Ralph Lauren is the first American designer to be represented in Thames & Hudson’s popular Catwalk series. In the new book, veteran fashion journalist Bridget Foley takes the reader through every one of Lauren’s womenswear shows from fall 1972 to fall 2025, many of which she experienced in person.
In her introduction Foley writes that “Lauren is quantifiably the most successful designer-founder in the history of American fashion and one of the most successful in the history of the global industry. His is also the longest-running creative gig in fashion among major-house founders who still control their companies. After the death of Giorgio Armani in 2025, only Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto come close, having established their houses in 1969 and 1977, respectively.” Lauren, Kawakubo, Yamamoto—they’re a powerful trinity, all possessing unshakable visions that continue to shape culture. Lauren’s world building is so effective and alluring that Foley feels he sometimes “hasn’t gotten credit for being the great fashion designer that he is.” Catwalk is proof of Ralph Lauren’s bona fides as a creator.
Ahead of the book’s release, Foley talked about the authenticity and timelessness of Lauren’s work, and shared some of her favorite collections.
It seems to me that we’re in the midst of a “Ralphaissance.” Do you feel that to be the case? And what might be behind that?
I think that is absolutely the case for a couple of reasons. We are all sort of inundated with the word authenticity from sort of a messaging standpoint, but really what does that mean? I think that among consumers there’s a perception that Ralph Lauren is the real thing. I think there is an inherent, even subconscious, element that we want to believe in what we’re connecting with, and we want to believe the person or entity of the company that’s putting it out there believes in it. I think that that is so very, very true of Ralph Lauren. If you know anything about the man, even on a surface level, you connect dots and you see that there seems to be a continuity and a genuine belief system in place. So I think there is authenticity.
Most people do care about our environment, we care about the world and we want to buy intelligently and well, and that means buying things that last. And I think that Ralph Lauren was early on that concept. That was one of the surprises to me. I mean, I’ve always known that Ralph cares about longevity and has never been a one to jump on trends, but he talked about sustainability—not using that word, because that word wasn’t in the lexicon—from day one almost. He said, “I want my clothes to look better next year than this year.” And he didn’t only speak about this year to next year, he wanted things to be passed down through generations. And so I think that there is a real belief that there is genuine value in what this company and this man puts out.
In comparison with other brands in the luxury sphere—this is going to sound like I’m saying that other brands don’t have integrity, I’m not saying that—but what is long-running aesthetic integrity? We live in the world of the revolving door creative director, so then therefore, what is the aesthetic integrity of the brand? It ebbs and flows or shakes wildly from designer to designer, so the integrity is more about the brand and the power, and of course the quality, because that’s understood at this level. But with Ralph Lauren, you know there is a consistency of vision that is both cultural and also inherent in the product and that it comes from a very genuine place.
I wonder if Ralph’s appeal at this time has something to do with him being so associated with Americanness; if the political environment also somehow contributes to this feeling of Ralph being sturdy, steady, dependable, and representing something that maybe we feel is slipping away?
What comes across is very much a yearning for our better angels and to live on that level and to aspire to that. I think that when people think about Ralph Lauren—and he hasn’t abandoned his patriotism—but I think people perceive it as being genuine and thinking of what we can be rather than what we are; where we could go rather than where we are right now. And I think that’s very important, and it’s an interesting distinction because as I say, it could go either way, but it does seem to be working in his favor. And interestingly, working his favor among young people—Gen Z seems to love Ralph right now.
In your introduction you touched on changes that the company made over the years, specifically how its imagery became more diverse, reflecting changes in American society.
A company is a part of its time. And the culture has changed tremendously in the nearly 60 years that Ralph Lauren has been around and in the forefront of the culture and of the consumer culture. And for a company to last, that’s the really delicate and yet tremendous juggling, isn’t it? To remain true to the self, to remain constant, to maintain the values and the vision, but also change with the time to keep up with it and stay current and not get stuck either in an aesthetic rut, but more importantly, in a cultural rut.
One of the topics that you take up is the cinematic quality of the brand. Is Ralph’s romance with the movies another expression of Americanism?
Movies remain a tremendous influence on Ralph Lauren. His two big loves growing up in the Bronx were first, sports, and then the movies. Through the movies, he became aware of the world beyond Mosholu Parkway and he became aware of the concept of realizing one’s personality via clothing, or using clothing and getting dressed to help send messages of who you are or who you want to be today. And that’s a very interesting dichotomy because Ralph is all about being genuine, but he’s also about, ‘I can play a role. Maybe I feel this way today and I feel that way tomorrow. They’re both me.’
