Sitting in the stately study-cum-showroom annex at the Palazzo Ralph Lauren last Friday, complete with handsomely transomed wooden doors and tastefully appointed bric-a-brac, I couldn’t help but think of a recent take by tastemaker Chris Black on his bi-coastal culturati podcast How Long Gone.
In this particular instance, Black, who dishes out speculation at a clip that is refreshing or obnoxious, depending on your patience levels, had, in essence, declared Ralph Lauren — same Ralph Lauren that opened the Spring/Summer 2027 season of Men’s Fashion Week in the sweltering Milanese heat late last week — the progenitor of American menswear. “People are obsessed with saying things are stolen from them,” Black reasoned. “It’s like, no, you all stole it from Ralph.”
It was certainly the sentiment for much of the sprawling collection I previewed on Friday — one with well over 70 looks across both Polo and Purple Label, Polo’s upscale, sartorial-inclined cousin that commands a price tag more in line with Brunello Cucinelli than Brooks Brothers.
Despite its size, the show felt like a careful curation of Ralph’s preeminence, sampled from across RL’s staggering expanses of design codes and manifestly unified by a maximalist streak. Models strolled through the show in banker-stripe dress shirts and Regency-era neckwear, striped rugby shirts layered over madras button-ups and pennant-patchwork paired with refined tailoring — all visuals that, while wildly different, are quintessentially aligned with the distinctive, storied brand that Ralph Lauren has built over a half-century, and ones you’d imagine will be pillaged by the new crop of American prep in the coming years.
Purple Label offered up the luxurious side of this legacy. Smart linen and silk tailoring appeared alongside striped nautical knitwear, three-piece shorts suits and leather fisherman sandals, the latter of which was reportedly inspired by famous Italian businessmen who would race speedboats on Lake Como in their free time.
There were, of course, the Ralph-isms we’ve come to expect, too. One look offered an otherwise pin-straight tuxedo retrofitted with a moto leather jacket, while the boro-style denim patchwork blazers and robes, a signature of meticulous RL craft reimagined in collaboration with Japanese design label KUON, were particularly emblematic of the “individuality of ease, eclectic mystique, and romantic sophistication,” Lauren cited in his show notes.
Many of the looks from Polo, on the other hand, leaned into an equally quintessential aspect of RL’s archives — playful, hyper-vibrant prep, styled with a collegiate-esque freedom. Approach sneakers were paired with madras anoraks layered under khaki Polo bear sweaters and quad-striped rugby shirts; duck shoes and rain-slicker yellow clasp jackets and an excellent pair of massive white patchwork denim all seem like surefire sellouts.
Here, too, there were a host of references to the brand’s entanglement with sailing, outdoor garb and sportswear, albeit seemingly optimized for a younger, GORP-ier crowd. One look — camo fatigues and a high-viz neon orange quilted bomber, with a madras shirt slung around the waist — was even directly inspired by Ralph Lauren’s personal wardrobe.
This is an astute move on the part of Ralph Lauren. Much of the resurgence that the brand has enjoyed over the past few years has been born of the backs of a consumer primed for the maximalism of the ‘80s and ‘90s but too young to remember the discontinued Rugby, a reality confirmed by the fervid reaction to the visually congruous designs presented last season.
Will this season add fire to the Ralph revolution? It seems more than likely. In the days since the show, the Spring/Summer 2027 collection has enjoyed a similar reception, with the prevailing response echoing Black’s original assessment: Ralph is the blueprint.
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