Canada's fashion streak on the line in Beijing

Fashion designer Tu Ly's ''urban camouflage'' fabric print used for the Canadian Olympic team's wardrobe has raised eyebrows.

Canadian fashion designer Tu Ly calls the Olympics "the biggest fashion show in the world," and the man responsible for the Canadian team's wardrobe is ready for the runway. But it seems that the world runway may not be quite ready for Lu.

Lu's collection for the athletes, which is also being sold at Canadian department stores, has become a target of derision among newspapers (including this one), bloggers, Canadian talk-show hosts, and sports pundits. The designer even debated a former Olympic kayaker on a Canadian Broadcast Corporation Sunday morning program. The kayaker told Ly that his collection "missed the mark."

"It's one of those things that either you're into, or you're not," Ly said on the phone from Beijing last week. "We knew that these clothes were not sitting on the fence. But when you think about it, good fashion is supposed to provoke, excite, and inspire. Somehow we did that in one fleece hoodie."

The specific pieces that have Canadians talking are pants and hoodies that are made from a fabric print that Ly calls "urban camouflage." The red pattern incorporates the Canadian maple leaf, the number eight, which is a symbol of the Olympic games in Beijing, along with symbols culled from Chinese poster art and apocathary labels. The fabric is used in clothes that the Canadian team will wear in the Olympic village.

"I've heard mixed response to the uniforms, but I've heard from more people who love them than hate them," says Laura deCarufel, senior editor of Elle Canada. "I think one of the things that's really great is how they've taken the destination into consideration by incorporating the number eight as a design element, and the Canada font was inspired by bamboo. There are some pieces in this collection that are just lovely. You could wear it, and it doesn't look like Olympic wear."

A key difference between Canada's uniforms, and those worn by other countries in the village, is the manufacturer. Many teams have uniforms that are being created by athletic apparel companies such as Adidas or Puma. (The US team is outfitted in preppy tennis white designed by Ralph Lauren.) The department store Hudson's Bay Co. is behind Canada's uniforms, which allowed Lu to take a different approach to his design.

"The reason why we could do what we did is that HBC is a department store," he says. "It gives us leeway to approach the uniforms from a fashion perspective, and I think that's what sets it apart."

Canada has a history of Olympic uniforms with an influence that goes beyond the Olympic village. In 1998, Prince William was photographed wearing the poorboy cap designed by Roots for the 1998 Nagano games. The hat was later seen on Robin Williams at the Oscars. In 2006, HBC created a sensation with its neo-fur trapper hats.

"I think there has been a history of Canada leading the way on Olympic fashion," deCarufel says.

But will the 2008 uniforms help the Canadian team grab the sartorial gold, or will they put an end to the team's winning fashion streak? Ly says that the uniforms are a hit with athletes, even those who were once skeptical.

"My purpose here in Beijing is to outfit the athletes as they come into the village," Ly says. "I was watching to see if they would be tainted by all the debate on it. Some of them were, and some of them were excited to finally see the uniforms. There was one kayaker, whose buddy had debated me on CBC. When he saw me, he just smirked. But sure enough, he saw the clothes, and he became a believer."