Just one week away from the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the internet is going wild following the announcement of Team Mongolia’s uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies.
The attire, inspired by traditional Mongolian dress, features detailed embroidery, pleated robes and historical Mongolian motifs such as the “Soyombo” symbol in the country’s flag, along with the national colours of red, white and blue. The design also features symbols of this year’s Olympic Games, such as the Olympic torch and the Eiffel Tower. The embroidered vest includes images of mythical creatures, the sun and the moon.
The female version of the ensemble also features drawstring bags with gold embroidery and long drop style ceremonial earrings in red, white and gold. The male version includes traditional pointed “buryat” hats, “gutal” boots and an embellished belt. The Mongolian National Olympic Committee has confirmed that each outfit took around 20 hours to produce, with tailoring specific to each athlete’s measurements.
Voices of fashion and sport have been generating a buzz online, with a video by style enthusiast, Ryan Yip stating, “They just won the Olympics before it even started”, gaining over 2 million views. Former athlete, Michael Johnson also praised the uniforms, sharing a post on X saying, “Just go ahead and give them the gold meal now for best uniform!”
The designers behind the uniforms are sister duo Michel and Amazonka Choigaalaa, of the fashion label Michel&Amazonka, based in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. The brand, which sells couture and ready-to-wear clothing, revealed the uniforms through a high-fashion inspired video and photo shoot on social media. This isn’t the first time Michel&Amazonka sit at the helm of Team Mongolia’s uniforms, having created the looks for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Mongolia has competed in every Olympics since 1964 bar the 1984 Games and have won a total of 30 Olympic medals, 2 of which gold during the Beijing 2008 Games. Now, Mongolia will lead the way in Olympic fashion with the Paris’ Opening Ceremony set for 26 July.
