THE GREAT NEEDLEWORK RACE

However, there are some exceptions. For example, we know the history of Olympic sportswear throughout the first millennium of the games’ existence very well. We know exactly what it looked like. Nothing—because athletes competed exclusively in the nude. This was natural for regions with warm climates and for an era when fabric was obtained and created with incredible difficulty. In such conditions, actions that risked tearing or soiling clothing were often performed after removing the clothing. Therefore, both training in palestrae (gymnasiums) and any athletic competitions traditionally required nudity. As for public decency, the issue was simply resolved—women were not allowed to attend the games under the penalty of death.iThe only woman lawfully present at the games was the priestess of the goddess Demeter, who presented awards to the winners in some competitions. There is, of course, the case of Kallipateira of Rhodes, who was the daughter, sister, and mother of Olympic champions. She came to watch the competitions dressed as a man, but she was caught and pardoned based on the merits of her relatives.

However, some athletes did wear certain elements of clothing even then. Fist fighters wrapped strips of leather around their fists, precursors to modern boxing gloves. Hoplite competitions involved running with a shield while wearing a helmet and greaves. And naturally, charioteers, clad in long chitons, rode chariots adorned with the colors assigned to the horse owners. To be fair, it should be noted that charioteers themselves were not considered participants in the games—the horse owners competed and won.iWomen could indirectly participate in the Olympic Games in this sport. For instance, in the fourth century BCE, a Spartan woman named Kyniska, who bred and trained horses and owned a magnificent team of four, became an Olympic champion.

Perhaps the colors associated with the racing teams in Byzantium served as an early indication of the impending sportswear revolution.

The proto-era of mass urban sports born in antiquity disappeared along with the world that spawned it. Moreover, the more ‘cultured’ and urban the civilizations of the Middle Ages became, the less room there was for sporting competitions. While the peoples of the steppes encouraged future warriors to compete in horse racing and wrestling, the educated urban Chinese viewed such crude amusements with contempt. In French or English villages, if there were fist fights or running competitions, the aristocrats and bourgeoisie fully supported the priests in their efforts to suppress these sinful games.

Tournament battles among seasoned warriors following strict rules or occasional archery contests represented the epitome of approved sports. Training belonged in military camps, and fighting was reserved for enemies. Everything else was from the wicked one. It's amazing how unanimously a medieval Japanese person and a resident of Christian Europe in the fourteenth century viewed balls or ball games. For them, both were equally trivial and not very respectable amusement, especially when it came to women.

‘If we were to select eight senior court ladies, eight middles, and eight juniors, dress them as foot players with a football, and show His Majesty Kameyame how they play ball in the Pomeranian courtyard, it seems to me that it would be amusing!

What unbearable shame we had to endure! Almost all the women, on the verge of tears, refused to kick the ball with their feet. However, among the senior ladies, there was Lady Shin-Enonosuke, a lady-in-waiting of Her Majesty, who they claimed knew how to play ball skillfully. They made her toss the ball—it turned out that even such an unpleasant duty could sometimes bring success…’iNidze, ‘Unsolicited Tale’ (fourteenth century)

It wasn't just about an aversion to nudity and freedom of movement, an aversion that equally permeated Christian, Muslim, and Confucian societies. Even in the most ascetic and virtuous era, when ladies were afraid to show even the tip of their shoe or a rebellious lock of hair in public, no one objected to peasant women hitching their skirts above their hips and unbuttoning their shirts to the waist while gathering hay. Eastern ladies, hiding their faces even from female relatives and their own female servants, were not at all embarrassed by the sight of fishermen and fisherwomen who, wearing only loincloths, dived for pearls and seaweed. Strict adherents of Islamic norms in Punjab did not criticize representatives of mountain shepherd tribes who herded their goats, dressed in short skirts, or even in men's clothing.

Hard physical labor demanded the usage of comfortable, unrestrained clothing, which was a common understanding at the time. Work was abundant, and toiling to exhaustion was the standard for many. Movement was conserved, and the capacity for inactivity was deemed a sign of prosperity. Staying immobile indoors under the weighty load of constricting layered garments was the coveted lot of the upper echelons of society.

Sport hardly fit into this idea at all, except for military drills, which were becoming increasingly rare among the upper classes. As civilization and production evolved, bureaucrats replaced warriors, and office workers, tallying ledgers, replaced traders exploring paths through deserts and seas.

It's believed that mass sports were invented by the English. Regular walking for men and extended walks for both genders became practically mandatory elements of ‘respectable life for the upper classes’ in that country. However, the idea that ‘health is in movement’ equally came to enlightened minds in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Arab countries. This notion stemmed from the works of ancient authors, many of whom dedicated numerous lines to extolling the benefits of gymnastics and other exercises as ‘a healthy body means a healthy spirit’. Although this idea contradicted Christian and Islamic views on controlling the flesh and asceticism, it took root and strengthened in the new society around the sixteenth century and became commonplace by the end of the eighteenth century. The new civilization coveted sports, the ancient harmony of the body, and impeccable health.

Yet, the customs and manners of this civilization were utterly unsuitable for sports. Corsets, crinolines, trains, and bustles for ladies weren't significantly more uncomfortable than the usual elements of the male wardrobe: stockings with garters, wigs, constricting ties, drawers with bows, and collars on hooks.

