Ralph Lauren Spring/Summer 2010

It's no secret that Ralph Lauren is one of my favorite designers. I wouldn't have said that a few years ago. At that time, I thought the clothes were too plain. I favoured the the shock and awe doctrine by flashier designers such as Dolce, Gucci, Cavalli, etc.


But most of Ralph's clothing is pretty plain. What makes it so cool is how you put it all together. A yellow cashmere sweater isn't terribly interesting, but when you pair it with, say, navy pants, an orange belt, and red polo shirt, the outfit suddenly becomes a lot more interesting (or "whimsical" as Mr. Lauren calls it).


What makes Ralph Lauren so intriguing then is that you can craft an outfit as plain or as interesting as the wearer decides. It's a versatility you simply don't have with the flashier designers.

So the genius in the brand lies in assembling the clothing, and nobody does that better than Ralph himself, which is why I love leafing through the photos from the fashion show.

As for this year's collection, some of the notable features included belts with silver and turquoise stone (in the Back Label collection, I think), prominent use of the colours yellow and lime, and paisley ties (ugg). I usually love RL's colour combinations, but I thought some of this year's combinations fell a bit flat.

On the whole, of course, I enjoyed the collection.

-The Scandal

All images from style.com, courtesy Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren Fall 2009

As you may already know, I really like Ralph Lauren, hence all the pictures in this posting.

I think that of all the designers, RL puts together the best colour combinations. I also really love the way he layers some of the outfits. One of the novel things that I like about his recent collections (including this one) is his use of vintage cardigans. I never really go into the revival of the Richie Cunningham cardigan. It always smacked of geek-chic to me, which I always equated with "ironic" dressing.

Another interesting feature of the show is the varying sizes of the lapels, including some really wide lapels, which are also currently favoured by Tom Ford (think Roger Moore partying at the Playboy mansion in 1976). I take it that the different styles reflect the Black and Purple labels (though I wasn't able to tell from the show which outfit was which label).

I often say (ok, not that often) that these days a man can get away with wearing a range of suit styles from the skinny Mad Men suits to the wide lapelled you see in this show.

-The Scandal