The Errant Æsthete

“We have to put America on a world stage that looks refined and appropriate,” says David Lauren, explaining why Polo Ralph Lauren fashions will be the new look of the U.S. Team at the Beijing Olympic Games, report Rachel Dodes and Stephanie Kang in The Wall Street Journal (4/7/08). That look is a decidedly more “preppie” style versus the past three Olympic Games, when “the Canadian apparel company Roots outfitted the U.S. team,” most memorably in a red, beret-style hat that “caused a retail sensation in Salt Lake City in 2002, amid a groundswell of patriotism following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

Roots was slated to continue as the official outfitter this time, the U.S. Olympic Committee didn’t quite take to its “yoga-inspired, technical, green product,” for the Beijing Games this summer. The USOC’s Norman Bellingham says that this time, he wanted a “classic and more formal manner” of dress for the 1,500 U.S. athletes. Norman told David that “his inspiration was ‘Chariots of Fire,’ the 1981 movie about British athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.”

And so it’s out with Roots berets and in with Polo’s “blazers and slacks … V-neck sweaters and ties, classic Polo mesh shirts … and cargo pants — all in a patriotic palette of red, white and blue” (rendering here). David Lauren “is hoping the athletes’ new look will help boost America’s image internationally,” and of course boost his company’s brand image sales both in America and in Asia, as well. He also says he doesn’t expect that the controversies involving China to be a problem: “Right now our job is just to work on making America look great … That’s our mission,” says. The designs will be sold online, through U.S. department stores and potentially through shops in Beijing, as well. [link]