Suit, shirt, belt, shoes, scarf, clutch bag… The athletes in the French team will be dressed in head-to-toe Berluti for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with outfits unveiled on Wednesday by the LVMH brand, premium partner of the Games.

This year, the French will be “out in force, beautiful, elegant as never before and making their mark”, said to AFP the former fencer Brice Guyart, who is a member of the Paris 2024 organising committee and who is “convinced that the first medals will be won at the opening ceremony”.

The very chic French brand Berluti will be dressing 1,500 athletes and accompanying persons for the opening of the Olympic (26 July-11 August) and Paralympic (28 August-8 September) Games. And for a price. In shops, a pair of Shadow sneakers costs 1,000 euros and a Berluti suit around 4,000 euros. Athletes will be able to keep their outfits after the Games.

The suits, designed in collaboration with Carine Roitfeld, are midnight blue with a blue-white-red patina collar. The left pocket features a small Olympic flame and the Games logo. The jackets, sleeveless for the women, can be combined with trousers or a skirt, and with a white cotton and silk shirt.

The aim was to “combine elegance and comfort”, says Vanessa Le Goff, collection director at Berluti.

“The most difficult part (of the manufacturing process) was the collar,” in satin print which had to give the same effect on all the jackets, whatever their size from 3XS to 5XL, Elisa Mongiovo from Pattern, the Italian subcontractor responsible for making the suits by hand, explained to AFP.

Women choosing the skirt will wear a “very supple moccasin”. The shoes are made by hand in the Berluti workshops in Ferrara, Italy, including the ‘patina’: like painters, the employees apply the blue, white and red patina with brushes and rags, shoe by shoe.

“Traditionally we have eight shoe sizes, but for this project we went up to 14 sizes, from 34 to 56”, points out Agnès Fillioux, Industrial Director at Berluti, “a challenge because the comfort has to be the same for all sizes.”

Over the past few weeks, the athletes have been discovering their ceremonial outfits. Timothée Adolphe, a visually impaired disabled athlete, told AFP that he found his outfit “very pleasant”. Climber Oriane Bertone, who we met during a photo shoot, believes that Paris’ reputation as a “fashion capital” is being “lived up to”.