Ralph Lauren Is Finally Learning To Speak Streetwear

A few years ago we made the case for why Ralph Lauren is arguably the greatest streetwear brand of all time. A lofty take, sure, but like many of the brands shoehorned into the “streetwear” umbrella these days—it’s definitely not how the label would describe itself. But the focus on product that tells a story, represents a distinct visual universe, and has the ability to mean different things to different people—that’s something Ralph Lauren pioneered, and a methodology many street fashion brands have tweaked to make their own. But Ralph Lauren—both the brand and the man—have always stood apart from this overall conversation. It lives in a universe of its own, chugging along the aspirational galaxy envisioned by the designer in 1967, comprising several self-contained planets that sort of orbit around each other. There’s the high-tech sports gear of RLX, the rustic Red Dead Redemption cowboy in RRL, the suave cosmopolitan attitude of Purple Label, and then of course, the rich world of Polo Ralph Lauren, which sort of ties all these seemingly disparate aesthetics together with a bit of American trad and military surplus thrown in. Read more at Highsnobiety.