bonyadi magazine
SAN MARINO, Calif. — Ralph Lauren’s strength — the thing that has kept the all-American company going for 55 years — is world building. Or, rather, worlds building
Each brand under the company’s umbrella represents a different aesthetic universe: a Western saloon (Double RL), the Hamptons social circuit (Purple Label), an old collegiate quad buzzing with freshmen (Polo Ralph Lauren)
Maybe it’s because Ralph Lauren, the man, just hosted his first-ever fashion show in Southern California — or because the event was dedicated to showcasing each one of these specific worlds — but it was easy, on Thursday night, to imagine the 83-year-old Bronx-born designer as a Walt Disney-like figure, building a theme park of the fantasies that have lived in his head since he began selling Polo ties to department stores in 1967. His customers can visit each land, inhabiting each story (Old Hollywood goes on a safari; gunslingers go to a gala) without ever committing to just one
Mr. Lauren’s fantasies unfurl every time you visit his store-in-a-mansion on Madison Avenue or get a reservation at his celebrity-filled restaurants. (And celebrities play an essential role in his world building.)
Here is how those fantasies manifested Thursday in San Marino, Calif., near Pasadena
As the attendees arrived, the singer John Legend could be seen posing for photos in front of the Beaux-Arts mansion, wearing a long black polka-dot robe-style jacket. On a nearby veranda, Sylvester Stallone is spinning around at the bar while taking a selfie video, which amuses his two daughters (they are the hosts of podcast called “Unwaxed,” about single 20-somethings), before saying hello to Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher
For one of them, Emily Mariko, it’s only her second runway show, and she’s eager to attend more, she says. Her first was Mirror Palais, a Gen Z-favored brand known for its extreme crop tops, in New York a few weeks ago. Ms. Mariko, 30, who first went viral on TikTok for reheating salmon and rice, declines the pigs-in-a-blanket hors d’oeuvres offered to her by several male models cast as waiters. “I have all this lip gloss,” she explains
