Chiles, an Olympic gymnast who oozes confidence and is unapologetically herself, had the idea: “Whoa, you know what would be so cool? What if … I call it the Renaissance tour of leos?”
Fast-forward to this week’s U.S. championships. Chiles will step onto the competitive floor with a flashy, Beyoncé-inspired leotard that probably will be polarizing and unquestionably will align with her ethos: Why fit in when you can be Jordan Chiles?
Of all the costumes Beyoncé unveiled during her “Renaissance” world tour, Chiles chose perhaps the wildest one as inspiration for the leotard she will wear in Friday’s session. It’s an explosion of color, with red and pink stripes across her chest and checkerboard prints that incorporate nearly the entire rainbow. Roughly 4,400 crystals are packed within the design, including a V-shaped arrangement that mimics a statement necklace. Some of the jewels shine in colors described as electric blue, mango and ruby. This is far from your typical competitive leotard. And Chiles loves it.
As the 23-year-old aims for a return to the Olympics, she performs her floor routine to a collection of Beyoncé songs, and she has embraced a Beyoncé-inspired mantra: “I’m that girl,” an empowering nod to the opening track on the pop star’s album “Renaissance.”
Chiles said her self-affirming mind-set is rooted in authenticity rather than cockiness. She won a silver medal with the team at the Tokyo Olympics, then took home three medals at the 2022 world championships. She said she doesn’t feel as if she has anything to prove. With that approach, she has had an excellent start to the season, finishing third at the U.S. Classic and positioning herself well as the Olympic trials approach.
“I am that girl,” Chiles said. “I am going to look in the mirror and be okay with myself.”
As soon as Chiles saw a photo of Beyoncé’s colorful catsuit on Instagram, she wanted it to be a leotard. She didn’t know whether she would wear it for a competition or it would be one of many in her collection, sold as part of her sponsorship with the leotard company GK Elite. But Chiles was committed to her vision.
“It just gives legit icon, legend, that girl vibe,” Chiles said.
Several athletes design their own leotards for major competitions through their partnerships with GK Elite. Design director Jeanne Diaz said some gymnasts provide their preferred color and let the leotard experts handle the rest. Chiles, on the other hand, wants “heavy involvement from the start,” Diaz said. Most of the leotards created for the U.S. championships feature varying tones of a single color — intricate and covered with crystals but nowhere near Chiles’s audacious approach.
Chiles long has listened to Beyoncé’s music but became a fervent admirer as she got older and understood Beyoncé’s story. In a way, Chiles can relate: “She’s been body-shamed. She’s been racially attacked. She’s done all these things that as an athlete you go through.” When asked about her favorite Beyoncé song, Chiles was momentarily stumped. She thought through the catalogue of options before landing on “XO,” then changing her answer to “Pretty Hurts,” singing a bit of the lyrics as she explained why.
Chiles’s idea to extend this passion to her leotards began last fall. She didn’t have a 56-show tour with multiple costume changes in each, but she had a two-day competition set for the spring. Chiles realized she could lean into her enthusiasm for Beyoncé and fashion while also expressing different sides of her personality.
On Sunday, the final night of the national championships, Chiles will wear a white leotard that also borrows from a “Renaissance” tour outfit: Beyoncé’s skin-tone catsuit with jewels arranged on her torso and in bands along her legs. The leotard has so many crystals that when Chiles tried it on, she said, “I felt like I was holding up 850 pounds of jewels.” The details make it elegant and sophisticated, a contrast to Friday’s, which she says highlights her “spunky” side.
Diaz and her team usually design leotards that are “more universally liked,” she said, because the company needs to sell the products. So when Diaz saw the photo of Beyoncé’s colorful costume from the Italian fashion brand Emilio Pucci, she was excited. Rarely are leotards so bold.
Chiles knew she didn’t want to wear a leotard that entirely mimicked the vibrant print, hoping to avoid looking “like a clown out there,” she said, laughing. And Diaz said she knew from the start she wanted to incorporate a “grounding black element.” That’s why the leotard has black mesh sleeves and a black bottom that transitions into the rush of color with a curving, crisscross-patterned belt.
To turn the Beyoncé outfit into a leotard, Diaz said she identified the “most striking features” and tabbed them as “must-keeps.” She zeroed in on the multicolor pattern, high neckline and necklace. Densely packed crystals became Chiles’s faux necklace, her favorite element of the design.
When Chiles first tried on the leotard, she thought: “Oh, wow, this is amazing.” But she still wanted more crystals. She sent it back, and GK Elite added more jewels along the belt and in some other areas. Finally, the leotard was complete.
“I put it on, and I was like,” Chiles said, then paused with her jaw dropped. “There’s no way. My imagination came to life.”
Gymnastics leotard designs often spark intense and contrasting opinions, just as fans are intrigued by football uniform combinations or soccer kits at the World Cup. Chiles knows some people will love the leotard and others will hate it. She’s used to critics, whom she calls “bully bots.” But she knows this leotard is true to herself.
“At the end of the day, I feel beautiful in it,” Chiles said. “I feel strong, powerful. And it goes. My [floor] routine is Beyoncé. What more can I give you?”
While Simone Biles wears a mostly black design and Sunisa Lee dons shades of pink, Chiles’s creation is likely to be the wildest leotard on the floor. For Chiles, that’s a fitting statement.
“I’m Jordan Chiles, and there’s only one me,” she said. “This leo definitely says that, I can tell you that, because who would have thought?”
