Ralph Lauren returned to its old-world Milan headquarters for its Men’s Spring 2027 show, but the brand still seems mentally stuck somewhere near Lake Como. At least that’s what the mahogany speedboat parked on dry ground suggests. The design team appears to have stumbled across a book on 1920s Lake Como and its fondness for Italian businessmen and their racing rituals, a reference that sits in one half of the show. In the world of Ralph Lauren, a menswear runway seems bored when it only has one collection to deal with. Meet Purple Label, an established European man who treats wealth as something best expressed through fashion restraint, disappearing into it from time to time. Polo, his younger cousin, still at an Ivy League university somewhere in the States, looks up to him, yet insists on being more social. Or so his palette and layers suggest.
“When I began designing menswear, my inspiration came from the ease and traditions of collegiate style and the gentleman athlete. It was about character and camaraderie, a timeless style they made their own. I loved the oldness, the craftsmanship, the utility that wove together an individuality of ease, eclectic mystique, and a romantic sophistication,” said Lauren’s purple-inked show notes, placed on benches across the courtyard, easy for guests like Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, and Tom Hiddlestone to spot. Also in dialogue with him is John Wrasej, senior brand creative director of men’s Polo, Purple Label, RLX and children’s Polo.
That dialogue looks very different for the two lines. As polished as the Purple Label man is, he still finds ways to disrupt his tailoring. Sometimes it’s something small, like fisherman sandals or a bandana tied loosely around the neck. Other times it’s more deliberate, a utility jacket, perhaps even one with sashiko hand-stitching, which travelled to Japan to meet the Sashiko Gals, and back to Italy to settle into its final form. The jackets, in particular, seem to be having fun on the runway. One of them is embroidered with Ralph Lauren’s Como Speed Club, a fictional society built from research into 1920s Lake Como boat racing and its very well-dressed participants.
Polo, on the other hand, leans much more into securing its sense of fun on the runway. It starts with colour, loud, insistent, and often paired with what passes for neutral, even when it clearly isn’t. Take the orange puffer that could blind you if you stared at it for too long, sitting over camouflage trousers, a reinterpretation of what Lauren wore in Montauk a few decades ago. Elsewhere, madras refuses to settle in one place. When it isn’t occupying full looks, it peeks through blazers, slips under jackets, over jackets, or turns into windbreakers, collars, even bags. Roomy trousers, cricket jackets, rugby shirts, Edwardian neckwear, patchwork details and gingham keep the line-up constantly busy. The cousins keep their distance, but the runway doesn’t seem to notice.
