What’s Happening: While there’s no shortage of internet outcry around Ralph Lauren’s fifth and latest navy blazer for Team USA’s opening ceremony look, aesthetic appeal may be taking a backseat to a larger signal of diplomatic power on a global stage.

The Download: For the fifth Olympic Games running, Team USA will don navy blazers by Ralph Lauren at the opening ceremony. Critics have pointed out that the brand’s boxy blazers are starting to feel past their heyday: more “vacation in Newport” than the slightest bit subversive, prompting questions of whether the parochial prep school look and outmoded tailoring of the red-and-white-piped sport coats will really put the country’s best foot forward in Paris. In a recent interview, the company’s chief branding and innovation officer, David Lauren, noted the brand will have tailors “on the ground” in Paris to help fine-tune the fit. And that’s to say nothing of the closing ceremony uniform, consisting of red, white, and blue moto-jackets emblazoned with “U.S.A.” patches that look like a car mechanic’s coveralls.

In the absence of sartorial splendor akin to Telfar’s ensembles for Team Liberia in Tokyo, Ralph Lauren has rather anticlimactically played up that Team USA’s polo shirts are made of fully recycled cotton and the entire uniform kit is manufactured domestically. (The latter fun fact distances the company’s present from a controversy surrounding its 2012 uniforms, which were made in China).“The eyes of the world will be on us at the Olympics,” Katie Ioanilli, Ralph Lauren’s chief global impact and communications officer, recently told Fast Company. “We’re very strategically using this opportunity to shine a light on this recycled cotton, because we need the rest of the industry to support it so it can be a viable option in the future.” An image spin like that might be enough to make up for a single design swing and miss, but considering that they’ve been panned since 2012, it rings hollow.

In Their Own Words: Reading between the lines of Ioanilli’s quote, the design world might be looking at this all wrong. The uniforms’ aesthetic appeal may be besides the point—a sort of ‘suit jacket diplomacy, style be damned’ strategy, if you will. “The directive we get is to have the athletes look like ambassadors,” Lauren told the New York Times. “To have a certain sense of formality and to feel comfortable.”

Surface Says: Plenty of designers out there are balancing sustainability strides with a point of view. Wouldn’t it be nice for Team USA’s outfitter to be one of them?

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The world of Italian porcelain producer Ginori 1735 comes to life at the legendary department store through a cafe teeming with current and archival textiles, table settings, and furniture. Modernized Italian classics, like tableside beet risotto, beef carpaccio, veal ragu tagliatelle, and lobster salad with frisée create a balletic interplay with Ginori pieces like the meandering clean lines of Gio Ponti’s Labirinto collection and the botanic splendor of the house’s Oriente Italiano wallpaper. Those who simply don’t want to live outside of the Ginori universe can head to the brand’s Bergdorf Goodman shop to stock up on their favorites from the cafe on their way out.

Earlier in the spring, Dinesen announced it would start producing the furniture that John Pawson designed for his Notting Hill home back in 1992 using the Danish joinery manufacturer’s solid wood planks. Spanning poetically proportioned pieces like a dining table, daybed, and sofa upholstered in crisp Kvadrat textiles, the collection has been gearing up for its grand reveal at Dinesen’s airy Copenhagen showroom during 3daysofdesign. To celebrate the occasion, brand director Hans Peter Dinesen gave Pawson carte blanche to transform the 1,560-square-foot digs into a makeshift apartment that positions each piece as an attention-grabbing yet artfully restrained centerpiece within interiors reflecting his clever minimalism.

Throughout the apartment, every detail intentionally forges a restful tone: Dinesen’s full range of handcrafted planks clad the floors, a pristine white shade that Pawson created for Danish paint brand Bléo covers the walls, and diffused ambient light emanates from Viabizzuno fixtures. “In the same way that everything about the new collection is pared back to the logic and poetry of the wood, everything about the apartment is refined back to the logic and the poetry of the spaces,” Dinesen says. “Our vision was a space where people experience an instinctive ease and affinity with the physical environment, which is the essence of feeling at home.”

Last month, Triennale Milano unveiled the first retrospective of Gae Aulenti’s six-decade career as one of Italy’s leading postwar architects. For those who may not find themselves in Milan by the time the show closes in January, tune into the museum’s podcast that explores her legacy. Hosted by design critic Alice Rawsthorn, the five-episode series traces Aulenti’s evolution through the voices of her friends, curators, and peers. In the first episode, Rawsthorn joins design curator Paola Antonelli to reminisce on Aulenti’s wide-ranging oeuvre, from the sculptural Pipistrello lamp to the swooping Sgarsul rocking chair. Her legacy is hard to define, but that’s where the fun lies. “The common characteristic,” Antonelli says, “is that there’s no common characteristic. So this idea of eclecticism—I’ve always admired it so much because style can be a prison.”

An exhibition of Elton John and David Furnish’s photography collection recently debuted at V&A South Kensington. At the heart of the show is scenographic design by Ebba Architects founder Benni Allan, who gave new life to materials previously used for V&A’s “Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto” show from 2023. More than 75 percent of the materials Allan used in “Fragile Beauty” are upcycled from the Chanel retrospective to create sweeping moments for visitors to discover portraits by Tyler Mitchell, Robert Mapplethorpe, David LaChapelle, Nan Goldin, and more.

Since it was founded in 1915, Caran d’Ache’s history has been intertwined with creativity and emotion. Originally known as Fabrique Genevoise de Crayons, the brand was rechristened Caran d’Ache in 1924 at the suggestion of Arnold Schweitzer, the company’s head at the time. Caran d’Ache means “pencil” in Russian and has roots in the Turkish word kara-tash, which means “black stone” in reference to graphite.

Surface Says: Behind every great artist is a trove of best-in-class materials. Caran D’Ache has supplied leading artists since 1915 by offering lightfast pastels, colored pencils, and acrylic paints, helping them to preserve the integrity of their visions.

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