It has been a very sporty summer and it is not over yet. The 2024 Paralympic Games kicked off today in Paris with a magnificent opening ceremony on the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Elysées.

While the opening event at the Olympics featured Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and plenty of Christian Dior, the spotlight was on emerging talent at the Paralympics. It was about four months ago that Paris-based designer Louis Gabriel Nouchi got a call from Daphné Bürki, the stylist and costume director of Paris 2024, who wanted to order the wardrobe for the event.

“Inclusivity is such an important part of LGN that I couldn’t resist,” Nouchi said, taking a break from final fittings for some of the dancers and performers. “It was the right challenge to take on, I always say I work with all bodies, and I take that mission seriously.”

PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 28: Dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics at the Place de la Concorde on August 28, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images for PNZ)

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The dancers wore custom-made costumes by Louis Gabriel Nouchi.

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The real challenge, Nouchi said, wasn’t the sheer volume of clothes required, but the performance aspect of the clothes. (Though the numbers are still impressive: four months of work, four days of fittings, 150 dancers plus performers, extras and, of course, costume changes, amounting to about 700 looks.) “When I say performance, I don’t mean the acting, I mean the movement,” Nouchi said. “I worked for a dance company before, and my lesson was to focus on the dance and the movement.” It’s also about keeping the big picture in mind: “When you’re doing a collection, you have one look on the runway that people see, but here you have 100 dancers on stage and you have to think about how things look from afar and at the same time.”

The goal, Nouchi said, was to maintain LGN’s hallmarks—sharp, solid tailoring, a relaxed fit and overall vibe, and new fabrications and materials—while keeping the fit and wearability of his clothes in mind. Dressing both the dancers and the performers, like Christine and the Queens, who sang an edited version of Edith Piaf’s “Non, je ne regrette rien,” meant Nouchi had to think outside the box and not limit himself to overly specific themes or concepts. “There’s an abstraction of the French flag, so a lot of red, white and blue, plus some silver and gold,” he said, “but nothing too literal, so we had room to play.” There’s some sportswear, which Nouchi often incorporates into his collections, plus his tailoring and some more elevated techniques. The feather embroidery, which he applied to silky pieces for a touch of texture, was sourced from French and European suppliers, “which sounds simple, but with this time frame and scale it is more difficult than it sounds.”

Heloise Adelaide Letissier, also known as Christine and the Queen, performs in a red suit by Louis Gabriel Nouchi.

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Nouchi’s signature broad shoulder line.

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The most impactful part of the experience, Nouchi said, was being able to work with the artists individually and adapt to their specific needs. “It was important to me that we could make sure they looked and felt the way they wanted to,” the designer said, “it’s all kind of custom in that sense.” While some requests were specific, Nouchi said, others were more about comfort and fit. “Some had always dreamed of wearing a suit, and others just wanted something that was specifically designed for them,” he explained. “Some of the people we dressed are in wheelchairs or have no limbs; from birth or later in life, which I learned changes their own perception and experience as well,” Nouchi continued. “It was an emotional process trying on some of the looks, I had someone cry during a fitting and say they’d never had access to fashion that was made for them,” he added.

“It’s so easy to glorify fashion or just focus on the look,” Nouchi concluded, but the biggest lesson, he said, was realizing that the way we treat our clothes is a reflection of how we experience life. “We make clothes because we want people to wear them and enjoy them,” the designer said. That goes for everyone. “My job was to ask, ‘What’s your dream?’ and then make it happen.”