Tarun Tahliani says time to move on after cornered over Olympics ensemble

Olympic outfits controversy Known for his designer label, Tarun Tahliani has been in the news for the wrong reasons this time. 
The fashion faux pas came to the fore following the designer's conceptualised outfits being worn by the Indian contingent, comprising 78 athletes and officials at the Parade of Nations on the River Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics 2024 on Friday.
The Olympic outfits for the athletes received many brickbats on social media as many called the outfits an "eyesore" and a "work of absolute mediocrity".
The uniforms saw male athletes dressed in a white kurta pyjama with a jacket featuring the saffron and green of the Indian tricolour, while the women athletes wore sarees.

Flashed on social media 

Star shuttler PV Sindhu and table tennis champion Sharath Kamal were the first to rake up the issue. Sindhu sported a Tahliani designed saree and posted a picture on X. 

Sindhu’s glorification of the Indian contingent’s uniform was followed by another post, in which Swimming Federation of India wrote, “Our swimmers Dhinidhi Desinghu & Srihari Nataraj looking sharp in their ceremonial dress and excited to be part of the India contingent at opening ceremony Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

Criticised for poor taste 

However, after a couple of encouraging posts, Tahliani’s design got commonly recognised as a “poorly designed” set of uniforms. 

An X user, wrote, “Hello Tarun Tahiliani! I have seen better Sarees sold in Mumbai streets for Rs.200 than these ceremonial uniforms you’ve ‘designed’. Cheap polyester like fabric, Ikat PRINT (!!!), tricolors thrown together with no imagination. Did you outsource it to an intern or come up with it in the last 3 minutes before the deadline? Such a disgrace to the rich weaving culture and history of India.”

Defence mechaism 

However, fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani soon got into a defence-mechanism mode and said he stood by the design of the uniforms. 
As per Tahliani, it was time to focus on the medals. In fact, Tahiliani highlighted that several big-wigs had asked him to make a similar uniform for them.
"I stand by these uniforms," Tahiliani said, adding, "It was not my decision to put the ladies in sarees at the last minute, but still I wanted a cohesion between the flag and uniforms, and I stand by them."

As a fallout of the backlash, Tasva, an Aditya Birla Group brand of which Tahiliani is the chief design officer, said they did not aim for haute couture.
"We at Tasva by Tarun Tahiliani are aware of the comments doing the rounds but would request your consideration and support on the following," said the Tasva statement.