After a great series of thoughtful and insightful blog posts by young folks in the fashion industry we thought it might be time to take slightly different tack with the London 2012 Olympics just around the corner (and the Cultural Olympiad program recently released).

Imagine being a fashion designer and getting a knock on your door from your local Olympic association,  asking if you wouldn’t mind throwing together a few ensembles for your national team – that’s a competition uniform for 26 sports, a “formal” outfit for the opening ceremony and no doubt some sort of “every-day” outfit for chilling out around the athletes village (more on Canada’s denim jacket later).

I think it would be a tough gig. You have to consider national expectations.  Imagine the outrage if the Aussies marched into the stadium at the Opening Ceremony wearing bright pink safari suits and intricate gladioli head dresses.  No, it simply wouldn’t do. We are used to our “green and gold”, it’s comforting, we know how to pick ourselves out of a marathon. So you have colour limitations for a start, then certain sports require particular materials or design features, and the list goes on.

So what have a few of the world’s designers come up with? Lets check it out.

AUSTRALIA
Designer: Adidas (in house)
Talking point: I’m delighted to see we’ve finally got our brilliant women’s basketball team out of those awful Lycra body suits, they look like, well…basketballers now!

Adidas unveils Australian Olympic uniforms

UK
Designer: Stella McCartney
Talking point: Too blue? Not enough red?

McCartney unveils UK Olympic uniforms

Canada
Designer: The Bay
Talking point: Denim is back!

Suzanne Timmins reveals Canadian Olympic uniforms

*image courtesy ABC news