Lauren told the Today Show hosts that the looks were “inspired by the 1948 Games, which is the last time that America competed in England,” and yes, okay: there is some post-war tailoring happening here, but the overall effect is less retro and more retrograde. I mean, what was Ralph Lauren thinking, styling America’s strongest athletes and fiercest competitors in berets, the world’s most nonfunctional headwear? It’s not like the US Olympic team is traveling to London to sit around on a lawn drinking Negronis.
If you want to see these how these starched WASP-y confections move, I’ve included The Today Show reveal below. It’s totally worth a watch: about a minute into the clip, some behind-the-scenes sound engineer cuts in the Olympic fanfare and theme, and slowly increases the volume so that it plays over the gushy morning show blabber.
Enjoy! (And just because I don’t approve of these pieces as US Team uniforms doesn’t mean they aren’t totally cute for the rest of us. Modern day Chips & Muffys can head over to RalphLauren.com for a little piece of Olympic glory.)
Image via ELLE
[via MSNBC]
