Viewing the Olympics through the prism of style can be a screwball proposition, since the pinnacle of sport is also pretty reliably the height of sartorial kitsch.

There is, for a start, the exuberant and sometimes wacko patriotism on display at the opening ceremony, where athletes often don national costumes hardly anyone wears anymore (though it could be that Pita Taufatofua, the hunky Tongan flag bearer who has now gone bare-chested at both the Summer Games and the Winter Games, oils up his abs and does errands in a skirted grass ta’ovala). There are dowdy newscasters risking frostbite to gin up color pieces on deathless topics like the contents of the athletes’ goody bags. There is the inevitable sequined disaster at the skating center. There are the face-painted spectators. There is Johnny Weir.

Yet, as surprising as the downhill upsets and ice-rink flameouts that have marked the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang have been, there are certain elements few would have predicted. If not perhaps the most tasteful Winter Olympics in memory, these have been the first that this avid sports fan recalls that engaged in active dialogue with real-world fashion, an Olympics replete with ideas heavily influenced by street wear and the catwalks — and one that also offered designers aplenty to ponder.