On July 26th, the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony will officially kick off the international event.
In addition to the Olympic Torch Run, which attracted even more attention this year due to BTS Jin‘s participation, the opening ceremony gives each country the chance to be spotlighted before the event begins. During the ceremony, a parade of the countries takes place, with each nation’s athletes being presented to the world.
Embed from Getty Images
As you can imagine, with so many eyes on the athletes, extra attention is paid to their appearances. Many countries have already shared the outfits for the opening and closing ceremonies, with Mongolia and Haiti earning praise for their team’s looks.
On July 17, Thailand’s outfits were revealed, modeled by badminton competitor “Popor“ Sapsiree Taerattanachai. The uniform is made from recycled fabric made from plastic bottles and features a traditional pattern.
The outfits, which present a formal image, were met with very mixed reactions. Many found them lacking and “dated” compared to other nations’ outfits, with renowned Thai architect and artist Duangrit Bunnag commenting, “All my friends complained last night. So sad.”
Thai social media hasn’t taken too kindly to Team Thailand’s uniform for the upcoming Olympic opening ceremony: a traditional “chut thai”. May be it’s the similarity to the เสื้อพระราชทาน worn by Thai leaders for decades that makes this automatically lame by association for many? pic.twitter.com/onfCuyVN2Y
— Saksith Saiyasombut (@SaksithCNA) July 18, 2024
ออกแบบได้เชยสุดๆ หันไปมองมองโกเลียสวยแกลมเกิน https://t.co/IVxNQsBL2N pic.twitter.com/aVU9i6xGvc
— betterbutter🍀 (@BWindadark) July 17, 2024
ไม่สวยเลย อายเค้านะ ถ่ายทอดสดทั่วโลก ได้โปรโมท softpower ฟรีๆ ทำให้มันดีดีหน่อยสิ ดูของชาติอื่นสิสวยมาก https://t.co/5YP9pj6TDn pic.twitter.com/gX7k9ShZIe
— lluillui (@yuiixyuii) July 17, 2024
- The design is extremely outdated. Look at Mongolia, it’s beautiful and glamorous.
- Not beautiful at all. It’s embarrassing. The whole world is watching live. You’re getting free promotion of soft power. Do it better, please. Look at other countries, theirs are very beautiful.
Thana Chaiprasit, the head of the Thai national athletes’ delegation, has since announced that the athletic team is planning to make adjustments and improvements to better suit the ceremony. He also added that the team will likely instead wear tracksuits designed by Grand Sport that feature the same Ban Chiang art design.
While he stated it was due to the weather conditions expected during the ceremony, it seems many preferred the designs by Grand Sport from the start.
Source: Khaosode and TheThaiger
