The Paris Olympics are coming up! I’m excited, mostly for the Olympic tennis, gymnastics and swimming. For the millionth time, Ralph Lauren got the contract to “dress” Team USA’s athletes for the opening and closing ceremonies. It’s a prestigious contract and while I enjoy Ralph Lauren as a classic American designer, I kind of think RL has lost the plot a bit when it comes to dressing Olympic athletes. Especially for the Summer Olympics – Ralph Lauren inevitably creates heavy, layered looks with long-sleeved shirts and jackets, like athletes want to dress like Little Lord Fauntleroy for 90-degree weather.
Well, Ralph Lauren just released the opening and closing ceremony ensembles for Team USA and… thanks, I hate all of this. The opening ceremony outfit is a “classic, single-breasted navy blue wool blazer, which features subtle Americana details like red and white tipping. The jacket is paired with a striped oxford shirt, as well as tapered denim and suede buck shoes. Male athletes will also wear a blue tie.” The closing ceremony outfit is white jeans, a polo shirt and “sporty moto jackets” with an array of patches. Usually, RL gives athletes chinos or khakis, not denim. I really, really dislike this.
I keep seeing commentary about how RL really created an updated “American” look, but the closing ceremony outfits make the athletes look like Formula 1 drivers. And that’s not very American.
At the opening ceremony parade July 26, athletes will sport a navy wool blazer with red and white tipping, adorned with @RalphLauren’s classic pony logo on one side and the @TeamUSA Olympics logo on the other.
📸: Courtesy Ralph Lauren pic.twitter.com/rRD7WzrxtN
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 18, 2024
We’re honored to return for our ninth time as an official outfitter of @TeamUSA at #Paris2024.
Meet the athletes and learn more about our partnership: https://t.co/PUhkc1BQTO#RLxTeamUSA #PoloRalphLauren #ParisOlympics #ParisParalympics #PoloRLStyle pic.twitter.com/rtHON1aGr1
— Ralph Lauren (@RalphLauren) June 18, 2024
The official Team USA Opening Ceremony uniforms for the #ParisOlympics and #ParisParalympics! 🤩
The #ParisOlympics Opening Ceremony is Friday, July 26 on NBC and Peacock!
(via Ralph Lauren) pic.twitter.com/ev4mCulWpt
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 18, 2024
Photos courtesy of Ralph Lauren.
Paris in July? There’s a good chance they’re going to be melting. Make the athletes stylish and comfortable for the weather. What I see is not it.
@Jais, MTE
Why do they keep using Lauren? If they need a white man, why not go with Hilfiger? At least he understands summer wear.
@Megan, I can’t tell you how much I LOVE your comment. Hilarious.
Lauren, being Jewish, still counts as “diversity”, in some corners.
I was seeing a story this morning about athlete’s concern for their health due to likely extreme heat during the games this summer. At least give them weather appropriate clothes (even if they still look awful – which these do).
American here. Opening ceremony – hideous; closing ceremony – not bad.
American here, from the south, I like the opening ceremony look and not the closing. 😁
I’m with you. I like the opening ceremony look a lot but detest the white denim outfits. So bad, and also way too hot for Paris in August
The opening look is barely passable, the closing look is awful. It’s waaaaaay past time that the torch was passed to a different designer. The Americans almost always have the worst look at these ceremonies.
I agree with the author- the header pic looks like a nascar team. Odd.
I feel like they are overcompensating. The beauty of ralph lauren used to be simplicity, clean lines. These are world class athletes, not clowns.
I like the blazer look better, and i don’t mind the jeans- though i live in the south- and it is too damn hot to wear jeans in the summer unless they are cut offs.
They really do look like a pit crew.
All of this and the huge horsey logo is so tacky American it makes me cringe. I hate all of this. With the 90s being back, RL could have done really cool lightweight parachute pants.
Same. Hate both looks.
Nascar or motorcycle racing was my first thought.
I am surprised! I feel like RL usually does a good job with this. Why not a linen blend jean jacket?
Nope nope nope. Ralph Lauren has definitely lost the plot if they’re sending THIS to represent the USA in Paris. Who approved this?
And why did they approve a RL logo that’s as big as the USA insignia?!?!?
Never mind the weather, I wouldn’t be caught dead at a family BBQ in either outfit.
I hate the opening ceremony outfits so much. Mom and dad jeans and the jacket from a 4th of July carnival barker. The NASCAR outfits are ok – at least they look like athletes.
A wool blazer? In July? In Paris? Hmmmm.
I feel like something / someone absolutely messed up. Today is my second wedding anniversary, the high is 91, as it was when we got married two years ago. Similar to what it will be like in Paris in July. I was in charge of picking out my now husbands’s suit. And let me tell you, nothing with a speck of wool was on the list. While we went with Brooks Brothers, we looked at Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren has plenty of non wool blend suits and also it’s the Olympics for Pete’s sake. Design a new one. The jeans are ill fitting. I get that denim is “normal” and “sporty” but so are slacks in a tech fabric. Or jeans that actually fit in a wash that doesn’t look straight out of my home state of Kentucky in the 80s. The women could have worn cute Polo dresses or a sport coat with white pants. Or lightweight white jeans. Etc etc. This is all bad. Hopefully it looks better when the time comes. I do like the red and white piping.
