Giorgio Armani - Giorgio Armani Unveils Italian Olympics Collection

Giorgio Armani Unveils Italian Olympics Collection

Giorgio Armani has unveiled his collection for the Italian Olympic squad.

The Italian fashion designer revealed his EA7 Emporio Armani range for the country's sporting hopefuls ahead of this summer's London Olympic Games during a presentation at the Armani Theater in Milan's Via Borgonuovo.

Giorgio - who is known to be a sports fanatic, favouring football and Tennis - found it ''intriguing'' to step out of his fashion comfort zone and create a sporting collection, and he plans to travel to the UK capital to support Italy's stars.

He is quoted by WWD as saying: ''Stepping outside my fashion comfort zone and leaving my ego to identify myself in a sportsman's mentality is something that intrigues me a lot.''

The Olympic kit consists of white and midnight blue pieces as well as a tracksuit with an asymmetric closure, T-shirts, running shoes, shorts, suitcases, a nylon jacket and the country's national flag-inspired polo shirt which features red and green colours.

The first verse of the Italian national anthem, 'Il Canto degli Italiani', appears on a blue band under the collar of the Olympic polo shirts, while the remaining lyrics are written in gold inside the jackets and sweatshirts.

Stella Mccartney has designed Great Britain's Olympic team kit, which has been inspired by the nation's Union Jack flag.

She said: ''I was also aware of the fact that it's something that might be overused in the build-up to the Olympics, in taxis, on cushions and mugs, so I wanted to do something different with it - but that was still respectful of its beauty.

''Actually, the colours of the Union Jack are similar to a lot of other flags and the athletes really wanted to feel identifiable as Team GB, so I just used different colours to say the same thing.''