Ralph Lauren have dressed and defined the American dream for over 50 years. With a lifestyle empire that stretches from clothes to restaurants, it can be difficult to keep an eye on all the different things. To give you a leg up, in this article we will show you up to six styles from the World of Ralph Lauren.
Text: Martin Johansson
Photos: Ted Olsson
Published
2022-03-01
It isn’t right to call Ralph Lauren just a brand, or even a company. The name Ralph Lauren is more of an institution, whose influence and prestige stretches far beyond the classic menswear branch, where they took their first step. Ralph Lauren is now a whole lifestyle and can be linked to everything from clothes and interior design to restaurants and sporting events. We will therefore lower the magnifying glass over the institution of Ralph Lauren and look closely at six of the brand’s branches.
Polo Ralph Lauren
It all began under the name Polo, when Ralph begun selling handmade ties in the late 1960s. We can today say that Polo Ralph Lauren is the baseline, where you can find everything from colourful hoodies to chalk stripe suits. The collections are always influenced from the playful design language which characterises the brand and is distinguished through the iconic detailing such as the embroidered polo player and “the polo bear”.
RLX
With the main focus on sports such as golf and tennis, the RLX collection blends the playful Polo style with innovative materials and creative designs. The goal is to create sports clothes that stand out from the crowd both when it comes to look, but also quality. A clear example is the new RLX CLARUS polo shirt, where the shirt’s material is made from recycled cotton which is treated so that it gets the same technical properties as the synthetic materials that you often find in sports clothes.
RRL
Double RL gets its name from Ralph Lauren’s personal ranch in Colorado. Focusing on handmade work methods and clothes of the highest quality, the RRL brand has come to portray a style inspired by old Westerns mixed with work clothes from the early 1900s in the USA. Ralph Lauren once described it as: “this is my closet, it is real stuff”. The fact is that a multitude of the brand’s garments, every season, are designed as direct copies of garments from Ralph Lauren’s own collection of vintage clothes and accessories.
RL Home
Ralph Lauren created a collection for interior design all the way back in 1983. This brand combines tasteful ornaments, furnishings with candles, towels and porcelain to create an environment where the aesthetics are reminiscent of old stone villas on the American East Coast, with mahogany interior design as well as decanters filled with whisky.
RL Watches
Given how early they were with their large range of products, it took a relatively long time for Ralph Lauren to launch their own watch brand. RL Watches came to be in 2009 and gets its inspiration from the different branches of Ralph Lauren. The Polo collection has watches with “the polo bear” design on them, powered by automatic clockwork made in the watch capital of the world: Switzerland.
Purple Label
Last but not least we have the unmistakeable top of the Ralph Lauren pyramid: Purple Label. This brand takes a step away from their American roots and instead gets inspiration from the classic Italian style, with unstructured blazers and thin cashmere jumpers. Similar to RRL, the craftsmanship is in focus, but with Purple Label it’s the tailoring process that takes centre stage. Faultlessly sewed suits mixed with suede jackets made from exclusive leather in a collection where every garment breathes elegance.
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