Stella McCartney wanted stylish sportswear

Stella McCartney has tried to ensure the Adidas competition wear she designed for the 2012 Olympic Games is both sporty and stylish.

The fashion designer – who was announced last year as the creator of the sportswear firm’s kit for both the British Olympic and Paralympic teams to wear at the London event – has narrated a short film featuring some of the athletes who will wear her designs next year to showcase the clothes.

She told Britain’s Vogue magazine: “Sport and style have always been the starting point for this collaboration. We wanted to take it to another art form for this collection by making a film and capturing the athletes in movement which is at the heart of this process.”

Stella enlisted fashion photographer Jacob Sutton to make the film and he explained they decided to incorporate the four elements – fire, earth, air, and water – into the shoot to create an “iconic” image.

He said: “I wanted to create imagery that was as iconic and raw as the elements they represent. Textual richness and elegance of the four executions are important to bring strength and majesty to the campaign.”

Stella recently revealed she found the process of designing the competition wear incredibly challenging.

She said: “I mean you’re working with athletes. The main thing I want do is not in any way get involved with making their performance not its best. So for me I want to make them the best they can be.

“I’m obviously working with incredibly technical fabrics and dealing with silhouettes that I wouldn’t normally perhaps work with.

“So there are challenges – I have a million challenges. I have to make it look good on TV, I have to make it feel good for the athletes, I have to make it work – technically it has to do its job. But I think they’re all good challenges – I like a challenge.”