Suzanne Timmins Fashion director for the Bay, creative director for the Olympic collection
Team players:
“We had an incredible group with different sensibilities. This was Tu Ly’s third time designing for the Olympics, and Adrian Aitcheson was part of the team that created the famous [Roots beret] for the Olympics in Salt Lake City. Vivienne Lu was our fabric sourcing expert. We started with the idea of Canada, exploring what Canadian style really looks like. It’s not fashion for fashion’s sake. The iconic pieces, at their core, come from some sort of functionality: the parka, the toque, the sweaters that Grandma used to knit.”

Modern heritage: “The font that we developed has a really sporty edge: We sloped the As so that they look like mountain peaks and circled the C, almost closing it, to denote Canadian unity.”

2010 fave: “In his youth my dad was a bush pilot, and he wore quilted long underwear. That memory was our inspiration for the quilted jacket.

Tu Ly Designer
Sweater set:
“It was essential to have an iconic Canadiana sweater in the collection. The inspiration comes from the Hbc coat of arms; we combined its moose heads with our beloved maple leaf. I knitted the original sample myself. The experience was so much fun — I want to start a knitting club!”

Top Olympic look: “For the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Yohji Yamamoto outfitted the British team in austere black-and-ivory wool maxicoats from the Y-3 line. It was super-sharp — the athletes looked like characters from The Matrix.”

2010 fave: “The lumberjack/Canada scarf. It doubles as a rally scarf, so you can cheer Team Canada on with the reverse side.”

Adrian Aitcheson Designer
Game on:
“We wanted to create a uniform that the whole country would embrace. The athletes always say that the support of their fans helps drive them. We needed a distinctly Canadian look so that we could all be part of the team.”

Tech talk: “For the athletes’ clothing, we had to consider the climate. During the Games, they might go from downtown Vancouver to the slopes at Whistler and through rain and snow and temperature swings of 15ºC. We needed to make sure that they would always be warm, dry and comfortable.”

2010 fave: “The pompom toque — it’s so incredibly Canadian!”

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