The luxury brands giving the Olympics a certain je ne sais quoi

Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world, takes a rakish look at art and museum stories.

It has been said more than once that this year’s Olympic Games are the most fashionable to take place. Whatever that means, exactly, the evidence to support this centres on France’s most successful conglomerate, LVMH. The luxury behemoth is sponsoring the games in a variety of different ways to the tune of €150 million. The medals are being designed by jeweller Chaumet, part of the LVMH stable. They will be presented in boxes designed by Louis Vuitton (the LV in LVMH). The not-originally-French company Berluti is designing the official uniforms for Team France, also part of the stable and run by Antoine Arnault, the oldest son of LVMH’s CEO Bernard. Arnault senior has said, ‘We decided not just to sign a cheque.’

French Olympic athletes and Antoine Arnault (right) at the presentation of the Team France outfits, designed by Berluti, in April this year. Photo: Marc Piasecki/Getty Images

According to LVMH, its ‘partnership with Paris 2024 is both exceptional and highly creative’. The conglomerate certainly knows a thing or two about creativity, and not just in the fields of fashion and sport. Louis Vuitton has famously been part of both editions of Paris + Art Basel and will, presumably, be part of Art Basel Paris this year, to say nothing of the Fondation Louis Vuitton and its stellar line-up of exhibitions in the Bois de Boulogne.

Of course, it’s not just the French who are playing this game of cultural capital by creating a look for a specific moment. The US gymnastic team will be astonishing spectators not only with their skills, but also with leotards bedazzled with more than 10,000 crystals courtesy of sportswear company GK Elite.

Earlier this week a British sportsman caused something of a stir during a very French cultural event. Cyclist Mark Cavendish celebrated his final Tour de France stage in a pair of Nike shoes designed by Damien Hirst. The shoes are a very fetching shade of sky blue with butterflies. The Nike Swoosh comes in yellow and green. According to Cavendish, the ‘iconic butterflies perfectly [match] my feelings about this part of my career. Life, death, metamorphosis,’ which feels like lot of weight for a shoe to bear. Perhaps it’s how you spin the look that really matters.

The Nike shoes designed by Damien Hirst for cyclist Mark Cavendish in action at the 2024 Tour de France. Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

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