Jamaican escapism for Ralph Lauren at New York Fashion Week
Show is a master class in designer’s clean silhouette that has personified upmarket American East Coast style for decades
American fashion’s elder statesman Ralph Lauren headlined New York Fashion Week on Monday with a dose of escapism inspired by Jamaica for his 2018 spring collection, as his brand struggles to reverse falling revenue.
On a drab February morning, he transported his guests to a set evoking his stunning villa in Round Hill, Jamaica – a society enclave frequented over the years by f Clark Gable, Grace Kelly and Ian Fleming, where John and Jacqueline Kennedy honeymooned.
His models walked down a blue infinity-pool effect runway in front of a beachfront sitting room watched by actresses Hilary Swank and Rachel Brosnahan – star of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel hit show on Amazon – in the front row.
The show was a master class in the rags-to-riches designer’s unique, clean silhouette that for decades has personified upmarket East Coast style.
It opened with a calypso Caribbean beat as models walked barefoot dressed in delicate blue and white floral dresses with full skirts and flirty necklines, before giving way to models in stilettos and Bella Hadid dressed in a cocktail dress.
It then segued into classic maritime look, updated with white plastic-looking shorts worn with rain boots, giant anchor-style medallions at the neck, and with striped sweaters and a black captain-style leather jacket for men.
There was a classic white pantsuit – perhaps a nod to the colour of suffragettes and the women’s power dressing look seen elsewhere on the runway this season from a designer who has dressed Melania Trump as well as Hillary Clinton.
