Ralph Lauren launches "Rugby"!

[Horace]

im still caught up in semantics...polo is an aristocratic past-time, while rugby is more down and dirty. what's next, the ralph lauren "aussie rules footie" line?

But Rugby has the anglophiliac connotation. I'm sure it has cultural associations that resonate from some Americans.

 

[Horace]

I wandered into the Newbury St. shortly after it opened, and was actually interviewed by a Boston Globe reporter about it.  My take is that, ironically, RL is jumping on a bandwagon that he actually originally popularized, and that this is indicative of his lack of creativity in the past while (RLPL started after Saville Row bcame popular again, Black label is starting up about 4 years after the strokes, 2 to three years after every other designer has done mod.)  And if I wanted a tweed blazer, I'd buy a vintage Brooks Brother for $30 at a thrift store, or go to J. Press for the real deal, not pay $395 for a not particularly well made one at Rugby.  And I'd wear my authentically broken in "Barbarian" rugby shirt from college, not get a Abercrombie style faux vintage deal.

LA Guy's my favorite critic of old Ralphie: and it's an interesting take: a sort of returning to his roots; jumping on his own bandwagon.

I haven't seen the new gear but I remember reading about it coming out. What the big deal about the Rugby tweed jackets (if indeed Rugby actually carries them and this just wasn't an example) compared to the say his other tweed jackets?

The Boston Globe had an article not too long ago about Rugby. I'll see if I can find it. It posited, I think that, with the decline of the College Shop there was an open space for something like Rugby. Maybe old Ralph intends to eventually place these things everywhere. Sort of a GAP or Banana Republic or what have you. Certainly ambitious, if a frightening aesthetically.

 

[1Dgaf]

im still caught up in semantics...polo is an aristocratic past-time, while rugby is more down and dirty. what's next, the ralph lauren "aussie rules footie" line?

When I think of polo players I think of Afghani tribesman and the like.