YOURSAY | ‘The dull and drab colour accurately reflects the mood of the country.’

COMMENT | Olympic attire and the propaganda of diversity

Pink: I have lived in a foreign country long enough to know that foreigners don’t give a hoot about the attire worn by Malaysian athletes at the opening of the Paris Olympics 2024.

They appear only for a few seconds on the TV screens. Do you think they know or care if the attire the athletes are wearing belongs to the Chinese, Indian, or Malay?

Do you think they will check Wikipedia to find out about Malaysia? Before they had enough time to look at the Malaysian attire, the Maldives team appeared to the thunderous applause of the spectators.

Malaysia is so diverse and it is impossible to incorporate all cultures into one costume unless they look like clowns’ outfits.

When you design a dress, you have to have a concept and focus on glueing all the parts together and immediately attracting people’s attention within seconds.

You cannot simply patch here and there to give it a Chinese or Iban look. It is a sports event, for goodness’ sake, not a fashion show.

I wish our athletes had just worn black tracksuits and white T-shirts supplied by Mydin. It would save us toxic debate and money.

As it is, we are debating it like the world is coming to an end whereas the rest of the world is enjoying watching women’s rugby.  

By the way, I do love the attire. It looks elegant and comfortably familiar.

It gives a sense of nostalgia and reminds me of the joy of watching P Ramlee’s old films. I predict the olive green colour will become trendy and will be popular for the next Hari Raya.

Determined Sarawakian: Oh, for heaven’s sake, S Thayaparan, it’s France. Apart from Italy, France is the next iconic representation of fashion.

Sadly, don’t use sociology on fashion, as it’s good that Malaysian dress is recognisable as a Malayan culture.

Do you know that the Indonesians are claiming our culture on food and dress?

Just because the other two dresses, the Indian Sari and the Chinese Cheongsam, aren’t represented doesn’t mean that Malaysian society isn’t diverse.

By the way, the Malaysian spirit is the Malayan dress emboldened in fine satin silk. Perhaps it’s too un-diversely bourgeois for your taste. Have a sense of streetwise wisdom.

Libra: The French fumbled the opening ceremony where the athletes were paraded cramped up in a boat, the people watching on the banks of the river and the performers on rooftops and building windows.

The Olympic flame bearer (no face) runs on rooftops, jumping and climbing.

The begging question is, what if he falls or injures himself doing all that? And it was raining. I wondered how many fell sick. So the Olympics was a show not the marching of warriors for the pride of nations.

It’s okay for Malaysia - for the four or five athletes on the boat, but on my count, there ought to be 40 or so. So what pride was there to show the world? With all this, the dress seems to be a minor factor.

Hmmmmmmmm: Nothing wrong with the colour chosen. The dull and drab colour accurately reflects the mood of the country.

We have gone from a powerhouse in hockey to not being able to qualify for the last few Olympics.

Soon we will lose even in the SEA Games. The only sad thing is that the hockey association spends millions of ringgit in taxpayers’ money trying to fool themselves that we can win something.

Anon25: These clothes are supposed to be for athletes going to a sports meeting, not a cultural show. What the designers have created does not sync with the spirit of the Olympics.

It is even difficult to walk fast and easily in these clothes. A pair of jeans and running shoes would have been more appropriate.

Cakap lain bikin lain: Somebody didn't do their homework. Was the fashion house informed that they were to design an outfit for the national athletes' team or a Malay team?

Was it for the Olympics or the Miss Universe pageant?

In the end, it was all a waste because there was no marching parade but the contingent was seated with only the top part of the outfit visible.  

Regardless of who is running the country, they are all the same when it comes to pure incompetence and spending other people's money.

Coward: I like the term “Hari Raya vibe for rich people”. I felt that they were going to a “black tie” party. I could not have put it so eloquently.  

It’s too sombre, luckily it is not in black. If so, it’s not for a black-tie party but for an oligarch’s funeral. No sense of joy, life, youth, and pride.

For that, we can only blame the designers. Others succeeded and that included designers less famous and more famous than them.

ScarletViper9930: The brown uniform does not reflect us at all. Our culture is so vibrant.

Showcasing the rich native attire from Sabah and Sarawak would be more appropriate, instead of this dull as dishwater, “going to a party” attire.

Poor conceptualisation on the part of the designer.

Tembikai: My concern is how much this designer, Rizman Ruzaini, was paid for this lacklustre piece of work that has upset many people.

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