A news release called it “a distinctly modern take on a tailored look” and has even set up an atelier in Paris to ensure that the athletes’ clothes fit to their liking. But while the jeans have a nice relaxed fit and spiffy little crop, the outfit actually looks quite dated, too similar to the silhouettes — fitted jeans, even more fitted blazer — that filled J.Crew stores during its first menswear heyday, more than a decade ago. That the athletes will wear these clothes with white bucks, an almost bygone staple of American menswear, only emphasizes that association.
Prep has to wink to work in 2024, which is to say to keep it from looking like you’re serving ice cream at an overpriced hipster ice cream parlor on Nantucket, or the mayor in “Jaws.” You need some detail that shows you, the wearer, are in control of your slightly outrageous style: a funky tie, an unexpected shoe, a relaxed shoulder that makes your clothes feel a bit more casual, or a quirky fit,…
