The Ralph Lauren brand made fashion headlines twice already this week, first with the news that the label will become a fashion outfitter for Europe’s esports giant G2, and second with the launch of a virtual club promoting the new fragrance Ralph’s Club. Both moves demonstrate the company’s efforts to adapt to the times, to be where the new fashion customer is. Increasingly, of course, that’s online.
Here on terra firma, Lauren’s pre-fall is arriving in stores. Leaving the experimenting that’s happening elsewhere at the brand aside, the collection will look reassuringly familiar to longtime fans. Lauren took up the topic of safari gear, presumably for the traveling he was doing in his mind. This collection was developed months ago, before the vaccine rollouts made actual travel a possibility again. Now that people are out and about, its active, easy-to-wear attitude is bound to have appeal.
There was a safari wrap dress and wide-legged jumpsuit, both in silk, and a safari jacket in washed khaki denim that was paired with a long plissé lamé skirt. Comfort for whatever the occasion was another running theme, and it produced both a white floor-length T-shirt dress and a black sequined jogging suit worn under a black smoking jacket. The high drama evening looks typical of his shows were conspicuously absent, but presumably not for long; after a year and a half New York Fashion Week is coming back in September, and so, hinted brands reps, is Ralph.
