Would you like fries with that new look?
By Beth Teitell
Thursday, Jul 7, 2005

Which is why I find the recent trend toward designer-made uniforms unsettling.

In the good old days, shlump though you may be, you at least could count on being better dressed than the folks handing you complimentary peanuts or a bucket of wings. Until fashion luminaries such as Kate Spade and Giorgio Armani started getting involved, that is (designers for Song airlines and Boston's Nine Zero hotel, respectively).

And now, even McDonald's is getting into the fashion game (well, fashion light, hold the mayo).

In case you've been too busy celebrating London's Olympic victory over Paris to read the news, Advertising Age reported that the company is talking to some big names - Tommy Hilfiger, P. Diddy, Russell Simmons, among others - about redesigning its uniforms.

Goodbye fake business attire, hello fake hip-hop mogul.

Yes, the employees still will earn measly fast-food wages and slave over hot McGriddles, but hey, at least they'll be dressed McPhat.

Or, at least as dope as one can be in polyesters and asking mothers with crying children, "Do you want fries with that?"

I don't know about you, but I find such gaping disconnects between wardrobe and job description disconcerting.

Consider the employees at Ralph Lauren's Rugby boutique on Newbury Street, for example. Uniformed in prep couture, they look more like trust-fund kids than retail associates. Observing one worker/Park Avenue Princess folding cashmere sweaters, I almost wondered why she was putting herself to the trouble. The maid's day off, perhaps? Daddy in trouble with the SEC?

But back to the nation's largest fast-food chain and its dream to make uniforms so cool employees will wear them even "outside the restaurant environment," in the words of a spokesman.

Here's my burning question: Will redesigning the outfits make the fries fat-free?