Merino wool or Mongolian cashmere? Fashion is a competitor in any Olympics but especially in Milan

MILAN (AP) — Mittens versus gloves? Hats against headbands? Merino wool over Mongolian cashmere?

Fashion is its own competitor in any Olympics, from team uniforms at the opening and closing ceremonies to individual looks in the stadiums and — during the Winter Games — on the slopes.

There's also the simmering rivalry between Europe's top two fashion cities. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics were heralded as the most stylish yet, but Milan is going for gold on the heels of its annual men’s fashion week and ahead of the women's runway previews.

Athletes around the world have been ginning up anticipation by flooding social media with unboxing videos of their new swag. Before taking to the ice and (manufactured) snow, they will make their grand debut Friday night at the opening ceremony's Parade of Nations.

Here's a look at some of the outfits:

Team Italy's uniforms are the last ever designed by Italian fashion icon Giorgio Armani, who died in September at the age of 91.

The kit's milky white color is meant to evoke harmony and snow-capped peaks, and includes a down jacket, thermal ski jacket and waterproof trousers. Its star piece, an oversized bomber jacket, is covered with “Italia” heat-printed all over and finished with a high knit collar in the red, green and white of the Italian flag.

This was Armani’s fourth Winter Olympics uniform for Team Italia, made under the athletic EA7 Emporio Armani label.

He will be honored in a separate tribute during the opening ceremony given his ties to Milan and his legacy as one of the founders of Italian ready-to-wear.

Ralph Lauren is channeling cozy Americana with its opening ceremony outfit, which was unveiled in December alongside other looks the Team USA athletes will wear throughout the Games.

Naturally it’s red, white and blue, exemplified by the Fair Isle knitwear with a U.S. flag and Olympic rings, matching tasseled hat and mittens. The prevailing mood for the opening ceremony uniform was winter white, in both a duffel coat and trousers. The choice was made with the athletes, and unofficially endorsed when Pantone made Cloud Dancer color of 2026 — coincidentally on the same day Ralph Lauren unveiled its Olympic uniforms.

“They thought it felt it felt like peace. They thought it was very ethereal,’’ chief branding officer David Lauren told The Associated Press at the Ralph Lauren palazzo in Milan on Thursday night.

The Ralph Lauren team has been designing Team USA’s Olympic apparel since 2008, and designers start on each Olympics’ looks about 2 1/2 years out from the Games.

Haiti’s two-man Olympic team will be sporting gear designed by Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean and inspired by a Haitian artist's painting.

The uniforms originally featured Toussaint Louverture, the former slave who led a revolution that created the world’s first Black republic in 1804, astride a red horse. But the IOC ruled that the image violated Olympic rules barring political symbolism, forcing Jean to paint over the nation’s founding father.

That left only Louverture's charging steed — representing Haiti’s founding moment — against a lush tropical backdrop and azure sky. The IOC didn’t respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment, but no demonstration of political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic site or venue.

“Rules are rules and must be respected, and that is what we have done,’’ Jean told the AP at an exclusive unveiling at Haiti's embassy in Rome.

Mongolian brand Goyol Cashmere launched its Olympic looks last month to instant internet acclaim. The designers were inspired by the “warrior spirit” of Mongolians who, for thousands of years, used cashmere to endure the brutal winters of the Central Asian highlands, the company wrote on social media.

The designers leaned heavily on attire dating back to the Great Mongol Empire between the 13th and 15th centuries, the brand said.

At the Milan Cortina Games, Mongolian athletes will wear cashmere ceremonial deels — traditional tunics or robes — with silk trimmings to honor the past and present.

More casual looks will also feature cashmere, such as knitwear that draws upon the alpine ski sweater style of Western mountain culture, and traditional Mongolian motifs.

Many teams and designers are keeping hush-hush about their looks. They're counting on a big reveal during the opening ceremony inside Milan’s 80,000-seat San Siro stadium.

