PARTY HAS JUST BEGUN
Ralph Lauren celebrates 50 years of his business with a retrospective of his iconic collections, Wang Linyan reports in New York.
Manhattan’s Central Park became the stage for a star-studded gala on Sept 7 as iconic American fashion designer Ralph Lauren celebrated his company’s 50th anniversary.
For the first time Lauren shared a complete panorama of his collections at one event — his women’s collections, men’s Double RL range and his Polo Ralph Lauren collections — to celebrate the character and beauty of the themes that inspired him over the last half a century.
While the Ralph Lauren Collection and Double RL preand sented day and evening wear in bohemian and eclectic styles, the women’s collection highlighted modern suits, velvet gowns and knits infused with artisanal patchworks and beading.
A mix of utilitarian workwear and traditional tailoring, the Double RL menswear range featured well-worn denim, British tweeds, sweaters and leathers that evoked a feeling of both being lived-in and well-traveled.
The Polo collection is infused with Lauren’s signature preppy look, combining Ivy League classics and English haberdashery with downtown styles and allAmerican sporty cool.
As earth tones prevailed on the runway, a glamorous audience of around 200 celebrity guests, including Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro were joined by Lauren’s fellow designers Donna Karan, Calvin Klein Tommy Hilfiger. After the parade, the guests were treated to steaks from Lauren’s ranch in Colorado.
“For my 50th anniversary, I wanted to create and share a runway experience that was deeply personal and a summation of the style I’ve always believed in: personal, authentic, and forever, in a place so quintessentially New York and special to me — Central Park,” says Lauren, who hails from the Bronx.
Downtown yet sophisticated, the gala showcased a variety of ways to wear clothes.
“The message is to show you a little of the sensibility of what made Ralph Lauren strong,” he says in an interview with China Daily at his office before the show.
The designer who has defined American style for so many years said he enjoys designing for women “who have good taste’’.
“I’m showing them how to mix it up, and how to be current even with clothes that don’t necessarily have to be this year’s,” he adds.
Lauren built his business up from a single tie design. In 1967, Lauren, then 28, persuaded the president of tie manufacturer Beau Brummell to let him start his own line. He started by only making neckties, which he packed and sold himself.
The next year, Lauren, who is interested in sports, named his first full line of menswear Polo. He worked out of a single drawer in a showroom in the Empire State Building and made deliveries to stores by himself.
By 1969, Bloomingdale’s exclusively sold Lauren’s men’s line, the first time the Manhattan department store had given a designer his own in-store shop. In 1971, Lauren introduced the Polo player emblem on a line of tailored shirts for women and opened the first solo store for an American designer in Beverly Hills, California.
In 1974, Lauren outfitted the male actors in the movie The Great Gatsby in clothes from his Polo line, a 1920s-inspired range of men’s suits and sweaters. He made a pink suit for Robert Redford’s Jay Gatsby. It was perhaps the first movie where a fashion line was used to reflect the character of the lead character.
His signature cotton Polo shirt was introduced in 1977, featuring the polo player logo on the chest.
Through the Polo brand, Lauren created a sensibility for his menswear lines. Each brand was created with a point of view: The purple label is more sophisticated and of better quality; the double RL is young and ritualistic.
“I see them as movies. They all have stories,” says the designer.
But the process of brandbuilding isn’t just plucked out of thin air, he adds.
“It comes from passion, from understanding and believing in who you are, and staying consistent in your voice. I like having the ability to do different things, but I stay consistent as to who I am, so that when you see the clothes, you say, ‘Ah, that must be Ralph Lauren’.”
Lauren says while consum“When er tastes may have changed, he is confident that he understands his customer base.
“Every woman has a different style and a different taste. But I think I’ve consistently had a point of view, and have continued to attract customers both young and old.”
He thinks men are more conservative and enjoy consistency, while women prefer change.
“In many ways, men’s styles don’t change much, but women’s tastes always alter dramatically,” he says, adding that he has had lots of opportunities to learn and experiment.
Lauren says staying current while maintaining an identity is a difficult process: “I think you still have to view every year as a new year and every season as a new season.”
He says the Ralph Lauren Corp has managed to stay current by building new brands that continue to evolve, but he wants his brands to stay timeless.
we talk about classic, that sounds boring. Timeless is how to stay exciting and interesting, because it’s ... about moving forward and changing. The constant changes over the years have helped the company move forward.”
Lauren says it’s nice to be labeled an American icon, but as the company’s founder, he works hard to build concepts and develop teams.
“The next 50 years should be very exciting”.