la flamme olympique

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games have come to an end (tear*), with the Paralympics one week away. However, it has truly been an unforgettable 17 days. The city came alive, like I have never seen it before. People from all over the country and around the world came to be apart of this experience and share this incredible opportunity. I can honestly say, I have never been surrounded by sooo many happy, enthusiastic, energized people before. For over two weeks, the city streets were crowded with people patriotic to their country, all with the common goal to celebrate. Talent from all over the world arrived and of course we celebrated their athletic triumphs!

The Olympic Flame

The parties and events were incredible, whether you experienced the public live pavilions or were among the net-worked elite and attended the private functions. Yes, there really is a "secret world" or disconnect between the athletes who come to compete for honest integrity and the organizers and nations who support their athletes but wine and dine from private party to party with complementary food, free booze and ultimate smoooozing. For the athletes this is merely a perk to their athletic career, whilst the public may know little about the exclusivity of these private events. Rather they see the excitement from the outside and enjoy the ambience anyways. I was fortunate to experience both. However, I will not delve into the politics and dynamics or the good and the bad. This post is dedicated to pure joy brought to the world, country, city, athletes and myself.

Robson Square

The Olympics are larger then we may realize. Supported by world size advertising to sponsor the growing scale of these events. We saw the beginning of what I believe will be a new trend in fashion and Olympic athletes apparel. We already have design labels who now create the countries Olympic clothing, ie. The Bay for Canada, Ralph Lauren for the USA. However we also saw Vera Wang who designed Evan Lysacek figure skating costumes and Johnny Weir who designed his own costumes with aspirations to develop his own clothing company. Before learning of these designer costumes, I remarked to my friend that designing figure skating costumes would actually be a fantastic opportunity. It would be a great way to express extreme creativity in spandex and sparkle! Mark my word, Sochi 2014 will be a line up of luxury designers show casing their couture designs on olympians! Once again fashion prevails and marks its importance into the Olympics sports arena as well.

Overall, Vancouver was a huge success. It tugged on our emotions as we witnessed devastating accidents, watched courageous strength on a world stage, and embraced complete strangers with excitement for another medal win or the personal perseverance by an athlete. It truly brought a country together in support and cheer unlike any other point in history. This happened at some scale around the world and certainly occurred in Canada.

Was this a once in a lifetime experience? Yes it sure was! However I would not be surprised if Vancouver was to host another Olympics in years to come... the Summer Olympics. I'd give it 20-30 years and we might be celebrating here once again!

Anyhow, while the I've taken a mini Olympic vacation the past two weeks, New York Fashion week occurred and I certainly haven't forgotten about that! It's time to get back to work and focus on all the highlights of Fashion Week around the word, etc... etc...

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