To go back to the American part, Hollywood is part of the American psyche. The first movies that really impacted him were the movies of the silver screen, and all of those very debonaire heroes. But I think we focus so much on Ralph’s Americanness,what gets lost is: Look who is represented in the Catwalk series—Gaultier, Prada, Saint Laurent, Versace, Givenchy, Chanel. That’s the pantheon in which Ralph belongs. He belongs in that international top, top tier. And yes, he got there via expression of a very American vision, a very American point of view, but that certainly has impacted the world. Obviously I wrote the book—but I think that Ralph’s vision of getting dressed has certainly gone global. I mean, you walk along the streets in a lot of places in the world, and people look very much like we do here, which is to say with a sportswear mentality, sort of casual, and that’s been impacted by Ralph Lauren.
At one point you say that Ralph considers himself to be anti-fashion. I thought that was fascinating because he’s a giant of fashion. I can’t tell you the number of designers who have told me that Ralph Lauren is the person, the brand, the designer they most want to emulate.
I have found the same thing over even more years than yourself. When you ask, ‘Who would you like to emulate?’ It’s Ralph Lauren. And obviously it’s Ralph Lauren because Ralph Lauren, as he says, started from nothing and became Ralph Lauren—and wildly successful. He did so by putting a voice and an image and an aesthetic and a philosophy out there. And I think that’s what most creatives aspire to.
People go into creative careers of all kinds to express themselves. And Ralph Lauren has done that so beautifully and so consistently and reached so many people in doing that.
Ralph Lauren is a fashion designer, but he doesn’t like that word. He has always liked the concept of anti-fashion. And it is so hard to wrap our heads around that. How can this person who has touched so many people on so many levels—millions and millions of people have worn polo shirts—not want to look at it as fashion? He wants to look at it as style, and how we take the vision that he puts out there and make it our own.
I guess if you really think about it, preppy is also a kind of anti-fashion in the sense that it’s not about trends, it’s about keeping things and living in them.
That phrase “keeping things” is so, so important to Ralph Lauren. “Weathered and worn” is one of his tenets. Ralph talks about the idea of the sweater with the elbow patches on it; he thinks that’s almost like a mark of glory, that this sweater has been loved and worn and not thrown into the junk heap because it has a hole. So that idea of function, and that idea of loving something beyond its newness is very important.
And I guess that relates to his early adoption for himself of vintage.
His interest in vintage started so early, it started again back in the Mosholu Parkway in the Bronx. Ralph was the youngest of four, two older brothers. He wore a lot of hand-me-downs. A lot of kids would have thought, ‘Oh, [my big brother] wore that, and now I don’t want to wear it.’ Ralph didn’t look at it that way, and as he got older, he kind of found that he could use that to distinguish himself out in the neighborhood.
And he also started going with his brother Jerry to Army Navy stores. And that’s really where the love of vintage and the appreciation for old things took hold. So it is, again, coming from a very genuine place, a place of authenticity.
I think you wrote something about it not being easy to associate Ralph with one particular item—outside of a polo shirt in 50 million colors.
Other than the polo shirt, Ralph is not affiliated with one specific item. He is affiliated, obviously, with specific looks—Southwest, Preppy, New England. He has a whole French maritime thing, but it’s about the looks and the telegraphing of those looks because it’s about the total picture.
Still, I think that Ralph may have the most recognizable designer aesthetic in the world. He has always said, “I’m a storyteller and I’m using my clothes for character building.” But because that has always been his approach, I think sometimes he hasn’t gotten the credit for being the great fashion designer that he is.
The clothes are really amazing. And when you go through the book and when you watch the videos and you see the constancy and you see the timelessness—and they really are timeless—I think you have an appreciation for it.
In modern parlance, you might say he’s good at the vibe checks. I think you use the word aura, which is really good because there’s so much atmosphere around the pieces. It occurs to me that the two movies that Ralph is best known for—The Great Gatsby and Annie Hall—seem to represent really important and modernizing points in American history.
I hadn’t thought of it that way, about what they say about different eras in American culture, in American society. Annie Hall was of the time in real time, The Great Gatsby was not, but the book was, and I think that they do show how Ralph speaks to a moment and transcends the moment.
In The Great Gatsby, most of the men’s clothes were off the rack, they were in the showroom, which is phenomenal to me. And as to Annie Hall, Ralph is always so insistent that he supplied clothes, but it was Diane Keaton’s style. The whole thing happened when she brought some of her clothes into the costumer, and then that whole thing exploded. And you see the crossover today. Diane Keaton really worked the look, but the pieces and the way you can break them down, it’s really still resonant today.
Movement is associated with freedom. And I think Ralph’s clothes for women feel like you can be yourself in them.
I agree that Ralph’s clothes aren’t constricting. At the same time, when he launched women’s, it was because he was inspired by Diane Keaton and he was inspired by Candice Bergen and he was mostly inspired by Ricky who couldn’t find the kinds of clothes that she wanted, she wanted unfussy tailoring, and so there is a structure to transfer that polished comfort from menswear to womenswear, to give women the option of not being fussy but still being chic.
