THE French athletes were just too “fancy”, the Chinese looked like “sandwiches” and the Americans appeared to have underpants on their heads.

That was the verdict on Winter Olympic wear yesterday from the Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, renowned for their unremittingly sexy garb. Few feelings were spared as they passed judgment on the outfits worn by national teams at the opening ceremony of the Turin games.

The Germans, in fluorescent green and orange, were roundly dismissed for looking as though they had taken an “overdose of vitamin C”. The designers said that their attempt at elegance was best forgotten.

Dolce and Gabbana declared the sight of 80 teams parading around the Olympic arena in Turin had provided important “clues to the fashion soul” of each country. “Clothing details are very important, communicating identity much more rapidly than words,” they wrote in the Turin daily La Stampa.

The trendsetting duo appeared particularly fascinated by headwear. They referred cheerily to “the Americans’ flabby berets that looked like upside-down underwear”.

They added: “The Danish hats, looking like waffles, were horrible.”

However, perhaps preferring something more exotic, they seemed quite taken with the Mongolians’ fur hats — “dripping with small tails” — and the embroidered, colourful topi headgear sported by the Indian team. There was praise, too, for the “amazing” (if unlikely) Ethiopian skier who showed off a shock of dreadlocks.

Among the few other teams to win applause were the Russians, “all in Christmas white that somehow made them look slimmer and taller”. The British team escaped notice, as did the extraordinary and illuminated mountain costumes of those holding the teams’ name boards.

But the fashion duo were especially enthusiastic about the small team from Kazakhstan. “If casting for a fashion show, we would hire these athletes in a second: so stylish in their black coats and Borsalino hats, so Dolce and Gabbana.”

Eager to stamp on the French reputation for style, they sneered at the team’s attire as being fussy and contrived. “The fanciest were the French (who else?), sporting sailors’ jackets a little too perfectly tailored and oh-so-cool scarves.”

The Chinese were singled out as models of kitsch, their long jackets making them “look like sandwiches, even shorter than they already are”.

Perhaps predictably, Dolce and Gabbana thought the Italian team looked extremely stylish in their metallic anoraks. Their simplicity was compared favourably with the French. “The Italians were exactly the opposite in their original, silver outfits, and far more glamorous.”

Making no attempt to hide national bias, they also said that the Italian skier Giorgio Rocca and the skater Carolina Kostner were elegant enough to grace a catwalk. The Australian freestyle skier Alisa Kemplin was also added to this select list.

Finally, Dolce and Gabbana attacked those in the media who sneered at the elaborate celebration of Italian culture. The event — featuring a Ferrari racing car, skaters with flaming helmets and giant princesses — was a “real show of excellence,” they said.