This is exactly what I was going to say…wool?? Why not linen, if you have to put them in blazers? I know it can wrinkle easily, but at least they won’t be sweating half to death.
I like the blazer, but for summer? I guess the opening ceremony is at night, so maybe it won’t be absolutely boiling. The closing one just looks bad to me. I don’t like the athletic uniforms that got unveiled either. They look uncomfortable.
I wonder if they were trying to lean into the preppy/stealth wealth popularity? That opening outfit is hideous and the too short jeans are bleak.
I prefer the racing outfit of the two, but neither are great.
(But now I want to see all of the past Olympic outfit creations to compare them).
That first picture has them looking like Formula One drivers in the Hunger Games
If they’re going to insist on the blazers and denim, why not summer-ize it as a shorts suit for the ladies, at least? It’s Meghan-approved!
Honestly this is the only way it could be even slightly saved. Tragic outfits
Let’s just say my experience with central Europe in July is not…blazer friendly. It will be hot as heck and that is not good for athlete performance.
I’m inclined to dislike the whole opening ceremony outfit, tbh, especially the faded/distressed jeans (a crisp dark blue jean to match the crisp white jean of the closing would have been better for me), but I actually do like the closing outfit. White is one of our national colors and white is a perfect summer look, IMO.
I don’t mind jeans/denim as a general matter…they are quintessentially American and have real cultural and historical weight. (I recall all of the folks from the USSR and Eastern Bloc desperately loading up on/trying to get American jeans before the wall fell. It was a whole thing for both fashion, practical, and political reasons.) But not those opening ceremony jeans…just no.
1. These outfits are incredibly Fugly. 2. Nothing is less athletic than denim. 3. Imagine the damp pits and swamp crotch when you’re made to swathe yourselves in denim and wool in the middle of July. 4. Also if, instead of being sunny, it rains, imagine the misery of marching around pretending to be happy in a sodden denim and a damp wool blazer. 5. When did stock car racing become an Olympic sport?
WOOL?! I would refuse. I am so tired of this mediocre nonsense. Give the contract to someone who understands that American doesn’t equal country club fug.
LOL! adding “country club fug” to my vocabulary.
I’m the last person someone would come to for fashion advice …..but….those outfits are ugly, ugly, ugly and the materials and Layers are definitely NOT for July in Paris! Toss em in the Seine!
I love the closing ceremony look as it is definitely something that should hold up and stand the test of time (I’m thinking collectibles). The opening ceremony blazer is not cute which makes the denim on top of it look super cheap.
This looks like what the SNL costume dept would come up with as a spoof. Big no. So cheesy. So NASCAR. So embarrassing.
Both styles look more appropriate for fall/winter than the hottest part of summer. I can’t imagine wearing either in summer heat. I wish the contract to dress Team USA would go to someone else. The polo guy has had his time and more than his share of duds.
I say yes! Jeans are all I wear anymore, although I do realize there are going to be people saying they’re too casual or ‘not appropriate’. Blah blah blah. Gotta say, though, those white jean jackets? Makes ’em look like race-car drivers.
It’d be better for them to pick an indigenous designer to make up for all the faux “native” crap Lauren had been doing for years. Plus, those uniforms are fugly and not weather appropriate. Pass the torch already.
Ralph Lauren always makes the American team look old and stuffy.
So many good sportswear companies in the US and they pick stuffy Ralph Lauren. Again! Outfits look like private prep school with high-waders and a race car driver. Plus, did they forget this is the summer Olympics during a worldwide heat wave?
I’d be heated if this was the uniform I had to wear after doing the sports real good for real long times. Ok, I can’t sit in grass and flirt with Australians, I can’t get my period without extreme paranoia accompanying that joy, and I like to eat chocolate and am a slob who wipes her hands on her pants. Stop hating women, Ralph Lauren!
@hihello ALL OF THIS!!!!!!! Also, 9 times is plenty. It might be refreshing and go in a completely different direction designer-wise. He’s just phoning it in at this point.
Are there any Paralympians in those photos? Seems like a miss not to showcase the wheelchair rugby teams or the cyclists
😳
I mean, we’re having heat strokes in Croatia, going up to 37 Celsius. I’ve been in Paris during the summer and it’s unbelievably hot and uncomfortable. Denim in that weather? yeah, no.
He’s dressing the women like clowns, yet the dudes get nice fitted jeans. Misogyny much Ralph?
Did he forget this is the SUMMER Olympics? I die just looking at those outfits. Europe is having record-breaking heat. Really bad choices. I don’t like the racing looking jackets much either.