You can count on a Polo Ralph Lauren collection to deliver some classic all-American pieces each season: Shetland sweaters in unexpected colors, a directional pair of cargo pants, an investment shearling or leather jacket, great camel coats, and sinuous bias-cut gowns all in a rich color palette. The brand never hops on a trend bandwagon, but inevitably every few years, the trend cycle will intersect with the things it does best—a system that works just fine for Polo.
In a season full of great suiting, the label’s versions stand out. Take the brown and cream cotton houndstooth suit, with a high-waist pleated pant styled with a denim shirt underneath and a tight-fitting denim trucker jacket (yes, that’s jacket over jacket). It would work just as well in the closet of someone with “dark academia” aesthetic tendencies as it would for any number of professional women, professors included. Meanwhile, a dark denim suit, this time with a high-waist, flared trouser, worn with a suit and tie and pointy caramel suede boots, feels like the good parts of the early aughts that we should remember to bring back.
Being a global brand, Polo has a broad demand to answer to each season, and although lots of what it shows is great product, the styling always tells a slightly different, edgier story that grounds each collection in its current age. Take the model lounging on a rugged leather seat wearing a blue cotton shirt layered underneath a buttercup wool cashmere sweater with boxer briefs–style underwear, a baby blue wool cashmere sweater wrapped around her shoulders, and yet another, this time in sherbet pink, wrapped around her waist. A different look turns that most everyday basic, gray cotton fleece sweatpants, into the perfect pairing for a mossy wool herringbone jacket—and it seems the secret may be to tuck the hem into cotton cable socks and wear a fringed dark wine loafer.
The collection hit its stride with a series of looks that incorporated colorful outdoor pieces with the typical offering, like the button-front merino wool dress in a rich hunter green paired with hiking-style polo sneakers and a jaunty crocheted bucket hat, and the bright nylon running shorts that looked surprisingly perfectly at home underneath piles of aran cable-knit and wool cardigans.
