The Ralph story is a complex and contradictory one. His early work in the 70s and 80s was remarkable for its marketing and design, for his ability to identify and exaggerate the allure of traditional clothes and relate them to lifestyle. Advertising had always done this of course but the way Ralph packaged his products and set up his shoots and chose the models and photographers - well this was on a different level. And the clothes back then, all made in USA, such beautiful colours and fabrics, great silhouettes, were truly outstanding. His original London shop, a small store on Bond Street, was amazing, absolutely intoxicating, very expensive and rather exclusive. Decidedly not an everyman product, priced for the yuppie generation, professionals, lawyers, with little of the kind of eclectic customer base that J.Simons (wonderful in a different way) attracted. But I have to say things went awry, as would inevitably happen, when the decision was made to open more franchises, to get the clothes made cheaply, to sell to the mass market, to open in shopping malls, to get the logo everywhere. It's a tale of modern capitalism - vast profits generated through the abandonment of principles, devaluing the brand while lining the pockets of shareholders. They still produce some nice bits and pieces, but who can be bothered with the hunt when the vast majority of what they sell is cheap tat? And the superstore type set-up they have in shops like the one they have on Bond Street today just leave me absolutely cold. Where's the joy in shopping there? Dead-eyed assistants with no feeling for what they are doing, no connection to these clothes. I got the same sense of absolute numbness on the few occasions when I stepped into Brooks Brothers on Regent Street - anonymous clothes sold by anonymous people, pseudo-luxury, anti-human.

Ralph Lauren is basically two businesses.

On the one hand you have a commitment to high quality tailoring and shoes. Manufacturers like Saint Andrews, Cornealani, Crockett and Jones, Edward Green, Rancourt and Allen Edmunds are all/have been in the mix. Not Ivy just high quality. With regards to staff/dead eyed assistants I would venture that this is generally my experience of shopping in London and extends beyond just clothes.

On the other hand you have overpriced merchandise, festooned with logo's, sold in soulless dept stores. Typically purchased by men looking for the reassurance of a brand. You know the type.

I will always be grateful for Ralph Lauren for keeping classic clothing alive - seersucker jackets, madras everything, shetlands in soft pastels, loafers, grosgrain belts, natural shoulders, soft tweed, university striped Oxford cloth. They helped connect the dots that kept my interest in Americana alive.