Reassuringly familiar style on show, though aesthetic edges towards parody at times
Ralph Lauren is shorthand for a lifestyle. The fashion empire of the 91st richest American is built on selling a tastefully expensive American dream. So as an escapist fantasy from a chilly New York fashion week, Ralph Lauren recreated a vignette of his own holiday home in Montego Bay in a cavernous former rail depot in downtown Manhattan.
In front of an audience which included the actors Katie Holmes and Hilary Swank, the catwalk descended from the deck of a wooden beach house with white shutters, cane furniture, hurricane lamps and porthole mirrors.