THE JOURNAL
Mr Ralph Lauren is one of fashion’s great storytellers. He famously said his work is about dreams as much as it is about design. To this end, he has built an era-defining brand over half a century. Today, the Ralph Lauren empire encompasses a wide and impressive suite of fashion and lifestyle brands, which demonstrate just how good the man is at a sales pitch. He did, after all, start out selling neck ties out of a drawer in a New York City showroom. But at heart, each Ralph Lauren line, and the stories he tells about them, reveal the designer’s deeply romantic vision. Take this, typically Lauren-esque ode to his work: “What I do is about living,” he has said. “It’s about living the best life you can and enjoying the fullness of the life around you – from what you wear to the way you live to the way you love.”
The “L” word here is not coincidental. Lauren’s vision has always been terrifically dreamy. Polo Ralph Lauren is an ode to country club Americana so deeply embedded in the culture that it has become synonymous with it. His RRL line, informed by his passion for ranch life, captures the mythology of the Western frontier. And it is his love of European culture and style that inspires his men’s luxury line, Purple Label.
Like any great love affair, Lauren’s passions endure. The designer has returned to these themes throughout his career, reworking, modernising and seeing them afresh with each new iteration. It’s evident again in the latest from Purple Label, the aptly titled New Romantics capsule. Exclusive to MR PORTER, New Romantics is named after and inspired by the designer’s swoony campaigns from the mid-1990s, which showcased the casual elegance of his Savile Row-inspired suits.
“The expertly honed details make a great first impression – and leave an even better lasting one”
Lauren established Purple Label to deliver the standards of bespoke Savile Row tailoring to the ready-to-wear market. In doing so, he added a certain signature panache, with broad shouldered suits nipped at the waist to create a statuesque silhouette. His latest, the New Romantics collection, has a similar bold sophistication to it, best exemplified in a confidently crisp cream linen suit.
It is also a strikingly modern interpretation. Double-breasted blazers are exquisitely crafted, but there’s a distinct softness in the shoulders, while the fabrication (linens and cotton-poplin abound) and colour palette (blazers come in black or a more stand-out infinity blue) infuse the collection with a distinctly fluid, contemporary feel. The story, it seems to say, is yours to tell.
In the eyes of Mr Ralph Lauren, it comes with a deeply held affection for what has gone before. Purple Label is renowned for its fine Italian tailoring, inspired by the exacting detail of Savile Row makers. This New Romantics collection, just as the mid-1990s campaigns, is a love letter to the craft. The expertly honed details, such as the sharp front pleats on tapered trousers, make a great first impression, leaving an even better lasting one. The Harrison shirt, tailored from silk-shantung, has a refined, natural lustre.
Lauren is, of course, a great master of dressing for the special occasion and there are plenty of options for the big day within this lineup. Summer weddings are the perfect match for the cream linen suit, but if the invitation says strictly formal, a New Romantics double-breasted suit jacket, classically tailored tuxedo trousers and the sharp collared Philip shirt fit the bill.
But as any fan of a Hollywood romance will tell you, the big events in life happen least when you expect it. With the New Romantics collection, Lauren ensures casualwear rises to any occasion. The Philip shirt can be as easily layered under sweaters and jackets. While T-shirts and sweaters in silk or silk-linen are as luxe as suiting.
Elsewhere, classic pieces, such as the Italian-made suede shirt-jacket have a timeless quality wholly in-keeping with the story Lauren wishes to impart, as his is style that, as he puts it, is “meant to be loved and passed down through the generations”. New Romantics, by staying true to its origins while reflecting the current mood, feels like a collection that will endure. It is, by story’s end, another riveting chapter in Lauren’s great, lifelong romance with style.