The crowd in the arena watched as one Beyoncé song after another was played.
All eyes focused on centerstage — the music, the movements, the mystique of a world-class performer in her element. The lights from above sparkled off a bedazzled and vibrant outfit befitting only of a queen.
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"I'm that girl," Beyoncé has said. But on that night, that girl was Jordan Chiles.
The Team USA star transformed the mat at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships into a concert stage. During her floor routine, Chiles recreated the look, sound and vibe of Beyoncé's Renaissance world tour.
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So much so that she asked GK Elite, the sportswear company that manufactures apparel for Team USA gymnastics, to design a custom leotard inspired by a highly expressive outfit worn on tour by Beyoncé.
"It had more colors than anything we’ve ever seen on it," Matt Cowan, chief executive officer of GK Elite, said of the leotard. "It was truly like a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns and prints."
Across the chest of the leotard are red and pink stripes that are complemented by blue, orange, green and pink checkered patterns. That array of colors is embellished by roughly 4,400 crystals -- including the garment's focal point, a front jewel replicating the customized necklace and body chain worn by Beyoncé.
"We were like this is really cool, something different," said Kelly Christman, GK Elite’s vice president of gymnastics. "It's not necessarily something we would normally see from our teams or our athletes, but it was individually her. She kind of sets her tone as she's fun, she's bold, she's 'That girl.’"
Becoming 'That Girl'
It began with a photograph from Jordan Chiles — an image of Beyoncé wearing a colorful full-body Giardino print with a matching hat and jeweled body chain at her birthday concert in Los Angeles last September.
The photo made its way from Chiles' phone to a computer screen at GK Elite headquarters in Reading, Pennsylvania — a city about an hour and a half outside of Philadelphia best known for being the pretzel capital of the world and the former hometown of Taylor Swift.
The local focus was now on Bey, not Tay.
"Usually when an athlete has an inspiration photo, we pull that photo into our files to then build a leotard based off of that," said Macy Bell, GK Elite's gymnastics custom designer. "So, for this one, a large part of the inspiration photo is the multi-colored print, so we pulled that in here in a very similar way."
The company’s gymnastics design team then began making sketches on Adobe Illustrator, combining elements of the inspiration request with the well-known leotard performance preferences of one of its premiere athletes.
GK Elite, the world’s largest manufacturer of gymnastics apparel, has outfitted Olympians since 1992 in partnership with USA Gymnastics. The company has signature collections for the sport’s top U.S. stars like Chiles, Jade Carey, Suni Lee and, of course, Simone Biles -- who is the Jordan Brand of gymnastics apparel.
Each athlete has their own preferences, styles and degree of input on their leotard designs. Prior to the Tokyo Olympics, Biles requested that the image of a goat be placed on her leotard, which represents her rightful status as the sport's greatest of all time.
Forced to withdraw from nearly all events in Tokyo while experiencing a form of disorientation known in the gymnastics community as "the twisties," Biles' customization on her competition leotards ahead of the Paris Olympics had more of a motivational tone.
"Over the past two years, she had a quote which says, 'Still I Rise,' which is a testament to her self-empowerment, her strength and, to every athlete, perhaps a message that says you can get back up from anything," Cowan said. "And she certainly has."
Chiles, a 23-year-old from Oregon, is highly involved in her own designs, adding flair to a garment that was inspired by a 32-time Grammy winner but individualized by an Olympic silver-medal winner.
“To differentiate it and to bring more of Jordan’s style into this leotard, we also added this zig-zag cut across the body that is highlighted again with crystals because it accentuates the body lines and also draws your eyes across the patterns,” Bell said.
Further differentiating the leotard from Beyonce's outfit is a lace-up design that goes across the body and gives dimension to the print, and crisscross layering binding straps on the upper back.
Chiles also helped design a white, crystal-laden leotard inspired by a nude-illusion catsuit worn by Beyoncé in Las Vegas, which Chiles debuted later at the championships.
While Beyoncé has to sing and dance in her outfit, Chiles must contort her body through the air in hers, making fit and flexibility even more crucial than style.
“That’s a very important part that a lot of people don’t remember is you have to have some sort of opening,” Bell said. “So, we want to make sure that we have a functional leotard that also has the personality and has the character of each athlete in it.”
