Ralph Lauren’s Digital Age

Photos by Peter Hunt

Following on from a barnstorming speech at The International Herald Tribune’s annual conference, held in London November 2010, David Lauren, son of Ralph, took to the streets, or Bond Street to be precise, to launch a new generation of digital. After a few moments standing out in the chilly night air, the crowd started to realise that, no, those windows weren’t usually there, and to put together that the Ralph Lauren building itself was the backdrop. Next came 40 foot models, a handbag the size of a large house, a roll of neck ties tipping over the upper parapet on the edifice. Viewers almost jumped out of their skins when gigantic polo players charged out on thundering horses. The Lauren team are calling it 4D digital, which of course it can’t really be, but what it is is an extraordinary leap forward for fashion on the internet and, even to cynical “seen it all before” fashion hags like me, extremely exciting. The show ended with Ralph himself waving us goodbye out of an upper window despite being in his office in New York.