66 posts tagged "Ralph Lauren"
Out Of Their Closets, Onto The Internet
For a certain species of vintage collector, the thrill is in the hunt. For those of us less inclined to dig through the occasionally mildewed piles that make up the secondhand shops, grandmother’s attics, and Goodwills of this great nation, the thrill is the find. Those in the latter category have good reason to celebrate tomorrow. Two separate vintage troves go on sale online—no muss, less fuss.
On Thursday, Ralph Lauren launches the new RLVintage.com. The e-commerce site will offer one-of-a-kind vintage RL pieces selected by Lauren and a team of label obsessives sourced from around the globe: Brooklyn-based consultant and curator Ali of A Noble Savage, the blogueuses Hollister and Porter Hovey, and more stylish, Western-kitted Japanese guys than it seems possible to imagine. (One, Tez Saito, was so touched by an encounter with the Ralph Lauren Home collection 30 years ago that he opened his own shop in Tokyo, Reflex, that specializes in vintage RL.) Fifty pieces per season will be offered, from rodeo jackets to Navajo sweaters.
Meanwhile, Margherita Missoni is debuting her own collection of personal vintage as well. Seventy of her own pieces—including, naturally, plenty of Missoni—debut on Yoox.com tomorrow, benefitting OrphanAid Africa. (She serves as the president of the charity’s Italian chapter.) “Sometimes life has been too generous with me,” she says. “This is definitely the case with clothes.” (So much so that to keep them all, she’d “need life to be just as generous in terms of closet space, homes, and patience from my husband.”) She’s paying it forward, with eveningwear, day dresses, coats, and accessories.
The pile-divers may sniff at such pre-sifted vintage as fish in the proverbial barrel. Their loss.
How To Watch What Happens, Or Just What Happens At Oscar de la Renta
At last night’s Housing Works Fashion for Action fundraiser benefitting the organization’s work to end homelessness and AIDS, co-chair Patricia Clarkson offered a special gift-with-purchase to shoppers: herself. “If you buy ten things, I’ll go home with you!” the Oscar-nominated actress announced. Sadly, that offer was one night only (and in all likelihood, not entirely in earnest), but you don’t need to have been at last night’s benefit to reap the largesse of fashion brands including Marc Jacobs, Bottega Veneta, Fendi, Reed Krakoff, and Ralph Lauren. The public sale runs from today through Sunday at Housing Works’ Chelsea thrift shop, and an online auction is now running as well, with tickets to Oscar de la Renta’s Resort ’14 fashion show, a $750 gift card to Neiman Marcus (currently well under its $750 value), and a taping of Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live! on the block.
Ralph Lauren To Shutter Rugby Label
The game is over for Ralph Lauren’s preppy/sporty secondary label Rugby. The brand confirmed today that the collection will be ended on February 2, 2013, when its standalone stores—in New York, Boston, Georgetown, as well as several other key cities throughout the U.S., in London, and two stores in Japan—will close, as will the e-commerce site Rugby.com. Rugby skewed younger than some of the Lauren Corporation’s other labels—in fact, its Web site offers 15 percent discounts to all college students—but like them, aimed for a full lifestyle immersion into its world. (The Georgetown store also includes a Rugby Café.) The label was founded in 2004. The company had no official comment at publishing time.
The Lowdown On Lochte
We knew the closing ceremony wouldn’t be the last we would see of Ryan Lochte for a while—the Olympic gold medalist and designer hopeful has turned up at New York fashion week (surprise, surprise). The swimmer wasted no time getting his week started and made an appearance at Brian Atwood’s Four Seasons bash last night. In between posing for photos with the Hilton sisters and Kim Kardashian, he told Style.com about his plans for the week and gave us the lowdown on his clothing line we’ve heard mention of. “I am the correspondent for E! tomorrow and the next day—that will be different because usually I get asked the questions, but now I’m asking them,” he said. “I get to interview Anna Wintour, yeah.” Does he have questions prepped for her? “I have a couple lined up. The main one I really want to ask her: How did you come up with Fashion’s Night Out?”
But what we really wanted to know was what this Lochte clothing line is going to look like. “I am talking with a design team and hopefully we will get things running in the next year. It will be men’s apparel and accessories,” he announced. “One of my sponsors is Ralph Lauren so I have been working with them—they know something about fashion for sure. I definitely want to go for the clean, slick look. I want to put a little edge to it.” Will there be a lady Lochte line to follow? “Maybe women’s down the line, after I get a better grasp of men’s.” Until then, expect to see him at runway shows and parties during the next few days—he’s here until Saturday.
Before The Closing Ceremony, Hit Opening Ceremony On Greene Street
For Opening Ceremony, the focus has been all on London lately, with its pop-up space (which debuted just in time for the Games) and then its upcoming permanent location, but the brand’s been bringing some of the fun to NYC, too. The label opened a space on Greene Street last month, which exclusively houses the Brian Procell for Opening Ceremony collection of rare and vintage sportswear. Procell, a longtime professional collector of old-school duds from Gianni Versace, Alaïa, etc., gave the backstory on some of the best offerings in the shop right now. And if the Olympics have given you that itch for Americana sportswear, as they have to us, you will want to swing by ASAP for some vintage Ralph Lauren and Polo Sport gear. Click here to read all about his patriotic picks.