The pop art styling of the Union Flag by Stella McCartney has prompted outrage as the predominantly blue Great Britain kit (pictured below) was unveiled. Many of the critics must have short memories. In Sydney, when Sir Steve Redgrave (pictured below, two down, second left) came home to win that historic fifth gold medal, the rowing kit he was wearing was mostly blue.

In fact, since Barcelona 1992, red has tended to be the minority colour on all designs for Great Britain's kit. In 2004 and 2008 it was white and blue with just a touch of red for Dame Kelly, Sir Chris and the rest.


When Britain first competed at the Olympics, the look was anything but coordinated. At the first London Games in 1908, the athletes (pictured below, two down) wore all white, emblazoned with a coat of arms of the home nations, whilst cyclists wore an outsize union flag on their vests. As for tracksuits, they were all but unheard of. Athletes, cyclists and swimmers went to their positions wearing their raincoats, to be discarded at the last moment.


At the opening ceremony "the competitors all wore the costume and badge of the respective association with which they were identified" wrote the correspondent of The Sporting Life. The British flag bearer was "the famous light-blue" Kynaston Studd. Many of the team wore the light blue of Cambridge University or the dark blue of Oxford. Even then it seems, blue was the colour.


Not until 1920 were the likes of Harold Abrahams (another light blue incidentally) able to strut around in blazers and flannels, topped off with a boater trimmed in the red white and blue.

In 1948, the British team marched into the stadium in Kangol berets, the height of street fashion a generation later thanks to Samuel L Jackson. With strict amateur rules and even stricter rationing in force, the team had nothing like the range of kit offered to the class of 2012. Boxer Tommy Proffitt recalls that "my sister made my shorts out of a pair of blackout curtains".


Even so, the British Olympic Association Secretary Evan Hunter still claimed "the 1948 Olympic team outshone any previous British team in appearance".

Stella McCartney is by no means the first fashionista to dip her toes into the Olympic world. In 1968, Sir Hardy Amies, the Queen's dressmaker designed the parade uniforms for the team which went to Mexico and was described as the team's "fashion coordinator".


The familiar British uniform white vest with a red and blue hoop was by now well established and later worn by the champions such as David Hemery and Mary Peters. ln 1980, the supplier was Bukta, but athletes sponsored by rivals wore the modified vests. In today's marketing speak, "brand neutral" kit. Amongst them, Sebastian Coe (pictured above number 254 with Steve Cram, number 257 and Steve Ovett number 279).

By 1984, Adidas had taken over as kit suppliers (pictured below, vest worn by Daley Thompson) and brought with them a more cohesive approach. In 1988 in Seoul the uniforms of competitors across the board incorporated a red and blue "zig-zag" across the front. Even the red shirted hockey players wore shirts with this design.


By 1992, the designers were going to town. Out went the hoops in came a predominantly white and blue uniform but with piping of tiny union flags and a red flash under the arms.

It is not just the British who've had grief about team uniforms. At the Sydney Games, the Aussies switched from their green and gold for the opening ceremony. They turned up instead in reddish brown jackets designed to chime in with the colours of Uluru (Ayers Rock) though many traditionalists were unhappy.


Pre-war medallists such as high jumper Dorothy Odam Tyler Dorothy spent evenings before the Games sewing the British flag onto their uniforms. Today's team have no such chores and are even issued with a special tracksuit for use at medal ceremonies. In 2004, the 4x100m of Darren Campbell, Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis (all four pictured above) apparently forgot theirs on the night of the final in Athens. Few but the marketing men noticed or cared as they stepped up onto the podium in the blue tracksuits they used for training. The only thing anyone was bothered about was the colour of the medals, in this case gold.

Philip Barker, a freelance journalist, has been on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History and is credited with having transformed the publication into one of the most respected historical publications on the history of the Olympic Games. He is also an expert on Olympic music, a field which is not generally well known.