The jingoistic outrage over where Ralph Lauren's US Olympic gear was stitched up is pretty embarrassing—you awarded the contract to a designer who uses tons of Chinese manufacturing; what did you think was going to happen?—but more importantly it distracts us from the real issue here: the collection is all kinds of terrible. A lot of the pieces look simply like years-old Polo stock that was dusted off and covered with logos and emblems. Lazy. The twee club collars latch onto a trend well past its peak, and the tricolour berets scream "France".
To round off Ralph's bad week, Suitsupply then unveiled a collection for the Dutch Olympic team that built off many of the same classic forms—tailored navy blazers, tennis sweaters, country whites—but did it better in virtually every way.
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