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The pouring rain didn’t spoil the four-hour opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which was held on the Seine on 26 July. “When you love the games, you don't let a few raindrops bother you,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee, said on the podium facing the Eiffel Tower at the Trocadéro.
Estanguet worked closely with Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the ceremonies, to put together the spectacle that — for the first time — wasn’t held in a stadium, but instead took over the Seine, with different scenes playing out around different monuments of Paris.
LVMH — which spent €150 million to seal its premium partnership with the Olympics, according to sources — scored highly at the ceremony, proving once again its firepower. Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Aya Nakamura and Juliette Armanet performed in Dior; Paris Opera’s Guillaume Diop danced in Louis Vuitton on the Hôtel de Ville rooftop; and a scene featured the making of the medals trunk in the Louis Vuitton ateliers and its journey from the Pont Neuf to the Trocadéro. With over 320,000 visitors at the banks on the Seine, plus the 2 to 3 billion viewers expected for global broadcast, it’s maximum exposure for LVMH’s two largest houses.
Other LVMH brands will also show up across the games, which run until 11 August (the Paralympics run from 28 August to 8 September): Chaumet created the medals, Berluti some 1,400 outfits for the French delegation, while Sephora makeup artists take care of the makeup of Olympic medalists for when they get on the podium at the Champions Park. Eyewear brand Vuarnet released some official products under the licence of Paris 2024 and Moët & Chandon flows at La Maison LVMH, a space that features an outdoor garden, restaurant and full programme of VIP events.
On Friday night, Lady Gaga performed in a Dior haute couture feather jacket with a black and pink skirt embroidered with feathers. French singer Juliette Armanet wore a black leather set by Dior in collaboration with French designer Clara Daguin, who is known for her work using light and technology. In the ensemble, she’d embroidered lights that activated to the rhythm of the song. There was also the eight-metre-long Dior gown in the colours of the French flag for mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel (which reminded fashion aficionados of the dress designed by Azzedine Alaïa for opera singer Jessye Norman and her appearance at the bicentenary of the French revolution in 1989, directed by legendary photographer Jean-Paul Goude). The ceremony ended on a high note with Celine Dion performing Édith Piaf’s Hymne à l’Amour in a white silk long dress, also by Dior.
Some celebrities and other VIP guests were kept dry at Cheval Blanc, the LVMH-owned palace hotel with a sprawling view of the Pont Neuf and Paris. Louis Vuitton hosted a cocktail party at Langosteria, the hotel’s Italian restaurant, and Dior at Le Tout-Paris, the French restaurant on the same floor. The Arnault family, top LVMH brass and Pharrell Williams were joined by guests including Bradley Cooper and Omar Sy (who played foosball table together), Spanish choreographer Blanca Li, Christian Louboutin and, surprisingly, Axel Dumas, executive chairman of Hermès.
The show also featured 15 emerging fashion designers, selected by Daphné Bürki, the 2024 Olympics’s stylist and costume director. Some of the designers taking part were Jeanne Friot, Victor Weinsanto, Charles de Vilmorin, Kevin Germanier and Alphonse Maitrepierre.
In one scene, the Debilly footbridge was transformed into a banquet with the table doubling as a catwalk, a format reminiscent of the 150-metre-long table that featured in Dries Van Noten’s memorable 50th show in October 2004. Iconic model Farida Khelfa walked the runway in a Maitrepierre dress made entirely from waste from sorting and recovery centres, while trans model Raya Martigny walked in Gilles Asquin and model Ildjima Masrangar in a Weinsanto Spring/Summer 2024 dress and a gigantic Alsatian headdress, a nod to the model and the designer’s native region.
Friot, who created her namesake label in 2020 focusing on genderless fashion and LGBTQ+ culture, desgined the costume for the character of Joan of Arc who was seen riding a horse down the Seine. She collaborated with Robert Mercier, an expert at sculpting leather on conceiving an armour that looks metallic but is actually made from leather. “My Instagram has been on fire since last night and even my Japanese distributor called me to say congratulations. He was watching on TV,” Friot told Vogue Business on Saturday morning.
The 29-year-old designer was invited by Paris 2024 to watch from Parisians’ favourite boat bar Rosa Bonheur sur Seine, along with other designers like Weinsanto and Vilmorin. The publicity boost offered by the opening ceremony is much welcomed in a challenging time for emerging designers, who have been hard hit by the economic climate and the recent slump in online retail. Friot’s next show will be in January and she hopes that during sales in September, she will sign with a few more stores thanks to the Olympics. She also praised the visibility of the queer community at the ceremony: drag queens Piche and Nicky Doll who both star in Drag Race France walked the show on the Debilly footbridge. The soundtrack was by Barbara Butch, a French DJ and self-proclaimed “love activist.”
Meanwhile, parading on 85 boats that sailed down the river Seine, from East to West, the 205 delegations were seen wearing a diversity of uniforms. Team France was in Berluti, while the Team USA uniforms were created by Ralph Lauren. “The Olympics opening ceremony is the most watched sporting event globally and enables us to connect with our consumers at a uniquely large scale,” Ralph Lauren president and CEO Patrice Louvet told Vogue Business via email. “We’re finding it is an especially powerful way for us to engage with the younger generation of consumers, showcase the brand through our storytelling, and connect to our customers through shared areas of passion that are authentic to us as a brand.” The executive also noted that the Olympics sits within a wider strategy of “authentically weaving Ralph Lauren into cultural moments that drive brand relevance and desirability”. He added: “Our momentum will continue in September with Ralph’s upcoming runway show in The Hamptons on 5 September, as well as our return to the US Open as the official apparel sponsor.”
Additionally, Canadian athleisure brand Lululemon created Canada’s uniforms, Asics the Australian ones and Ulaanbaatar-based fashion label Michel & Amazonka the Mongolia Olympic uniforms that have been buzzing on TikTok in the lead up to the Olympics.
“Soaked but so happy,” French fencer Enzo Lefort, who’s a LVMH and Louis Vuitton ambassador for the Olympics, posted on Instagram on the night of the event. The Olympic fashion week has begun.
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