Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games 2026: Where Fashion Met Sport
The Olympic torch was extinguished yesterday, February 22nd, but the season's highlights are still burning bright. Alysa Liu’s short program and her infectious gala performance to PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson’s "Stateside" were personal favorites—reminding us that presence and joy fuel the best athletic performances.
However, throughout the Games, the intersection of fashion and sport was impossible to ignore.
The Opening Ceremony As A Runway
Italy leaned into its identity as a fashion powerhouse during the Opening Ceremony. In a tribute to the late Giorgio Armani, 60 models draped in the tre colori recreated the Italian flag in what became a runway moment. This display also underlined the "Made in Italy" brand, celebrating the country's dominance in the global textile market.
Brand Sponsored Team Uniforms
The runway of the Opening Ceremony extended beyond the models to the athletes parading for their respective nations. Each nation sported uniforms uniquely designed by lifestyle and luxury brands - some more stylish than others. My favorite uniforms were for teams:
Mongolia: Designer Goyol Cashmere blended silhouettes from the ancient Mongol Empire with performance cashmere to achieve a regal, fashion-forward aesthetic.
Brazil: Moncler delivered the "viral" moment of the night. Athletes walked out in sculptural, oversized white puffer capes—only to open them and reveal the vibrant Brazilian flag on the inner lining. It was playful, technical, and perfectly engineered to drive conversation. And conversation it drove with publications like WWD and social media users alike dissecting the looks and sharing collective praise.
But Moncler was hardly the only brand that was being talked about illustrating that there is a lucrative element of sponsoring the designs of uniforms through PR generation. It is a way to integrate themselves into the spectacle that is the Olympics in an authentic way without taking the conversation away from the athletes or the sports.
Incorporating Athletes into Brand Campaigns
Moncler’s strategy extended far beyond the uniforms. During the Games, the brand dominated Milan’s trendy Brera neighborhood with a massive billboard featuring freestyle skier Eileen Gu.
Casting Gu was a smart choice. As both a world-class athlete and a high-fashion model, she is the living embodiment of the "Fashion x Sport" intersection. Placing her in the heart of Milan’s design district during the Olympics felt both timely and aspirational—a perfect alignment of athlete and atmosphere.
The Missed Opportunity: While the campaign was stunning, Moncler could have gone even further by sponsoring her actual competition gear. Gu went on to dominate the podium—taking Gold in the half-pipe and Silver in both slopestyle and Big Air. By not having her in a branded kit on the slopes, the brand missed out on hours of prime-time footage featuring their logo in flight.
Milan Cortina 2026 proved that fashion and sport are no longer separate entities, but rather intertwined. While this edition was special due to its fashion-capital host, this blending will persist through Los Angeles 2028 and beyond. Through team uniforms and strategic sponsorships, fashion has officially earned its place as a permanent part of the Olympic conversation.