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Embracing Fashion, Saggers to Sequins, at the Winter Games

Viewing the Olympics through the prism of style can be a screwball proposition, since the pinnacle of sport is also pretty reliably the height of sartorial kitsch.

There is, for a start, the exuberant and sometimes wacko patriotism on display at the opening ceremony, where athletes often don national costumes hardly anyone wears anymore (though it could be that Pita Taufatofua, the hunky Tongan flag bearer who has now gone bare-chested at both the Summer Games and the Winter Games, oils up his abs and does errands in a skirted grass ta’ovala). There are dowdy newscasters risking frostbite to gin up color pieces on deathless topics like the contents of the athletes’ goody bags.