PARIS — Paris may be the world capital of fashion, but on the opening night of the Olympic Games, it will also become a global showcase for sustainable design.
Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the open-air event that will take place on the Seine river, revealed on Monday that he has drafted television presenter Daphné Bürki as styling and costumes director for Paris 2024.
It will be the first time the outfits for the event are designed with their carbon impact in mind, Bürki said on a visit to a hangar on the outskirts of Paris, where teams were assembling some of the 3,000 costumes to be featured in the opening ceremony on July 26 — though everything was tightly under wraps.
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“We wanted to have an extremely conscious ceremony in the choice of everything from the materials to the designers, who put a lot of meaning into their work,” said the journalist, who began her career as a designer working alongside John Galliano at Dior.
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The ceremony will feature creations by Louis Vuitton and Dior, which both belong to luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a premium partner of the sporting competition; looks by 15 emerging designers, and original designs overseen by Olivier Bériot, head of the Paris 2024 costume department, she revealed.
“Each of the designers we have chosen has a super smart way of thinking about the world, so it’s a circular ceremony,” Bürki said, explaining that the event will feature a mix of vintage, secondhand and upcycled clothes, while the original designs will be repurposed after the show.
“It’s like a treasure hunt. Every piece of clothing tells a story,” she said. “It’s the first time this has been done in the history of the Games.”
A graduate of the Fleuri-Delaporte fashion school in Paris, she’s known for presenting lifestyle programs for both private and public TV channels, and has been a juror on the first three seasons of “Drag Race France.”
Bürki also took a spin down the runway for emerging designer Victor Weinsanto in 2022, and was one of the hosts of the Sidaction fashion fundraiser for AIDS research in January.
Revealing her new role for the first time, the TV personality said she’s been working on the project covertly for 18 months. “I’ve been leading a double life. Not even my family knows,” she told reporters.
Despite the huge pressures of staging the event, which is expected to be viewed by 1.5 billion people worldwide, she said she could not turn down the opportunity to work on the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“We are creating the greatest show of the 21st century, four times over, which is pretty crazy,” she said. “It’s uplifting, particularly these days when the world is quite dark. Paris 2024 is full of light, peace and reconciliation, so I’m very proud to be part of it.”
Bürki said a major attraction was working with Jolly, who is known for staging marathon Shakespeare productions and recently spearheaded the revival of the 1970s French rock opera “Starmania,” with costumes by Vuitton creative director of womenswear Nicolas Ghesquière.
As France faces the prospect of electing its first far-right government since World War II, Jolly and Bürki emphasized that the opening ceremony would be a tribute to diversity.
The nation is due to head to the polls this weekend for the first round of the snap parliamentary elections called by President Emmanuel Macron following the far-right National Rally’s shock win in the European elections held earlier this month.
“We need to show that France is not just one thing, but that it’s very flamboyant, extremely diverse and extremely rich. I believe that’s the key to living together well, regardless of what some politicians would have you believe,” Jolly said.
“The ceremony will express that. It will say that we’re united in diversity,” he added. “Paris and the Olympic Games in general are all about people coming together.”
LVMH-owned brands will play a leading role in the Olympic Games. Jeweler Chaumet has designed the medals, while Vuitton has created bespoke trunks to house them. Berluti is dressing Team France for the opening ceremonies, while Vuitton and Dior have both signed a slew of athletes as brand ambassadors.
Jolly said he was mindful of ensuring the event’s sponsors were woven into the storyline in an organic way. “That’s what we’ve tried to do so that it doesn’t look like product placement or advertising,” he explained.
“But after all, these brands — Vuitton and Dior — are masters of craftsmanship. It will also put the spotlight on French know-how, so I’m on board when it comes to highlighting talent and beauty, and it fits into the story in a fairly natural way on the whole,” he said.
It will mark the first time in the history of the Summer Games that the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium. The parade of athletes will be held on the Seine with boats for each national delegation.
Winding their way from east to west, the 10,500 athletes will cross through the center of Paris, finishing their 3.7-mile route in front of the Trocadéro, where the remaining elements of Olympic protocol and final shows will take place.
The ceremony will be divided into 12 tableaux, with the historical sites along the route providing inspiration, though nothing will be too literal, Jolly said.
“We’re really into crossovers and mashups,” he said. “It will be a mix of sporting clothes, historical costume and spectacular outfits, with lots of pomp, glamor and sparkle.”
Bériot, who designed costumes for the Netflix series “Lupin” and has worked with French director Luc Besson on movies including “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” showed just one tiny example: a men’s doublet made of tracksuit material.
The specialist, who also designs for the Paris Opera, said a total of 500 people will work on clothes, hair and makeup for the opening ceremony, though he noted it was just a fraction of the talents operating in the country’s thriving film and TV industries.
“The audiovisual sector is booming,” he said. “There are huge series being made here right now. ‘Emily in Paris’ just wrapped. It’s incredible how much work there is right now.”
Audrey Borca, who has worked on musicals including “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” is in charge of hair and makeup.
“On the evening of the opening ceremony, there will be 200 dressers and 288 hair and makeup artists to get everyone ready perfectly on time,” Bürki said. “Nothing is left to chance.”
She said that despite the heavy logistics involved, preparations are on track. “We are 85 percent of the way there. The big rehearsals start [in a week] so we’re on schedule,” she said.
In addition to political uncertainty, organizers have to deal with the capricious weather. The first five months of the year were the sixth rainiest in the French capital since 1886, according to data compiled by local newspaper Le Parisien.
“We’ve made sure that if it rains, it will still look good,” Bériot assured.
Jolly was surprised to find that as the date appoaches, he’s feeling increasingly calm.
“The closer it gets, the happier I feel. First of all, because it’s coming together and then because we can finally share it, because this event is made to be shared,” he said, before setting an intention. “We don’t know what the weather will be like that day. Obviously, it will be beautiful.”