OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONY: THE FASHION INSPIRATIONS

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Wasn't the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday night brilliant? We were madly tweeting throughout the whole extravaganza and were so happy to see that the evening's costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb had commissioned NEWGEN designers Nasir Mazhar, Michael Van Der Ham and Christopher Shannon to create costumes for 350 dancers in the section which celebrated British music and culture- their studios are a stone's throw away from the Olympic park so it was a fitting nod to East London talent.

Dancers at the Olympic Opening Ceremony in costumes by young Lodnon designers (image from vogue.co.uk)

A sketch of one of the dresses Michael Van Der Ham created
for the opening ceremony (image from vogue.co.uk)

The most diverse costumes of the night came from the athletes as they processed, nation by nation, into the Olympic stadium in a pageant which took almost two hours to unfold. There were some absolute howlers (hello Germany and Sweden) while most of the African nations looked completely magnificent. Our beady eyes noticed that a number of countries were wearing outfits not so very dissimilar to catwalk looks from recent seasons, so we've had some fun this morning...

COOK ISLANDS

The Cook Islands' batik prints, floral wreaths and leis were so cheerful but also reminded of a certain Mr Saunders' (who dressed Emeli Sandé for her rendition of Abide with Me) Spring/ Summer collection.

Jonathan Saunders SS12 (image from catwalking.com)

CUBA

The best outfits were those in the brightest colours and Cuba certainly delivered with their lemon blazers. As it happens, yellow has been a dominating hue in the latest Resort collections, with Valentino doing a particularly lovely version.

Valentino Resort '13 (image from style.com)

GUYANA

The team from Guyana went for top-to-toe tailoring in their country colours. The whole look is coincidentally akin to Marc Jacobs Resort collection.

Marc Jacobs Resort '13 (image from style.com)

LESOTHO

Ombré is such a massive trend right now that it's even spread to the remote African region of Lesotho, a favourite destination of Prince Harry's. The whole thing began on the Louis Vuitton SS12 catwalk.

Louis Vuitton SS12 (image from catwalking.com)

MEXICO

The procession of Mexican athletes was a riot of eye popping colours and patterns. We know that Carven's Guillaume Henry took a "round the world" approach to his SS12 collection and this zig zag print is very Mexican.

Carven SS12 (image from catwalking.com)

ESTONIA

There's a growing trend for plastering the name of your brand across your chest- see Kenzo and ACNE Resort. Estonia decided to do the same of Friday night.

Kenzo Resort '13 (image from style.com)

POLAND

Poland's female athletes went for a graphic floral pencil skirt to pep up their all white outfits. There's a not dissimilar piece in Preen's Resort offering.

Preen Resort '13 (image from style.com)

TEAM GB

Danny Boyle took us through a whole catalogue of very British things in his opening ceremony, from Mr Bean to Queen. He obviously couldn't find anywhere to slot in the national hero that is Jimmy Saville so Next, who were enlisted to design Team GB's outfits for the night, took it upon themselves to reference him in the tracksuits they made. We also noted the gold underarm patches which perhaps alluded to our gold medal ambitions, sweating gold already?