Monday, August 13, 2012

London 2012 Closing Ceremonies Costume Podium

The London 2012 Summer Olympics came to an end yesterday, in a 3 hour show of music, colour and yes, costumes. I will not review each and every one of them, but I wanted to share my top 3 favourites with you, or as I call it, my own Olympics Podium.

Bronze Medal / 3rd place: Ginger Spice

Ginger Spice at the 2012 London Olympics Closing Ceremonies - Dress by Suzanne Neville

I will openly admit it: I was a huge Spice Girls fan in the late 1990’s. At a time where fashion was all about grey, browns, tiny plaids and neutral preppy looks, those girls wore crazy outfits and plenty of colour. Of course most of their clothes back then were very revealing and I was glad last night to see that 15 years later, they managed to be a little more covered (more age appropriate for them) and yet regain their crazy colourful look. My favourite of all the girl’s costumes was Gerri’s. She may be 40, bu she looks amazing! I seriously want her red burlesque dress with gold accent and Union Jack bustle. I thought it was a nice reference to her infamous Union Jack dress of back then.

Silver Medal / 2nd place: Phoenix Ballet Dancers

A photo shows dancers performing during the extinguishing of the Olympic flame at the Olympic stadium in London during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games on August 12, 2012 (AFP Photo / Olivier Morin)

I know I’ve said it before, but I love dancing and dance as an art in general. I also love the costumes that are worn for dancing performances. Although I cannot claim to have ever been a Ballerina (a dream I hope to achieve one day, even if I’m 40 by then), I love tutus. That is probably why I was so impressed by the Phoenix Ballet number. 200 ballerinas dressed as phoenixes! I loved the fiery colours of their tutus and the fact that they were open in the front and still poufy in the back.
 
Gold Medal / 1st place: Annie Lennox


British singer Annie Lennox performs during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games on August 12, 2012. (AFP Photo/Leon Neal)

During the entire ceremony, I was chatting on Facebook with my friend Marie-Ange-the-Celt, and when Annie Lennox came out with her entourage on that boat, our reaction was “what is that?”. I called it “Hell’s Ball”, imagining the brain storming session that had given birth to that tableau. The mixture of historical inspirations with tattered looks and dark make-up was very well done and impressive. Just don’t ask me what song she sang; I was not paying attention to sound.

Honorary Mention: Volunteers

 Crowd-control volunteers were dressed in blue hats with working light bulbs on top (Patrick Semansky/AP)

During the show, the athletes were surrounded by volunteers dressed in royal blue, wearing royal blue hats with a light atop them. These uniforms sort of made me think of the Tardis; what about you?

How about you? Did any of the costumes in the show tickle your fancy? Which one(s)?

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