London 2012: Ralph Lauren's Olympic Uniforms Mocked on Social Media

4:11 PM PDT 7/28/2012 by Merle Ginsberg

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Though the designer's look for team USA has been getting mixed reviews offline, Twitter observers have been skewering the berets and rigid jackets as "preppy-sailor."

It seems Olympic enthusiasts aren't so enthusiastic about Ralph Lauren's Team USA Olympic uniforms. And with this being dubbed "the social media Olympics," observers on Twitter aren't holding back on what they consider to be a major fashion fumble.

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"Those berets," wrote one twitterer after seeing the uniforms, which feature military-style berets on both male and female athletes, as well as very buttoned up, conservative and rather rigid jackets.

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"Yikes. I wanna shout M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!" the tweeter blasted across the everybody-weighs-in platform.

To make matters worse for Lauren, the New York Daily News recently broke the story that his uniforms were being made in China. While this is not unusual in the fashion biz (a lot of production is done in India and China), Congress was embarrassed and drafted a bill saying this can't happen for the next Olympics.

Though it's definitely embarrassing for the U.S. in a political and diplomatic sense, Lauren has definitely gotten his share of media flack. It won't help him either, when New York fashion week comes around for spring 2013 this September, where he will be showing a new runway collection.

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It might have made up for the fracas a little bit if viewers had liked Lauren's Olympic looks - but the consensus is, they don't. The stiff jackets are being referred to as "preppy-sailor," and as too formal and conservative for the occasion.

There's definitely a debate over the made-in-China issue. Some believe Lauren should use any production he wants to produce the uniforms, while others think it was a major political no-no. But the social media aesthetic vote -- probably the one that counts the most these days in terms of traversing the world's stage -- is a thumbs-down.