In its current form, BuddyPress can work with any WordPress theme. That's right, you don't have to have an optimized social networking design if you don't want to. BuddyPress will manage to display its contents inside either the main content block of your current theme, or the widget areas you have available.
However, as usual, if you want to make your social network look more professional, then you should probably look around and get something that's specifically optimized for social networks. The best rule of thumb when you're searching for such themes, in my opinion, is to compare them against the biggest social network of them all—Facebook. Although some people don't enjoy the design that Facebook offers, ...
