Ralph Lauren Starts 2019 Strong: Fall Purple Label, RL Heat, New Stores

Followers of fashion are raving about Montauk designer Ralph Lauren’s Purple Label fall 2019 collection for men as a fabulous look back. Lauren, who staged his 50th anniversary show in September, has cherry-picked his decades of design for a colorful and comfy round-up of reimagined “best hits.” Check out the ’90s-inspired  horsey prints and painted jeans; a more contemporary dip into the archive for laser-cut suede details; loads of velvet and cashmere, tartans, metal details and cable knits, and, notably, his cute bears are back on sweaters—and they’ve taken up sports! Of course there’s a bevy of new shirts and jackets to clothe the well-heeled.

Speaking of anniversaries that celebrate the sweet smell of success, super model Taylor Hill and her real-life boyfriend Michael Stephen Shank appear in the latest fragrance video and print campaign for Romance, Lauren’s scent that was launched in 1999, 20 years ago.

Of course Lauren’s other recent release is hot by every definition—RL Heat, goose down coats featuring a digitally enhanced lining that distributes heat throughout the garment—the layer is controlled by an app. As the official outfitter of the US Olympic Team (since 2008), Lauren applied this technology at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, with great patriotic style.

The latest expansion of the Ralph Lauren empire saw two stores open in Kyiv earlier this month. The next store to open is in Liverpool. As an 2018 inductee into the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Lauren’s preppy looks certainly continue to find purchase in English markets. (Liverpudlian and current Amagansett resident Paul McCartney was knighted by the Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.)

Lauren was due to be decorated as an Officer of the Legion of Honour by French President Emmanuel Macron last month, but the ceremony was postponed to an unspecified date in early 2019 due to political protests sparked by declining living standards. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour (one rank below Officer) by France in 2010 in recognition of his contributions as a designer, business leader and philanthropist.

Qui vivra verra.