The Style Holding The Olympics Together
Picture this, you’re French (my condolences), you have the biggest sports festival in the world to host, and you need to look your best. Who do you call? LVMH.
LVMH has taken it on themselves to create the outfits for volunteer medal bearers during the Paris Olympic Games. These people are young sports members of different national sports federations around France, and the unisex uniform harkens back to the 1920s silhouttes inspired by the 1924 Games in Paris. 515 medal bearers will be wearing the polo shirt, roomy pants and traditional gavroche cap. The shirts and caps are made from a recycled heavy jersey fabric while the pants are made from a poly-wool blend using recycled polyester. As much as possible LVMH have attempted to have a “closed loop” in their use of materials and recycling.
Along with the uniform they also get a set of Fenty Beauty products if they want to touch up for the historic event they’ll be a part of. They’ll be carrying medal trays designed by Louis Vuitton, made to be as light as possible. The exterior is covered by the Maison’s historic Damier canvas while the interior is a matt black leather.
The medals were made by Parisian jeweler Chaumet. Each one contains a bit of Paris’s most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower. After numerous renovations pieces of the original Iron have been removed and preserved. The Eiffel Tower Operating Company graciously allowed this iron from between 1887 and 1889 to find a new lease on life by being part of the medal themselves. The center plaque of the medal is the iron itself, stripped of the brown paint used on the tower. In each corner of the hexagon is a diamond riveting which harks back to the rivets on the Dame de fer itself. It’s typical to tell the story of the revival of the olympic games in 1896 on the medals backside. This is usually done with the goddess Athena Nike represented in the foreground with the Acropolis of Athens over her shoulder. But this time on her opposite side the Eiffel Tower has also been snuck into the design. The Paralympic medal also has it’s own easter eggs on the back. The back is a design of the tower looking up at it while underneath. On either side of the negative space is the words “Paris” and “2024” in universal braille. This is particularly special considering Louis Braille was a frenchman who invented the language to begin with.
Omega has been supporting the Olympic games since 1932 and this year is no exception with a beautiful selection of pocket stop watches as well as more conventional timepieces.
Omega is getting in on the Olympics action with four new models in the 43mm Speedmaster Chronoscope series. Each one is presented in gold, black, and white colourway. This includes a version in full stainless steel with an anodized aluminium bezel, and another with a ceramic bezel and 18K Moonshine Gold case and bracelet. Most notable on each watch is the silvery white opaline dial, which is transferred with three dark grey timing scales in a 1940’s “snail” design. These include a tachymeter scale, a pulsometer scale, and a telemeter scale. On the face are blackened subdials, Arabic numerals in 18K Moonshine Gold, and leaf-shaped hands and subdial hands that are Moonshine Gold coated.
The commemorative caseback is stamped with a mirror polished games logo. Internally it’s been equipped with the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9908 / 9909, certified by METAS at the highest standard of precision.