New York (AP) - The fashion police already have their eyes on Tokyo.

Tokyo's Olympic Games are inaugurated on July 23, when athletes in the world will march behind their flag bearers.And when they do, people will also start commenting on what they are wearing.

Olympic clothing gives rise to many conversations on social networks, starting with the parade of nations that lasts hours.The wait, which lasted a year due to the pandemic, has given the enthusiastic extra time to reflect on what they love or hate.

There is the Czech Republic with its traditional indigo block design and matching fans, which has already generated jokes.It arrives after the strident umbrellas and boots for neon blue rain in London 2012 and their “Beetlejuice” stripe sacks in Rio 2016.

Israel's selection has transparent Nylon jackets with huge pockets, while Emporio Armani wore the Italian team with sports ensembles with a reinterpretation of the rising sun of Japan in the colors of the Italian flag: green, white and red.Liberia received the gift from the designer Telfar Clemens, the requested Liberian-American who makes covers bags and that for the first time created uniforms.

Things used to be much simpler for athletes in fashion.In the beginning there was no parade or inaugural ceremony.Everyone put what he wanted and used to walk with the team of his sports.

"At first it was not much," said David Wallechinksy, a member of the Board of Directors and former president of the International of Olympic historians.“People just came.If a team wanted to dress the same, he did. ”

Wallechinksy found a file image that showed the British Curling players in 1924 walking in the Olympic wintering parade in Chamonix, France, with their brushes high.

Very at the beginning, clothes were even optional during competitions, according to historians.Athletes used to compete naked in ancient Greece.In more modern times, the uniforms of the parade usually pay tribute to the host country, in addition to traditions, athletic feats and patriotic strengths.

This year the pandemic has brought another element: the masks.

Australia offers athletes a sandbag with the names of the 320 Olympic gold medalists in the country.For the closing ceremony, Canada's Olympic organizers were associated with Levi’s to produce a sack of “Canadian tuxedo” of denim with graffiti in the style of the Japanese streets that will be matching with denim pants.

"This is the gang that comes behind you if you say that you tried to see (the Canadian series) 'Schitt's Creek' but you didn't like it," tweeted the New York Culture commentator Times Dave Itzkoff about the model in April, severalMonths after the jacket was unveiled along with other pieces of the Canada delegation.

Alison Brown, presenter of the Podcast for Olympic fans "Keep The Flame Alive", said that dressing the Olympic teams, including those competing in the Paralympic Games, is not easy.

“They have to stay to all kinds of bodies.Think of small gymnasts, muscular weightlifters and Lariruchos basketball players.They have to express something about the country, honor the host, be serious enough for the solemnity of the occasion but practical enough to be comfortable for hours standing in heat, ”he said.

Brown is one of the admirers of the Czech uniforms, made by Zuzana Osako in Prague.They include the team pillar, a gymnast, in the design.Men will wear blue vests with white pants and women blue blouses and white skirts.

"They managed to mix elements of the Czech folk tradition, traditional Japanese indigo dyeing techniques, and pay tribute to the great Czech Gymnast Vera Caslavska and maintain the usable and comfortable style for heat," Brown said.

About Canada's denim jackets, he said: "I think I used something similar in 1987. I wonder if someone over 12 years really wants to use it."

Lucia Kinghorn, design vice president at Hudson’s Bay who helped create the Canadian uniforms and other Olympic models, is aware of contempt.

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"We have many more fans than detractors," he said."We are proud of careful design behind the clothes of the Canada team and happy that so many people speak of it."

Brown was not impressed either with the United States team look.Includes blue denim pants for the white opening and denim parade for the closing ceremony.

“The United States has stayed with the same designer, Ralph Lauren, as he has done for years, which has led to another yacht look.Yawn, ”he said.“It is also expected to be very hot in Tokyo.Jeans, a woven shirt, scarf and bag?Who wants to use denim in that heat and moisture?

In his favor we can say that denim is light and elastic.

Japan's uniforms date back to those used by the Japanese delegation at the opening ceremony of the last Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 1964. At that time they wore red jackets and white pants.This year the colors were invested.

"It is according to the many echoes that the organizers are including 1964," Brown said.

His favorite style for the parade so far is that of Mexico.The Mexican Olympic Committee opened a national vote to choose the style for the ceremony with three designs created by High Life.The winning design pays tribute to Oaxaca in a flap with bright colors.

“The bag includes a floral flap with traditional Zapotec embroidery.It's so beautiful without looking like a costume, ”said Brown.

The embroidery were performed by Oaxacan artisans, which makes each flap for the 150 sacks that were made different and unique, said Jeannette Haber, Marketing Director of High Life.The artisans, she said, "were very happy to be part of the project and that their designs and their work can have this worldwide exposure."

Whole collections are for sale for the consumer, created from what the Olympic athletes will carry at the inaugural ceremony.

"It is a great moment for these brands to show their team spirit and their innovation in new technologies," said Ted Stafford, fashion director of Men’s Health and Esquire Market Director.

That includes a cooling device that Ralph Lauren incorporated into a white denim jacket for the flag bearer of the American team.

"It's the world scenario and marks the guideline," said Stafford."It's more than a great fashion parade."

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AP Berenice Bautista journalist contributed to this office from Mexico City.

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Leanne Italie is on Twitter as http://twitter.com/litalie.