Ralph Lauren goes with basic blue jeans for Team USA's opening Olympic ceremony uniforms

NEW YORK (AP) — When Team USA walks with the world’s athletes at the Paris Olympics'opening ceremony, they’ll be doing so in snappy tailored navy blazers from Ralph Lauren — and blue jeans.

Just regular, everyday denim blue jeans.

Ralph Lauren, which unveiled Tuesday its ninth turn creating Olympic parade looks for the Americans, is billing the pairing as “unexpected” yet classic.

David Lauren, the company's chief branding and innovation officer and its founder's son, was unbothered by the casualness of blue denim.

“We work very closely with Team USA to make the athletes feel at once dressed up, feel like a team, but at the same time comfortable and very distinctively American,” he told The Associated Press on Monday during a media preview at the company's posh New York headquarters.

“Nothing says America like blue jeans, especially when we’re in Paris,” Lauren added. “And it gives the athletes a chance to feel a sense of a culture but also feel like themselves and what is natural.”

The single-breasted wool blazers come with red-and-white tipping worn with a blue-and-white striped Oxford shirt and cream suede buck lace-up shoes. The jeans, at least, are tapered. Oh, and there are neck ties, in blue.

For the closing ceremony, the team will wear sharp white, moto-style denim jeans with matching jackets designed in, yes, patriotic red, white and blue.

The company gathered a few Paris-bound athletes to show off the parade uniforms for the Summer Games that begin next month in one of the world's fashion capitals.

Daniela Moroz, 23, is competing in sailing at her first Olympics. She loved the racing details of the closing look she modeled, down to the shoes. The zip jackets have “USA” splashed across the front in huge letters, with “Team USA” in blue high on the outside seam of one pant leg. Team caps are duck bill: The visor is in white, with red and blue details.

“I'm a racer on the water so that really speaks to me,” said Moroz, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, of the moto touches. “It's super comfortable.”

Lauren called the closing ceremony looks “more graphic, more fun, a little more exciting.”

The company also designed Team USA gear available for sale starting Tuesday at RalphLauren.com, TeamUSAShop.com and company stores in the U.S. and France. Among the wares on offer are polo shirts made of 100% recycled cotton. It's the first time Ralph Lauren has achieved that level of sustainability in Olympic gear, David Lauren said.

The customizable polo shirt “feels almost like a performance material that has better wicking, better breathability, better stretch,” he said. “And it’s a test for us to see how we can evolve in the future. The Olympics has always been an amazing place to test newness, to try innovation, and to explore with our athletes what the future could look like.”

Some proceeds of retail sales go to help support U.S. athletes training for their Olympic moments. Lauren wouldn't be more specific on how much money the company sends their way.

The opening and closing ceremony uniforms, the same for the Olympics and subsequent Paralympics, were made in the U.S. The gear on sale to the public was made in both the U.S. and other countries.

Jamal Hill, a Paralympic swimmer who earned a bronze medal in Tokyo, is returning to compete in Paris at age 29. He thinks the uniforms will resonate with millennials and Gen Z.

“They have a really, really nice unique modern flair,” said Hill, who grew up in Los Angeles.

Fencer Daryl Homer, 33, will be Paris as an alternate after he tore his Achilles tendon a month before qualification. It's his fourth trip to the Olympics. He earned a silver medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

Of the blue denim moment, Homer said: “It's very modern, it's approachable. We're going to be walking in Paris in the heat. It's a lighter look with a bit more room to move around.”

Kamren Larsen, a 24-year-old BMX racer from Bakersfield, California, is headed to his first Olympics. He thinks the crisp blazers with Oxford shirts balance out the more laid-back nature of the jeans.

“I think Ralph did a good job in diversifying,” he said.

For more coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, visit https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games.

Olympic athlete in fencing, Daryl Homer, models the Team USA Paris Olympics opening ceremony uniform at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Olympic athlete Jamal Hill models the Team USA Paris Olympics closing ceremony uniform at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Olympic athlete in BMX racing, Kamren Larsen, models the Team USA Paris Olympics opening ceremony uniform at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Olympic athlete Jamal Hill models the Team USA Paris Olympics closing ceremony uniform at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Olympic athlete in fencing, Daryl Homer, models the Team USA Paris Olympics opening ceremony uniform at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Olympic athlete in sailing, Daniela Moroz, models the Team USA Paris Olympics closing ceremony uniform at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Chief Branding and Innovation Officer David Lauren unveils the Team USA Paris Olympics opening and closing ceremony uniforms at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Team USA Paris Olympics attire is displayed at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Team USA Paris Olympics attire is displayed at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Team USA Paris Olympics attire is displayed at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Team USA Paris Olympics attire is displayed at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Team USA Paris Olympics attire is displayed at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Team USA Paris Olympics opening ceremony attire is displayed at Ralph Lauren headquarters on Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pardoned potentially thousands of former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, saying Wednesday that he is “righting an historic wrong" to clear the way for them to regain lost benefits.

Biden's action grants a pardon to service members who were convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice's former Article 125, which criminalized sodomy. The law, which has been on the books since 1951, was rewritten in 2013 to prohibit only forcible acts.

Those covered by the pardon will be able to apply to receive proof that their conviction has been erased, petition to have their discharges from the military upgraded and move to recover lost pay and benefits.

“Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” Biden said in a statement. “We have a sacred obligation to all of our service members –- including our brave LGBTQI+ service members: to properly prepare and equip them when they are sent into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home. Today we are making progress in that pursuit.”

The president’s use of his pardon powers is occurring during Pride Month and his action comes just days before he is set to hold a high-profile fundraiser with LGBTQ donors in New York on Friday. Biden is trying to rally support within the Democratic-leaning community ahead of the presidential election.

Modern Military, the nation's largest organization of LGBTQ+ service members and their families, said the decision was “historic step towards justice and equality," and called on the miliary to approve the pardons quickly.

Biden's proclamation is "a significant move in recognizing and righting the wrongs inflicted upon LGBTQ+ service members who faced discrimination and unjust convictions under policies such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," the organization said in a statement after the pardon announcement. “These brave individuals stood on the front lines of freedom, risking their lives to defend our country, only to be met with injustice at home.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. D-N.Y., said in a statement that the actions were a step in the “march towards greater equality" and “correct a historic wrong for LGBTQ+ Americans who served bravely in our armed forces to keep our country safe.”

Administration officials declined to say why Biden did not act on the pardons sooner.

This is the third categorial pardon by Biden — using his clemency powers to cover a broad group of people convicted of particular crimes — after moves in 2022 and 2023 to pardon those convicted federally for possessing marijuana.

The White House estimates that several thousand service members will be covered — the majority convicted before the military instituted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 1993 that eased the way for LGBTQ troops to serve if they didn’t disclose their sexual orientation. That policy was repealed in 2011, when Congress allowed for their open service in the military.

Service members convicted of nonconsensual acts are not covered by Biden's pardon action. And those convicted under other articles of the military justice code, which may have been used as pretext to punish or force-out LGBTQ troops, would need to request clemency through the normal Department of Justice pardon process.

Biden had previously ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to move to provide benefits to service members who were other than honorably discharged because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room at the White House in Washington, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)