Olympics fashion from good to goofy
Posted by Lucky on Feb 26, 2010
The Vancouver Olympics have not been for the fashion faint of heart.
From Russian ice dancers tricked out — to high controversy — as Australian aborigines, to tight-panted Canadian snowboarders (that’s harsh, dude), culture and fashion have clashed as badly as athletes and clowns. Oh wait — there were German pairs skaters actually dressed as clowns.
But fashion gold found a home early on as the Norwegian men’s curling team captured imaginations worldwide with their bright argyle pants, looking for all the world like sleepy college kids late for 8 a.m. Spanish class.
The Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants group on Facebook is closing in on the half-million-member mark.
According to USA Today, team member Chris Svae picked out the pants, which feature the colors of the Norwegian flag. “It’s good,” Svae told the paper. “It’s bringing attention to curling back home in Norway more than usual.” The slacks are made by Loudmouth Golf, which has outfitted professional golfer John Daly, ex-NFLer Jim McMahon and musician-cum-golf-junkie Alice Cooper in its whimsical designs, and they are already sold out (in the harlequin pattern) at $90.
Loudmouth Golf CEO Larry Jackson is a happy man. Daily hits to the Web site are up tenfold and sales are up threefold, he said Tuesday. The pants were approved by the Olympic committee when the committee was persuaded that they showed no company logo and allowed for adequate stretch. (Technically, Jackson says, there are two sets of trousers — red, white and blue when the Norwegian curlers are throwing yellow rocks and red, white and gray when they are throwing red rocks.) Not only that, but King Harald V of Norway showed up in Vancouver and the team was able to give him a pair of the famous pants, though the king has demurred on whether he’ll actually wear them. Nevertheless, that’s a pretty cool king.
Curling has shown a softer fashion side for women as well. The Danish women competed early on in Punky Brewsterish pleated black skirts, black tights and leg warmers instead of the more traditional mom pants. When they switched to pants, they lost to China.
The fashion booby prize? That may well go to Hubertus von Hohenlohe, a 51-year-old Mexican-born German prince skiing for Mexico who finished 78th in the giant slalom. His tragically strange outfit involved Aztec patterns and, across the front, designs of bandoliers and guns.
If you simply must have the Norwegian pants, don’t despair. Jackson says his company will gear up production in China as soon as workers return from celebrating the New Year.
