 "Paris Olympics 2024 | Tarun Tahiliani on India contingent's outfit: ‘Not a wedding’, but why digital print instead of weaves?")
Celebrated fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani defended his designs, which include basic kurta sets and sarees adorned with digital prints and tricolour patterns and said, ‘It is not a couture show’. But we all know it isn’t a couture show, but it’s the Paris Olympics and when all the designers are putting their best including big names like Giorgio Armani for the Italian team and Ralph Lauren for the United States, what was Tarun Tahiliani thinking while designing the uniforms for India contingent?
I understand there weren’t any gold medals in terms of style. But Paris Olympics 2024 is not just a sports event, it is a global platform for style! India is the land of textiles and the collection doesn’t celebrate the pride in representing the country. As a designer wasn’t it Tarun Tahiliani ’s duty to make the best use of it and also our weavers. If he didn’t have much time as he mentioned in one of his interviews why didn’t he hire some weavers especially during the making of Paris Olympics 2024 uniforms. And again if he can’t put his best work in a short time, why did he even take up the project?
Rather than keeping everything in-house and using tacky digital prints. I would say even if you are using digital print, wasn’t it his duty to put in some effort at least creatively. And the Olympics uniform is from his TASVA collection. Paris being the land of fashion.
According to reports, for the French sportsmen and women a team of 180 people, arranged by the stylist Carine Roitfeld , worked in collaboration with the various national sports committees to understand and meet the needs of the athletes. All for a single uniform that embodies “French elegance”, designed around a tuxedo with a shawl collar, embellished with a pattern in shades of blue and red.
Giorgio Armani , designed the uniforms of the Italian team for the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. Since 2012, Armani has designed the uniforms of the Italian athletes, and this year too the uniforms stood out for their refined ‘Armani Blue’ .
About Tarun Tahiliani’s TASVA
The website of TASVA says, “We are TASVA - TAT (that) and SVA (me/mine), denoting all that is me, all that is mine. As we forge a new way of bringing bespoke design to the world of Indian menswear, you’ll get to witness smart, stylish and subtle ensembles that speak to the confident, contemporary Indian man.”
But the Indian contingent’s uniform, it doesn’t seem that Tarun Tahiliani has donated a single ounce of his creativity. Coming up with a plain white uniform with digital print here and there is a total shame especially when we are coming from a country of rich culture and weaves. Nothing was actually impressive about the outfits, neither the cut, nor the colour and definitely not the textile. I understand that handloom is not his forte and he is a complete opposite of sustainable fashion, but the least he could have done was make something that is presentable.
What Tarun Tahiliani has to say in the Olympic outfit row?
“This is what we Indians wear, and this is not meant to be a couture show,” said Tarun while talking to NDTV. The designer asserted that it was time to focus on medals and told India Today, “I stand by these uniforms,” adding, “It was not my decision to put the ladies in sarees at the last minute, but still I wanted a cohesion between the flag and uniforms, and I stand by them.”
The flotilla down the Seine is long over. Many industrialists who were there have asked me to make this uniform for them. A difference of opinion is totally fine,” he added.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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