Today, In Everything Olympics: Stella McCartney's Uniforms, Emporio Armani's Ad Campaign

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Stella McCartney debuted her Team GB 2012 Olympics uniforms today, but the Telegraph reports that literally just one minute before she did, Emporio Armani sent out an email announcing it was launching a campaign starring Olympic athletes.

The line of Stella uniforms were produced with Adidas, and they'll outfit 900 British Olympic and Paralympic athletes who are competing in 46 sports. The Union Jack was done in blue and white, and McCartney used the seams of the uniforms to incorporate its shape. "Ultimately we wanted to athletes to feel like a team and be proud of the identity we created," she explains, though some of it was purely for fashion's sake. For example, the women's off-duty jacket includes a belt around the waist, which doesn't really serve any function other than looking cute.

As for Armani, the brand's "Sense of Being" campaign includes a handful of British, French, and Italian athletes shot in black-and-white. Armani's EA7 Armani offshoot is doing the uniforms for the Italian team, though those aren't featured in the campaign. Instead, it's sports bras and swim trunks, and kind of cheesy phrases.
Emporio Armani launches new campaign with Olympic athletes [Telegraph UK]
Stella McCartney unveils the Team GB Olympic kit [Telegraph UK]