The development of ‘sports attire’ from the early nineteenth century to the first third of the twentieth century is remarkably fascinating to observe. For example, a ladies' bathing suit from the early nineteenth century included boots, stockings, a dress, a corset, and a hat! In addition, constrictive male corsets remained a feature of sports attire until the beginning of the twentieth century!

When the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896,iin Athens there was no talk yet of a standard for sports attire. Some teams, like the USA, tailored something uniform and comfortable for their track athletes and tennis players. However, cyclists from all participating countries hit the track dressed however they pleased: we saw sweaters and T-shirts, knickerbockers with suspenders, striped leggings, caps, and even bowler hats. Nevertheless, men's sportswear at that time at least somewhat accommodated active movement.

Women's clothing, on the other hand, was much more restrictive. Women first stepped onto the Olympic arena in 1900. Tennis players played in long dresses, and women archers competed in corsets and heavy dresses with trains.

Women track and field athletes ran and jumped in stockings, voluminous pants, and short skirts, holding the hems for jumps and falls. It was two decades before the famous French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen stepped onto the court in 1920 wearing a bold, short, white dress designed by Jean Patou, which became the prototype for all women's tennis attire during the coming century.

Of course, for almost another half century, moral ‘authorities’ would persist in policing the length of swimsuits on city beaches and arresting runners in shorts deemed too brief, but these were already trivial matters. Sportswear became a societal standard, profoundly reshaping attitudes toward everyday attire, which increasingly prioritized comfort and freedom. Coco Chanel pioneered this transformation in the 1920s by integrating a sporty line into her collections at the renowned House of Chanel.

Sports games aren't just mass events—they're also mass spectacles. New, vast stadiums to hold crowds of spectators were being rapidly built, and even those in the last rows wanted to understand what was happening in the arena. By the 1930s, the practice of wearing uniforms had already been established among football and other teams, making it easy to follow the game's dynamics. The necessity of introducing a mandatory uniform for the Olympic Games was first discussed at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 but, for understandable reasons, this was only formalized in the Olympic Charter after the Second World War.

The charter introduced the provision for each participating country to provide its athletes with three categories of uniform: ceremonial (for official events), casual (to be worn in the Olympic Village), and specific attire for actual competitions. Each country was to choose its own design and style, adhering only to the technical regulations of the attire accepted for each discipline.

In the decades following this decision, the most famous fashion houses fought for the right to dress athletes. Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, and other masters created the Olympic style in the 1950s and 1960s.

From the 1980s onward, fashion brands’ participation in the Olympic movement saw a marked decline. This stemmed from various factors, with both athletes and designers having their own reasons for gradual estrangement, including:

1. High fashion has always emphasized the uniqueness of its creations. Therefore, having hundreds of athletes appear at the opening ceremony in identical outfits did not sit well with the couturiers.

2. The concepts of uniqueness, sophistication, and even provocativeness—common elements of high fashion—did not align well with the general democratic style of sportswear, which most teams always chose, even for ceremonial costumes. We all know that appropriateness is the most important quality of clothing. But someone who attends a formal dinner in jeans and a T-shirt is no more inappropriate than someone who shows up, for example, at a football match in an ostrich feather boa and diamonds. Fashion designers found themselves out of place in the world of utility, where mass market and sportswear manufacturers were much better suited to the task at hand.

3. Finally, today, athletic wear has evolved into an immensely advanced product that is governed by its own stringent standards, understood best by professional manufacturers of sneakers or bobsled suits. Contemporary sneakers, swimsuits, or ski suits are intricate assemblies, with every component being meticulously crafted and tested through numerous trials. From breathable fabrics to reflective materials, from surfaces engineered to minimize friction against air and water to seams engineered to endure any condition, there are many technical aspects of each sport that come into play in the design of each uniform. Simply put, couturiers lack the knowledge base required in this field.

Therefore, fashion houses today often only serve as consultants in selecting purely decorative solutions, and actual athletic apparel and footwear are usually tailored by major sportswear manufacturers.

Since gaining independence, the Olympic uniforms worn by Kazakhstan’s athletes have traditionally featured the colors of the state emblem and flag. The sunny-gold and sky-blue hues were present in the Kazakh team uniform in 1996, at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020.

However, the national motifs on our uniforms are sometimes more nuanced with deeper meanings. For example, the ZIBROO brand team decorated the lining of uniforms with petroglyphs and incorporated traditional Kazakh patterns into the ornaments used on sports equipment at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In recent times, viewers have particularly appreciated the tradition of designing unique uniforms for the flag-bearing team, showcasing outfits portraying different characters from Kazakh history and mythology.

At the Winter Olympics in Korea in 2018, the flag of Kazakhstan’s team was carried by short track speed skater Abzal Azhgaliyev, who assumed the guise of ‘Altyn Adam’—or the ‘Golden Man’—who was a Saka warrior and one of most important symbols of Kazakhstan. The 2020 Olympics in Japan saw Olga Rypakova, a track and field athlete, and boxer Kamshybek Kunkabayev serving as flag bearers, embodying the concept of ‘birds of happiness’. The Winter Games in Beijing in 2022 featured speed skaters Yekaterina Aydova and Abzal Azhgaliyev (once again!). They appeared in black-and-gold ensembles representing the legendary Saka queen Tomyris and an ancient Kazakh hero.

Created with support
Global Nomads Awards
Abu Dhabi Plaza