Ralph Lauren, We Love You Just the Way You Are
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I’ll never forget the first time I saw where Ralph Lauren worked. I was interning in the PR department during college, and as part of the program, we were given a tour of the headquarters at 650 Madison Avenue, an otherwise average-looking, functional office building. If you’ve ever been to one of his stores or restaurants, that’s exactly how it’s decorated, with delicious dark wood finishes, suiting fabrics, and black and white portraits in sharp silver frames. Every objet is considered, and every corner is precisely curated, yet it all feels totally lived in. Of course, there’s a grand staircase, too. That was the first time that I realized what it meant to build a world around fashion.
Yesterday evening, I returned to 650 Madison for Lauren’s Fall/Holiday 2024 show, which he held in the private design studio adjacent to his office. This was his third show in almost five years, and while his last two were behemoth productions, this one was salon-style. Lauren and his team outfitted the room like a gallery space, with art hung austerely on the walls and cantilever chrome chairs in chocolate brown leather that matched the mahogany floors. A natural woven rug served as the runway. The vibe in the room was familial and sweet, with guests mingling and Lauren’s family gathered together happily, closest to the backstage entrance.
As everyone took their seats, the mood only grew more tender. Billy Joel’s “I Love You Just the Way You Are” began to play as supermodel (and Bazaar May cover star) Christy Turlington opened the show in a monochrome tan suit, wool trench, and necktie—a nod, it seemed, to Lauren's origin story designing and selling ties for Beau Brummel in Rockefeller Center in the late 1960s. Ties were a focus through the entire collection, as was nostalgia. Each piece to me felt both personal and historical, with nary a Polo logo or thematic Western poncho in sight.
There was a brilliantly tailored, double-breasted brown suede suit, a jacket thrown casually over an exquisite bias-cut gown, cropped cable knits paired with silk maxi skirts, and a belted pilot suit punctuated with touches of silver jewelry. The beaded top with a pinstripe blazer also stood out, as did the rugged distressed leather shearling coat and matching pants.
Every piece and every styling choice served as reminders that Lauren invented a look we all still want to wear and live in. These clothes are why Lauren will always be the sensei of American fashion. Everyone in the room stood and cheered when he came out for a bow, wearing a turquoise rodeo shirt, jeans, and grey New Balance sneakers. At 84 years old, he’d done it again.
Last night’s show felt too emotional a moment not to wonder if it could perhaps have been Lauren’s last before retiring. What happens when you become bigger than the world you've built? Do you stay in the orbit, or do you hover over a new galaxy of stars on the rise? Then again, Lauren shows no real signs of slowing down—he just launched a new home collection and recently alluded to the possibility of opening hotels in an interview with Women’s Wear Daily. With his fall collection, he seemed to shove age aside and return to the core of what he started. Walking out of the design studio, back through the lobby of that corporate office building in midtown, the show experience lingered in my brain, and so did the clothes. That’s the magic of Ralph Lauren, the brand and the man.
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