Here's a list of some other known collaborations:

— Austria and AlphaTauri

— Brazil and Moncler

— Canada and lululemon

— China and Li-Ning

— Czech Republic and ALPINE PRO

— Finland and Luhta

— France and Le Coq Sportif

— Germany and Adidas

— Great Britain and Ben Sherman

— Iceland and 66 North

— Poland and Adidas

— Spain and Joma

— Sweden and UNIQLO

— Switzerland and OCHSNER SPORT

— Ukraine and 4F

Associated Press writer Alyce Brown in New York contributed to this report.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

FILE - Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean, center, assists Megan Thomas, right, and Livia Audain with the official uniform of the Haitian national team participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics, at the Haitian Embassy in Rome, Jan. 31, 2026, (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

FILE - People watch the shop window during an event celebrating the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at the Emporio Armani store during the Fall/Winter 2026-2027 men's fashion week in Milan, Italy, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)

FILE - Olympic snowboarder Red Gerard unveils Ralph Lauren's Team USA opening ceremony uniform for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics at Ralph Lauren headquarters, Dec. 3, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Vitomir Padovan of Croatia presents an outfit during a fashion show ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (Xue Yuge/Pool Photo via AP)

Ariuntungalag Enkhbayar of Mongolia presents an outfit during a fashion show ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (Xue Yuge/Pool Photo via AP)

A model presents an outfit of the French National Olympic Committee, during a fashion show ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (Xue Yuge/Pool Photo via AP)

Mara Navarria of Italy presents an outfit during a fashion show ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (Xue Yuge/Pool Photo via AP)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed the expiration of the last remaining nuclear arms pact between the two countries and agreed on the need to quickly launch new arms control talks, the Kremlin said Friday.

The New START treaty terminated Thursday, leaving no caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century and fueling fears of an unconstrained nuclear arms race.

Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed the issue in the United Arab Emirates, where Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. delegations held two days of talks on a peace settlement in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday.

“There is an understanding, and they talked about it in Abu Dhabi, that both parties will take responsible positions and both parties realize the need to start talks on the issue as soon as possible,” Peskov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared his readiness to stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington followed suit. U.S. President Donald Trump has ignored the offer and argued he wants China to be a part of a new pact, which Beijing has rebuffed.

“Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,” Trump posted Thursday on his Truth Social network.

Asked to comment on a report by Axios claiming Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed a possible informal deal to observe the pact's limits for at least six months, Peskov responded that any such extension could only be formal.

“Obviously its provisions can only be extended in a formal way,” Peskov said. “It's hard to imagine any informal extension in this sphere.”

Moscow views the treaty’s expiration Thursday “negatively” and regrets it, Peskov said Thursday. At the same time, he emphasized that “if we receive constructive responses, we will certainly conduct a dialogue.”

Even as New START expired, the U.S. and Russia agreed Thursday to reestablish high-level, military-to-military dialogue following a meeting between senior officials from both sides in Abu Dhabi, the U.S. military command in Europe said.

The link was suspended in 2021 as relations between Moscow and Washington grew increasingly strained before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, was the last remaining pact in a long series of agreements between Moscow and Washington to limit their nuclear arsenals, starting with SALT I in 1972.

New START restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers deployed and ready for use. It was originally set to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.

The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying Russia couldn’t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies openly declared a goal of Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.

By offering in September to abide by New START’s limits for a year, which would buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement, Putin said the treaty’s expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel nuclear proliferation.

Trump has indicated he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons but wants to involve China in a potential new treaty.

In his first term, Trump tried and failed to push for a three-way nuclear pact involving China. Beijing has balked at any restrictions on its smaller but growing nuclear arsenal, while urging the U.S. to resume nuclear talks with Russia.

Thomas DiNanno, a top U.S. diplomat in charge of arms control said Friday that the expiration of the last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States marks the “end of an era” of what he described as “U.S. unilateral restraint" and insisted that Trump wants a “better agreement” that would also involve Beijing.

“As we sit here today, China’s entire nuclear arsenal has no limits, no transparency, no declarations and no controls,” DiNanno told the Conference on Disarmament, a U.N.-backed organization, in Geneva. He added that ”the next era of arms control can and should continue with clear focus, but it will require the participation of more than just Russia at the negotiating table.”

DiNanno, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, also accused Beijing of covertly conducting nuclear tests. “Today, I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons,” he said.

DiNanno stated that China’s army “sought to conceal testing by obfuscating the nuclear explosions because it recognizes these tests violate test ban commitments.”

Ambassador Shen Jian of China accused the United States of “shifting the blame.”

Keaten reported from Geneva.

FILE - U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, right, shake hands at a news conference at the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic,, April 8, 2010, after signing the New START treaty reducing long-range nuclear weapons. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, File)

FILE - This photo taken from a video distributed on Dec. 9, 2020 by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, shows a rocket launch as part of a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile test at the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)