February 13, 2018 |
This was the next chapter in what we are calling his “Live Like Ralph” series. Last season we were hot-wiring with Ralph Lauren, this season we are holidaying with Ralph. And so we were gently lulled whilst waiting for the show to begin, with the promise of Mr Lauren’s home away from home, Montego Bay, that white washed setting in Jamaica, and the true blue of the Caribbean lapping away. “We came there on holiday as a young family almost three decades ago, and it wasn’t long before we moved into a romantic old villa overlooking the Caribbean. It had an English colonial spirit and a glamour that harkened back to the days when Grace Kelly, Noel Coward, the Astaires, Errol Flynn, and Ian Fleming wintered there… It was our own Garden of Eden,” he explains in 50 Years of Ralph Lauren.
And so, back in New York for the Spring 2018 show, the girls were barefoot, reggae vibing, setting the tone for a day by the sea in swishy summer cotton dresses, bandanas tied round the waist, island life. Soothing. Girls got practical, changing into gumboots, shorts and shiny cotton canvas jackets, going fishing. And then they were off to Ralph’s royal motor yacht club, members only, like an episode of Revenge – were they secretly planning to kill each other? It was preppy too, like a good all American Ralph Lauren collection should be, impeccable ivory pant suits, dressed for dinner in deck shoes and flattering evening gowns in Jamaican yellow and green that skimmed the body. This was the good life, not for mere mortals.
