" Ralph Lauren is neither preppy nor WASPy. It is an aspirational brand for those who would like to be considered preppy or WASPy, which is different.
Take a look inside the RL flagship stores in NYC and elsewhere to see what I mean.
The whole raison d'être of the various Ralph Lauren family of brands is to provide a simulacrum of preppy / WASPyness to those who could not attain it in other ways, and who have the money to do so. Concepts like "preppy" and "WASPy" are far less relevant today than they were 30 to 50 years ago, but in those days (when I was in high school and college) real preppies wore clothes from places like LL Bean and Talbots, as well as local haberdasheries in each of the major cities on the eastern seaboard (like J. Press in New Haven), where the tweed jackets came from. Some people are still very attracted to this aesthetic (it's not a bad one, for sure) and have the means to simulate it, and for those people RL is very useful.
Don't get me wrong. I own a fair amount of RL stuff and it's nice (and I'm often attracted to it by its bold use of color). And I personally am the furthest thing from preppy or WASPy. But because I went to school in the Ivy League in the 1970s I was able to adopt some protective coloration without having to rely on overtly aspirational branding. (Shopping at LL Bean is much less expensive.)
Except for the giant polo player logo you see on some of the RL Sport apparel, it's all in excruciatingly good taste and the workmanship is reasonably good. It's much better than tricking yourself out in Tommy Hilfiger or something.
So when I look at RL I can see exactly what he's trying to accomplish, and he is succeeding brilliantly, but I would not say he has yet achieved authenticity. Nor is he likely to."
When style counts!!!!!!!!!!
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Take a look inside the RL flagship stores in NYC and elsewhere to see what I mean.
The whole raison d'être of the various Ralph Lauren family of brands is to provide a simulacrum of preppy / WASPyness to those who could not attain it in other ways, and who have the money to do so. Concepts like "preppy" and "WASPy" are far less relevant today than they were 30 to 50 years ago, but in those days (when I was in high school and college) real preppies wore clothes from places like LL Bean and Talbots, as well as local haberdasheries in each of the major cities on the eastern seaboard (like J. Press in New Haven), where the tweed jackets came from. Some people are still very attracted to this aesthetic (it's not a bad one, for sure) and have the means to simulate it, and for those people RL is very useful.
Don't get me wrong. I own a fair amount of RL stuff and it's nice (and I'm often attracted to it by its bold use of color). And I personally am the furthest thing from preppy or WASPy. But because I went to school in the Ivy League in the 1970s I was able to adopt some protective coloration without having to rely on overtly aspirational branding. (Shopping at LL Bean is much less expensive.)
Except for the giant polo player logo you see on some of the RL Sport apparel, it's all in excruciatingly good taste and the workmanship is reasonably good. It's much better than tricking yourself out in Tommy Hilfiger or something.
So when I look at RL I can see exactly what he's trying to accomplish, and he is succeeding brilliantly, but I would not say he has yet achieved authenticity. Nor is he likely to."
When style counts!!!!!!!!!!
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