There’s an early show, I think it’s fall 1976, and it’s really quite amazing. There was that concept of clothes for a very active lifestyle, but also the concept that those clothes deserve the runway treatment—clothes for function, clothes for purpose, clothes for utility were as valid as clothes for lunching ladies and high evenings. That sense of purpose and that sense that you have to be comfortable in those clothes, was a very prescient thing. It’s quite fascinating because the show was very well reviewed but no one could have predicted the fitness craze, the fitness revolution, and really, Ralph Lauren presaged that on his runway in 1976. It’s kind of a parallel to the idea of sustainability and saving clothes and repurposing clothes. Those two things were really so prescient.
When I was doing Gaultier’s Catwalk I discovered collections that just delighted me, even though they weren’t turning-point collections. Can you share some of the things that surprised you or stood out?
It’s so hard to choose. There’s one that I love, I think it was fall 1974. At the bottom of a mostly positive WWD review, they said that the only thing that didn’t work here was when he went off on a Western tangent, and it was, quote, ‘at best bizarre.’ It’s so funny because it was a real slam and look where it went.
There’s another, fall 1981, which was divided into parts. The first part was sort of US polish and old Hollywood to London, and then the second half is a Southwest thing. Establishing or highlighting two areas would remain very important. But within the Hollywood section, one of the surprises to me is number one, how sexy Ralph’s clothes are.
One of the things that sort of struck me as I was doing this is that there were times I saw arcs. There’s one that starts with what I call the 9/11 show, which was canceled and then rescheduled, and by happenstance, it had sort of a pioneer woman spirit mood, and it was romantic and gentle, but it was one that showed contradiction as it was gritty and pretty and gentle, and it was so right for the moment.
That sort of led into three other shows in which there was this romantic interplay with a historical bent. The next show he showed in the Reading Room, and it was very sort of Edwardian and tailored. And then there was this wonderful almost wacky show for spring 2003 that was shown at the Cooper Hewitt. The show with the corsets and the jeans and the rips and the beading and the denim and a tablecloth as an evening skirt and sort of upholstery jacquards as corsets. There was a genuine eccentricity to it that was really fun and inviting, but it was still really compelling. The last one in that series was inspired by Gangs of New York. So there was that kind of street tailoring and cool boy–turned–girl of yore.
I loved the last two shows that are in the book, spring and fall 2025. Spring was the Bridgehampton show, just a joyous celebration of togetherness and family and community, and the Ralph Lauren lexicon all presented from flag sweaters to sport clothes to this gorgeous sequined ombre evening gown. It was all done in a very casual way, a very sort of offhanded way, because really the point was about togetherness. Then Ralph did a 180 in terms of presentation and showed at this beautiful gallery downtown and it was all about the clothes and the craft, just focusing in.
And of course, the 50th is one of my all-time favorites. I mean, that is just so moving.
I was amazed to hear you say that Ralph Lauren, who founded his house in 1967, is the currently the longest-serving founder of a self-owned company, followed by Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto. They seem an unlikely bunch at first, and then you start thinking about it and you’re like, yeah, they’re all really clear visionaries with a point of view….
Well, to that point, when I was talking about this age of the revolving door creative director, whatever you think of the Ralph Lauren aesthetic, whatever you think of the Yohji aesthetic, whatever you think of the Rei aesthetic, you know it’s coming from such a genuine place.
I can’t not ask you a little bit about lifestyle because Ralph’s innovation here is one of the reasons why designers admire him so much. I guess he’s credited with making that a thing.
Ralph Lauren invented lifestyle. It started with putting sport on the runway, and it started with the utilitarian concept, but then it became, ‘Okay, I want to go into women because my wife can’t find what she wants. I’m going to go into kid’s clothing, I’m going to do things for the home.’ All of the launches were organic and spoke to his idea, his early-on concept, to produce for the world. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that he created the concept for modern life.
One of the attractions of Ralph Lauren is that he does not assign philosophical or emotional value to things based on how much they cost, he looks at everything as of equal value for its purpose. Lifestyle for Ralph is not a marketing ploy, it is a belief in a value system and in a worldview that is holistic rather than narrow.
Is there an element of outsiderness to Ralph’s story? Has he created the world he wanted to live in (à la Gatsby)?
Oddly enough, and this sounds ridiculous to say, but I think Ralph still feels [like an outsider]. I’ve interviewed him many times and he will say that. I mean, Ralph is Ralph and he has a great life and he has made a wonderful life for himself and his family. But I think that he has felt, perhaps because of the vision that he grew up with, that he hasn’t always been appreciated as a designer. So that’s very much a part of who he is and it’s very much a part of his outreach to his clientele, to the world he wants to communicate with.
