PARIS – As a premium partner of the Paris 2024 Olympics, luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton was present at the opening ceremony, but the event, televised around the world, provided equal exposure to independent French fashion brands operating on shoestring budgets.
The opening ceremony’s styling and costume director, Daphne Bürki, has walked the runways of Victor Weinsant and Jeanne Julio and is close to the new generation of Paris-based designers. Bürki, a TV presenter, was also a judge on the first three seasons of Drag Race France.
As part of the core creative team working with Opening Ceremony Artistic Director Thomas Joly, she ensured that smaller brands promoting a gender-fluid aesthetic were featured during key moments of the ceremony, watched by an estimated 1.5 billion people around the world.
Victor Weinsant, one of the 15 emerging designers selected, said he couldn’t believe his good fortune.
“I’m excited and surprised. It’s an amazing opportunity for us young designers. It’s a big platform and a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said the designer, who created looks for Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour last year.
He was keenly aware that LVMH had reportedly spent €150 million sponsoring the event.
“I’m grateful to Daphne, the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee and the LVMH group. They are delighted that we were selected. It’s really fantastic,” he added.
Aerial dancers wearing costumes designed by Charles de Vilmorin performed at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Getty Images
Charles de Vilmorin costumed more than 150 participants in a tableau titled “Liberté,” which pays homage to François Truffaut’s French New Wave classic “Jules and Jean,” depicting a trio dressed in colorful costumes he designed.
The former LVMH Prize finalist praised Jolie and her team for pushing the envelope: “They’ve shown us the France we love,” he said.
“Liberation from gender rules”
Some of the night’s most memorable scenes included a mysterious figure wearing a silver hood and thigh-high buckled boots riding a mechanical horse across the Seine to deliver the Olympic flag to the official podium opposite the Eiffel Tower.
Fleurault, whose designs have included Madonna and Eurovision winner Morne Schneider, created a look inspired by Joan of Arc.
“She is a woman who very much represents what I am trying to do and what I want, which is to be free and to fight against gender rules and what society imposes on me as a woman,” she said.
“As a lesbian female designer, there’s not a moment in my life that I’m not fighting, whether it’s because I’m the only female designer, because there are no openly lesbian role models in the industry, or because I work in sustainable design and speak out about the challenges that it brings,” Fliot added.
She collaborated with master leather craftsman Robert Mercier, whose work has been seen on the likes of Zendaya in a Balmain wet-effect leather dress and Kim Kardashian in a Jean Paul Gaultier bustier.
A jockey riding a mechanical horse wearing a Jeanne Julio costume during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Courtesy of Jeanne Julio
Underneath the leather armour, cut from Italian metallised leather, Fleurault designed a printed bodysuit with crisscrossing belts creating a trompe l’oeil effect.
“It had to be fully adjustable with removable parts to accommodate not only riding equipment for safety, but also practical needs such as toilet breaks for riders who will be wearing it for several hours,” she explained.
Reclaiming the figure of Joan of Arc, the medieval warrior who is France’s patron saint, was often used as a symbol by far-right groups, so it felt all the more important.
“Not only does this work put a figure ‘like us’ back into the conversation, who may have been transgender or intersex, but it also brings up the connection to clothing, as not only did she wear armour, but she also wore men’s clothing in her daily life,” Fliot said.
In another performance, called “Festivité,” French DJ and lesbian activist Barbara Bucci hosted a queer reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” featuring supporting performers including Drag Race France stars Nikki Doll, Paloma and Pichet.
Model Raya Martiny walks down the catwalk along the Passerelle de Berry bridge on the Seine River during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. AFP via Getty Images
Upcycling and Queer Pride
The banquet tables were transformed into runways for designers including Weinsant, Alphonse Métrepierre, Kevin Germanier, Arthur Roberts’ label West Paris and Vincent Frédéric Colombo’s Creole.
Transgender model Raya Martiny embodied a sense of pride for France’s LGBTQIA+ community when she walked in a catsuit covered in more than 60,000 crystals in the colors of the French flag, designed by Jill Askin’s eponymous label, Askin.
Maîtrepierre enlisted Farida Khelfa, muse for designers ranging from Azzedine Alaïa to Jean Paul Gaultier, to custom design a pale pink sheath dress with an opulent foldover bodice made from four layers of material adorned with laser-cut patterns and embroidered floral details.
“We chose the idea of a 100% upcycled evening dress because we are standing alongside big brands with money and huge ateliers,” he said. “I visited Pantin’s stock of upcycled materials and [the outfit] From what I found there.”
Germanie’s choice was Italian Paralympic fencer Beatrice “Bebe” Vio Grandis.
“She is an inspiration to me,” he said. “She embodies not only beauty, but also strength of spirit. Not in the physical form, but the courage that emanates from her, her pride, her resilience in the face of societal dictates, her class, and always. [with] LOL.”
He expanded on the edgy, flashy designs he showed for Fall 2024 with a pastel-colored mini dress bordered with giant sprays of feathers.
Weinsant, who worked closely with Gaultier on his “Fashion Freak Show” cabaret, lent dozens of costumes from his archives to the fashion show segment, which was staged at dusk on the Passerelle d’Hobie bridge, with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
The designer dressed his muse, the model Iljima Maslanger, in a corseted dress from his spring 2024 collection and a giant organza headband from his spring 2022 collection that was inspired by his native Alsace, and he’s not thinking about the potential impact of his involvement.
“For me, it’s a matter of personal satisfaction,” Weinsant said. “I think about my parents. I’m sure they would be very proud.”
Acrobatic dancers wearing costumes designed by Charles de Vilmorin perform at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Taking risks
De Vilmorin was first asked to collaborate on the project last October, when he was president of the jury for the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories.
He designed oversized rainbow skirts for the aerial dancers of the Gratte Ciel Dance Company, who sit on poles along the Pont Neuf, and colorfully printed shorts and T-shirts for the acrobatic dancers of Company XY, in a scene that ends with a Patrouille de France pilot painting a red heart in the sky.
In addition to lending archival haute couture costumes, he worked with Bürki and his team to create outfits for dozens of dancers based on his debut ready-to-wear collection, shown last February, which de Vilmorin said was a first for the brand, with sizes ranging from XS to XXL and tailored to a range of body types.
Regardless of what happens next, he’s proud to have been a part of the event. “I don’t have expectations. I’m not like, ‘I’m going to get another 100,000 followers,'” de Vilmorin said.
Still, he hopes the move will convince buyers that he has the capacity to deliver at scale. “That was a concern for some of the people who were hesitant to buy my first collection,” he notes. “This shows that we can do it, and that other clients can too.”
As dancers ranging from Paris Opera Ballet star Germain Louvet to ballroom queen Gisele Palmer sprinted down the soaked runway, audiences were treated to a glimpse into a lesser-known side of French culture.
“Thomas’ work is incredible. It’s very modern, it’s fun, it’s very radical in the sense that it’s daring and risk-taking,” de Vilmorin said. “It’s not necessarily what people were expecting.”
