Last week, the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee (LTOK) presented the uniforms the country’s athletes will be wearing at the Tokyo Olympic Games next year. But the country’s social mediasphere and several fashion designers were quick to deem the design a “tragedy” and “embarrassing”.
The outfits, designed by graphic designer Oksana Ragauskienė, features the brightened-up colours of the Lithuanian flag: yellow, green and red, a combination that provoked some spiteful comments.
Read more: Lithuania rolls out 2021 Olympic wear – photos
Aleksandras Pogrebnojus, a well-known Lithuanian designer, was the first one to comment on the new uniforms. His own designs were also shortlisted in the LTOK's competition for Olympic wear.
“I think that the Olympic Committee has chosen the most horrifying style of all times […],” wrote the designer on Facebook. “The colour combination is simply fantastic… it looks like it was designed by someone with Daltonism and the yellow dress is breathtakingly awful […].”
Pogrebnojus also opined that the green male suit would be more suitable for a hypothetical children's choir “Grasshopper”, while the female mini-skirt outfit was something that could be worn by a South Korean policewoman.
The designer previously presented “alternative” Olympic uniforms for Lithuanian athletes and said that his design was “a thousand times more beautiful”. Many commentators on Pogrebnojus’ Facebook wall seemed to agree.
Fashion commentator Arnoldas Remeika posted on Facebook that “the outfits look like they were designed in cooperation with hostile foreign intelligence services seeking to ruin Lithuania's international reputation”.
Another Lithuanian fashion designer, Juozas Statkevičius, was even more scathing about the designs.
“First, these are not national colours. Second, the silhouettes are old-fashioned. Third, it is not necessary to cramp the flag onto the uniform. Fourth, it fits terribly, the quality is awful. This is a primitive decision, catastrophic retardation,” he told LRT.lt.
Statkevičius said the designs would have been more suitable for the 1980 Olympic Games and showed Lithuania's failure to live up to “European standards”.
If the budget is limited, he continued, it would be better to go with a simple combination of black trousers and white shirt than such a “tasteless and inelegant” design.
Ragauskienė, who is a graphic designer rather than a fashion designer, responded to the criticism by saying that the outfits would help the Lithuanian delegation to stand out and that she was proud of her work.
“I’m not a fashion designer but I know something about colours. I have 15 years of experience in graphic and website design,” Ragauskienė wrote on Facebook. “We are not going to a funeral, but to a place with many countries and colours. We have to stand out. And we will!”
She said she had a vision for a delicate, sporty, comfortable, light uniform that would also attract attention. She said she was “very happy” with the final result, even though some changes in design and colours had to be made due to technical limitations of the Polish company 4F which was chosen to produce the uniforms.
Speaking to Delfi.lt, Ragauskienė also hit back at Pogrebnojus, comparing his “alternative” designs to signposts on the Lithuanian–Belarusian border.
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