Don't know what to make of that interview with him in 'TIL'.  I love that picture of Woody Allen on the opposite page.  Turn him around and I'm fairly sure those strides are pleated.  I have some baggy-arse, no-name things that look just like them.  RL used to make his stuff, didn't they?

I don't think the small pony polos are too bad. At least, when all the ponies were navy colored.  Now that they come in all different flourescent colors, not so much. I once dated a girl who had a Ralph bikini. Nothing looks stupider than having little ponies on your tits.

Most of the other stuff doesn't do it for me, and I hate the way their stores smell. Occasionally though they'll pull something that old Ralphschitz has copied from someone else's archives which looks great.  This usually happens when I'm not paying attention and when I finally discover it just browsing their website, it's either on clearance and available only in XXXXXL or out of stock.

Their sport jackets vary in style but there are some wonderful ones of relevance. During lock down I picked up a fair few Ivy oriented ones by RL on ebay and have found some in their shops/site at decent prices when on sale. Like any brand I tend to avoid too much from any one and mix them up.  There are decent bits to find there but it just takes some discernment.

I've picked up a few good RL items in TK over the years. I normally make quite a few visits before finding a bargain. It used to be good for New Balance made in USA or UK running shoes.

@RobbieB, you're definitely right about TK's, by needing a few visits before finding the bargain(s). I'm always looking at knitwear when I'm in there, snagged a few Smedley's in there but not for a while.
@AFS, Old Weejun's alive and well on IG, posts some lovely stuff on there, got some great shirts, shoes and Jackets.

You are right AUS re TKMaxx and RL but with a discerning eye it's possible to find 'kosher' high end RL stuff. Sorting the wheat from the chaff is where I get my kicks. However I did buy some RL strides in petrol blue for next to nothing and when I got them home my wife just laughed. I thought I would look good promenading along the Estuary but she said I looked like I was on my way to Rossi's to work in the ice cream parlour!
Not only that but she detected that someone had dry cleaned them after wearing them and then returned them to the store.

Silly question perhaps, but did RL cross the line from 'Ivy' into 'Prep' at some point?  If so, when?  Is one as alien as another outside the United States, other than in, say, Italy, where brighter colours will find favour? 
'North Face' still seems ubiquitous.  Alarmingly so.  Didn't someone on here once say it was the favoured brand of American east coast 'granola crunchers'?

RL is clothing across the range of America, it is the American Dream expressed in style. Ivy/Prep whatever is part of the broad pallette  but so is cowboy denim, sport clothing, Gatsby glamour, even English and Italian aspects all incorporated into the bigger concept.

They aren't trying to be specifically or narrowly Ivy style or prep in the way that J.Press or BB did/do etc.

That shouldn't mean they cannot contribute to Ivy style. Even in USA now almost nobody would talk about this or recognise Ivy style. Thinking about narrow style in the way we do is not something men do in middle age onwards in USA. Clothing in the USA when you visit it regularly is hugely disappointing. The idea that you go to NY or around an Ivy University and it looks like Take Ivy or our mental images- is all long gone.

The truth of it is, Americans generally don't really care about clothes that much. They buy almost everything from malls and take comfort in looking like each other. In USA standing out comes with risk, so the clothing is about conforming and not being defined as too different by he way you look. Being seen as American is by far the most important aspect.

RL offers a way to adopt an evolving persona, to dress up, to fit in but also to show off too. This is in a country where not standing out and risking rejection is the primary aspiration for most. RL isn't one thing or even one level. RL Purple and Black are different to RRL's denim and so on.

What I can say from personal experience is that some of the RL I have (I'm referring to their sport jackets specifically), designed in USA and made in Portugal or south America, looks and wears brilliantly. It also elicits more unasked for positive comment than anything else I wear.

We may find a lot of what I wrote above to be beyond what we are seeking or too aspirational, but think about the journey of immigrants and RL background into USA and the possibility that has offered some. That is the canvas of RL in his design. Yet in parts of USA, RL isn't worn because it is Jewish immigrant in its origin. That is the bare truth, so the American Dream and opportunity dreams they express, for some shouldn't even be available from him. There has been sneering in Ivy fora about his changing his name, but no wonder. I talked about conformity, even adopting a USA name and expressing the range of USA dreams of itself leads to cynicism.

The fact that RL keeps Ivy style in its range, at the level it has in USA - is something to celebrate. Ivy style will fade away and become only the bow tie and tweed cosplay without it staying part of the broad range of people's dress. So the polo tops and shirts, they are a gateway and shouldn't be sneered at but embraced. You don't have to wear it but that they keep doing this when they could easily just drop it - they are helping keeping that part of USA identity and style alive.

The sadness is that the very dream RL expresses is increasingly an illusion for most. It seems only tech founders now occupy the role of founder bankers of before. Even their own employees are in a narrow pyramid of aspiration where affording a middle class life in cities, is getting increasingly hard to attain.

I wasn't in ths post saying all this about RL is a good thing or that we should aspire in the way they are based on, just giving that more broad context.

(All typed and edited on a phone)

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-10-23 08:06:50)

Yes I'll leave it to others now. There's a lot about RL I am absolutely not keen on at all and didn't get for a long time.  I'm not even fully onboard with the aspirational thing I described above myself. Even the store design is to say, this exclusive club feel is available to you. The youthful keen store people are to make it accessible.   The recent 'Very Ralph' documentary was appalling too, gushing lifestyle froth from sycophantic talking heads that notably didn't actualy have him in talking much (or thinking about it now, possibly at all).

Leaving all that aside, the little cafe in the Regent Street store is good and a wonderful little meeting location in certain situations.  The coffee is good.

The basement of that store is quiet too with some decent bits away from the effusive young sales staff.

Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2021-10-23 08:04:02)