New York – Hundreds of guests made their way through the flower-bedecked iron gates of the Conservatory Garden at Central Park on Saturday night to celebrate an American icon, Ralph Lauren. They were met by a row of white-coated waiters proffering flutes of champagne and silver trays laden with caviar-topped pancakes or cheese “sandwiches” the size of postage stamps.
It was an elegant prelude to an equally chic parade of Lauren’s 40th anniversary women’s collection. Few fashion designers have enjoyed such longevity, and it’s because few have such a consistent vision. Lauren’s ability to take a traditional fabric or silhouette – a menswear stripe, a riding jacket – and make it fresh long ago struck a chord with the American consumer. But it’s always been about more than the clothes for this Bronx-born designer. Lauren sells a dream along with the silk and stitches: you too, can live the good life, or at least look like you do.
The 72-piece women’s collection he showed inside a tent decorated with pillow-backed seat was vintage Ralph and the overarching themes were familiar to anyone who has followed his work: riding and romance.
The backdrop for the show was of a horse race, and among the first pieces on the runway was a pair of jodhpurs worn with a red riding jacket and white shirt. Fitted jackets with peplums, equestrian-print dresses and racing silks tailored into jackets and dresses were among the nods to the horsey set that is a Lauren perennial. Models wore top hats and carried walking sticks as if they had just stepped out of a canvas painted at Ascot.
On the romantic side, the mannequins languidly strolled in cream or black georgette gowns, their heads topped with picture hats, their hands covered in prim wrist-grazing gloves.
The fabrics were rich: glove leather that clung to the body, duchess satin, clouds of organza and silk taffeta, a garden of silk plisse prints: peonies, roses, poppies and jonquils.
For all the nostalgia, there also were some refreshingly modern looks: a short emerald silk taffeta dress, a black silk tulle beaded gown, a simple strapless black satin twill dress with ivory trim at the bodice and hem.
Lauren’s enduring contribution to fashion is that he has been able to embrace the best of the past and interpret it for the modern consumer, not just in America but also across the globe, said one of the guests, Valerie Steele, fashion historian and director of the museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology. Indeed, even the Prince of Wales has been known to wear Ralph Lauren, she says.
The designer took his bows wearing a black polo shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, but then changed into a tuxedo to greet yet another group of guests. Among those attending the VIP second show and lavish dinner that followed were such film and stage stars as Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman.
