Team GB Olympic kit by stella McCartney

Today saw the launch of Stella McCartney’s Team GB 2012 Olympic kit. The first thing that struck me was that it was very blue.

When seeing the different disciplines lined up the second thing that hit me was that it’s not very uniform …in the literal sense. The predominant colour is supposedly dark Indigo, which on the cycling kit looks great, but on the men’s gymnastics stirrup pants the dark indigo now forms part of the abstract union flag motif. Through out the range the colours are swapped and moved providing no consistency. The same is true for the design. On all the headline photos of Cris Hoy the kit has a bottom left corner of the British flag printed in turquoise yet The football kit has the whole right hand side of the flag, the track and field strip has the top right of the flag, and the men’s gymnastics leotard has the whole top half of the flag. So as you watch an event and learn to spot the GB competitor from the back of the venue you can expect to have to learn over again when the discipline changes.

Why is there no red in the Team GB kit?

There has been a huge outcry on British news sites and on twitter over the lack of red in the kit. When Stella’s design is based on the British flag it is reasonable to expect red to form part of the design, and personally I love the way red white and blue work together to form a strong colour combination, but Stella McCartney has not been original in removing red from the GB Olympics kit:

the 2008 kit was almost totally devoid of red.

2008 Team GB Olympics kit

See more photos of the 2008 kit here: 2008 kit

and the 2004 kit had very little too.

2004 Team GB Olympics kit

See more photos of the 2004 kit here: 2004 kit

But in both 2004 and 2008 the kit was uniform, there was a consistency that allowed you to spot a GB competitor a long way off whatever their sport was. I’m afraid the the 2012 kit will not work in that way!

The 2012 Olympics GB ladies gymnastics leotard

I’ve not been able to find any good photos from the launch event of the gymnastics leotard, the photo that I have here is washed out in a strange colour because of projected light on stage, but here we see yet another orientation/snippet of the UK flag motif.

As a design it’s lovely but I get no kinship with other disciplines within the Team GB camp.

The 2012 Olympics GB men’s gymnastics strip

The men’s leotard is a different colour again from the ladies leotard, and the stirrups are not dark indigo like other team garments. But at least the motif is more recognisable as the British flag I s’pose, and there is more red – whoop!

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Last updated by David at April 10, 2012.