How fashion took centre stage at the Olympics ceremony

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The pouring rain didn’t spoil the four-hour opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which was held on the Seine on 26 July. “When you love the games, you don’t let a few raindrops bother you,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics organising committee, said on the podium facing the Eiffel Tower at the Trocadéro.

Estanguet worked closely with Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the ceremonies, to put together the spectacle that — for the first time — wasn’t held in a stadium, but instead took over the Seine, with different scenes playing out around different monuments of Paris.

LVMH — which spent €150 million to seal its premium partnership with the Olympics, according to sources — scored highly at the ceremony, proving once again its firepower. Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Aya Nakamura and Juliette Armanet performed in Dior; Paris Opera’s Guillaume Diop danced in Louis Vuitton on the Hôtel de Ville rooftop; and a scene featured the making of the medals trunk in the Louis Vuitton ateliers and its journey from the Pont Neuf to the Trocadéro. With over 320,000 visitors at the banks on the Seine, plus the 2 to 3 billion viewers expected for global broadcast, it’s maximum exposure for LVMH’s two largest houses.

Other LVMH brands will also show up across the games, which run until 11 August (the Paralympics run from 28 August to 8 September): Chaumet created the medals, Berluti some 1,400 outfits for the French delegation, while Sephora makeup artists take care of the makeup of Olympic medalists for when they get on the podium at the Champions Park. Eyewear brand Vuarnet released some official products under the licence of Paris 2024 and Moët & Chandon flows at La Maison LVMH, a space that features an outdoor garden, restaurant and full programme of VIP events.

On Friday night, Lady Gaga performed in a Dior haute couture feather jacket with a black and pink skirt embroidered with feathers. French singer Juliette Armanet wore a black leather set by Dior in collaboration with French designer Clara Daguin, who is known for her work using light and technology. In the ensemble, she’d embroidered lights that activated to the rhythm of the song. There was also the eight-metre-long Dior gown in the colours of the French flag for mezzo soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel (which reminded fashion aficionados of the dress designed by Azzedine Alaïa for opera singer Jessye Norman and her appearance at the bicentenary of the French revolution in 1989, directed by legendary photographer Jean-Paul Goude). The ceremony ended on a high note with Celine Dion performing Edith Piaf’s Hymne à l’Amour in a white silk long dress, also by Dior.