed, each suiting the athletes’ respective sports.

Part of McCartney’s job as designer was to make the uniforms recognizable and reflect England’s national identity. She did this by reworking the iconic Union Jack flag into the designs.

‘Something that was very important to me was to try and use that very iconic image but to dismantle it and try to soften it, break it down and make it more fashionable in a sense,’ McCartney said to BBC News on March 22.

Her entirely blue design, a simplified version of the English flag, did not include the color red. The designer defended her choice, saying viewers confuse red, white and blue uniforms for ones representing the United States or France.

In spite of each uniform’s functional differences, the group’s attire looked cohesive, creating a sense of team unity. McCartney said the athletes told her this feeling of togetherness was an important part of their Olympic uniforms’ design.

The presentation was quite a show, but it is sure to be nothing in comparison to the opening ceremonies this summer. I may not have watched Syracuse play against Ohio State University, but you can be sure I’ll be glued to my TV screen this July. The world’s athletes always impress me, and from the archery field to the track, I know they’ll look damn good doing it.

Ian Simon-Curry is a sophomore public relations major. His column appears every other Monday. He intends to attend a Syracuse basketball game next season. Follow him on Twitter at @incrediblyian. He can be reached at insimonc@syr.edu.

Published on April 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ian: insimonc@syr.edu