Behind the curtain
The production floor at GK Elite is like a gymnastics mat to the company's roughly 500 employees. It’s where they complete an intricate routine, the end-product of which will be seen across the world.
Whether creating a Beyoncé-inspired leotard or a Team USA uniform, the GK Elite staff are the personal tailors for Olympic athletes.
“Their hard work, that athlete is taking a little bit of that with them onto the mat,” Cowan said. “And the experience and the pride that comes out of this building when a gold medal is draped around a garment that was created here in Reading, Pennsylvania, that’s the most exciting part for me.”
When a leotard design is first created, it starts out as a line drawing. It then goes to the pattern department, where four-way stretch fabric is spread and laser cut for proper fit in the pattern department before being bundled by athlete size and alteration.
Sublimation printing is then used to transfer laser-printed custom artwork from paper to fabric via heat press to lock in the garment’s vibrant colors.
Laser-cut appliques are then hand-placed and glued to the body of the leotard to ensure proper placement before being stitched. Swarovski jewel motifs are applied by heat transfer, with some applied by hand and other fill-in jewels by laser machine.
The garment is then sent to the sewing floor for the finishing touches, including the embroidering of elements like the GK Elite logo and the signatures of premiere athletes.
The design and creation of the Beyonce-inspired leotard took roughly six months from start to finish.
“Each year we manufacture 10,000 leotards a week, about 2,000 a day,” Christman said. “In an Olympic year, we are close to half a million to a million leotards a year.”
From Queen Bey to the USA
The Beyoncé-inspired leotard is, as her song says, irreplaceable.
It's a one-of-one design for the athlete who first imagined it, whereas Chiles' leotards at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be one of five for each woman who qualified for the team.
The leotards worn by each member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team by rule must be uniform, meaning the time for personal style and self-expression is typically during classics and championships in the leadup to the Games. The designs for this year's set of eight women's uniforms combine elements of U.S. patriotism, such as a star constellation, with odes to the fashion capital of the world, such as the use of pearls for the first time.
"We wanted to make sure that people know it is unmistakably Team USA," Christman said. "So, red, white and blue and some really unique features and fabrics that you’ll get to see in Paris."
"And," Bell added, "they will be disco balls on the floor, which is fantastic."
The design process for the Paris Olympics leotards began two years ago with a team of five GK Elite designers presenting a design board to USA Gymnastics.
In previous Games, the leotards were not revealed to the public until the team stepped onto the mat at the Games. That changed this year, with the women's gymnastics team unveiling them on the TODAY Show two weeks before the Olympics, with replicas immediately for sale.
"We really wanted to create a wear-while-you-watch moment," Cowan said. "In every other sport, people are wearing the jerseys of other athletes while they’re watching them…We wanted to provide that same experience to our athletes so that they can wear the leotard of their favorite athlete, their Olympic team while they’re competing. We envision little girls doing handstands in front of the TV while Simone is nailing her dismount."
'Crazy in Love' with the leotard
Chiles and GK Elite were crazy in love with the Beyoncé-inspired leotard.
"Jordan really loved it. I think it might be her favorite. I don’t have confirmation, but I think it might be her favorite," Bell said. "We also really like it here because it’s a very fun leotard, it’s very different from other pieces that we do and it really makes a statement, which we really like. And because it’s such a fun inspiration image you can do a lot with it which opens up a lot more for creativity."
Beyoncé has not publicly commented on the leotard design or on being the inspiration behind it.
She did send Chiles an autographed copy of her vinyl album "Cowboy Carter" with a heartfelt handwritten message this week, just days before the Opening Ceremony in Paris.
"Congrats to you Queen," Beyoncé wrote. "I always watch you with pride and admiration. Thank you for reppin' us. Good luck to you! All of your hard work and sacrifice shines bright. Praying for you and wishing you the best."
In closing, she wrote, "Love your twin Beyoncé."
Twins occasionally wear matching outfits. Does that mean she saw and approved of Chiles’ leotard?
"I think Beyoncé would actually probably love to wear it," Christman said with a laugh. "I think that she would be flattered to know that Jordan drew inspiration from one of her costumes from her tour."
Because they are both that girl.
