The American Heritage brand house of Ralph Lauren has changed the trend from quiet luxury to Intimacy as Luxury. The designer’s fall/holiday 2024 collection was presented to just 100 people at his 650 Madison Avenue headquarters, signalling a new mood for fashion. Only a select intimate crowd brings us back to how fashion was before social media.
RALPH LAUREN NY
Ralph Lauren’s runway comeback was during the Resort SS25 calendar and kicked off the New York Pre-Spring Market Week. The icon of New York Fashion Week is one of the most eagerly awaited in the fashion industry, we love to see what he is wearing and to witness that he is a family man and see who will show up to cheer him on after 57 years in the business of fashion.
He launched The Ralph Lauren Corporation in 1967 with men’s ties. On Monday night, everyone felt like family at his offices at 650 Madison Avenue where the designer, clad in a turquoise and black Western shirt, presented his fall/holiday collection to an audience of just 100, and then danced a little jig down the runway with wife Ricky, with whom he is soon to celebrate 60 years of marriage. True Love still exists!
Cowboy Couture by Ralph Lauren
Several people got choked up, including the executive vice president of men’s Jerry Lauren, who with his brother has been shaping American style for more than a half-century. “I tell him every time, Ralph, it’s the best one you ever did,” he said afterwards.
Sensing perhaps a certain exhaustion has set in around big luxury however one thing we have always loved about Ralph Lauren is that his silhouettes fit the American women’s bodies and he knew what Americans wanted no matter where you grew up in America He has built his brand loyalty from the bottom up.. Lauren thought small and reminded us all why he is the king of American sportswear.
RALPH LAUREN COWBOY COUTURE
He did it by going back to the beginning, recalling his first women’s ready-to-wear collection in 1972 when he talked editors through the collection and felt, as he said, like “Mr. Couture.”
“I wanted to do something very simple and easy,” he said during a preview. “It’s not one story, not one statement. I don’t think young women dress that way today, or anybody. They mix it up, they want to be casual and eclectic and have a voice.”
In beautiful clothes that are unmistakably Ralph Lauren. “I don’t have trendy statements….We’ve always been quiet and luxury. And we’ve always done menswear; menswear is big or cowboy hats, Western, all of those are part of us,” he said.
The collection was rejuvenating and the clothing wasn’t trying so hard to be cool or appease the latest celebrity. There were just a handful of stars at the show, which was not even livestreamed. Watch our video to get the inside view.
Relaxation was the message, which has always been Lauren’s esthetic, this season with an elegant touch. Lived-in luxury and subtle nods to the menswear and cowboy trends the designer has been doing for decades. Which now have been copied in Paris without saying it we know where Pharell gets his inspiration, from for Louis Vuitton men’s collection.
Christy Turlington opened the show like an old best friend from High School, still stunning in a grey overcoat, tonal shirt and tie, trousers and cowboy boots, which looked great teamed with tailoring.
There was an art to the mix of a silver beaded backless T-shirt over grey suede pants, a blazer patch-worked from 12 different fabrics over chocolate brown leather pants, and a busted leather rancher jacket and pants with a cowboy hat and a short bandana necktie that managed somehow not to look costumey.
Looking at the serene palette, the cable-knit sweaters over a bias cut silk or layered tulle skirts, and glittery accents like a crystal mesh polo shirts. He showed that most quiet luxury brands of today dived into the archive of the originator of Casual Chic that has always been in the DNA of Ralph Lauren.
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Photo Credit: RALPH LAUREN
