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With the death of Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren became the world’s oldest major working fashion designer. The spotlight arrives with great timing for an 85-year-old on a hot streak. His brand is in better health than it has been for decades, with shares up 35% in 2025 and annual sales figures showing an 8% growth to $7.1bn (£1.25bn).
On the first night of New York fashion week, Lauren hosted the curtain-raiser for a month of catwalks with a show in his Madison Avenue design studio. Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King chatted to Lauren’s family; Usher smiled broadly behind sunglasses, lounging on a plushly cushioned front row. Champagne was served on silver trays under twinkling chandeliers. In the fractious climate, with the US reeling from the shooting of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk, Ralph Lauren’s affable, charming vision of the American dream has never looked more seductive.
Button-down shirts in parachute silk were worn open over swimwear, their sleeves rolled up. There was a crisp sundress in a cheerful tomato red, and a cricket sweater with slouchy trousers. Long dresses with delicate spaghetti straps dipped low at the back, worn with flat sandals and seashell jewellery. Imagine the wardrobe of a glossy Netflix lifestyle drama set in an impossibly swanky east coast beach house, and you get the picture.
Ralph Lauren’s business model is selling “a romantic story of how people want to live”, as David Lauren, the designer’s son and brand strategy lead, puts it. More than just a fashion designer, Ralph Lauren – like Walt Disney – is a visual merchandiser for the American dream itself.
The brand’s revival is as much about price points as about fantasy and storytelling. The sundress in which Taylor Swift recently announced her engagement had a $318 (£235) price tag. ‘“Greedflation” – the rampant price hikes with which the luxury industry milked the post-pandemic appetite for shopping – has backfired on European designer brands, which have placed themselves beyond what consumers are prepared to pay. The affordability of Ralph Lauren’s Polo handbags, and the evergreen appeal of cable-knit sweaters stamped with the horse-and-rider logo, is paying dividends.
Having outfitted Wimbledon and the US Open for decades, the brand has also received a boon as tennis has soared in popularity and profile, becoming an increasingly prominent part of international sport culture worldwide.
At the end of the show, Ralph Lauren, who is still closely involved with his collections and works in the office several days a week, took a bow with his wife, Ricky. Applauding from the front row was Anna Wintour who, despite stepping aside from the editorship of American Vogue, has remained very much front and centre of Vogue’s presence at this New York fashion week, sitting alongside the newly appointed head of editorial content, Chloe Malle.
Applause for Kors
A similarly breezy, long-and-loose summer wardrobe showed up at the Michael Kors show, where the designer said he “wanted to bring a bit of Marrakech to Manhattan” with poet-style tunics, fluid trousers gathered at the ankle and sarongs.
“No one knows how to dress any more, because cities that used to be cold are now hot,” he said in a preview. “We can learn a lot about how to dress now from people who live in hot climates.”
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Snubbing the return of bodycon, which has been a rising tide in style this year, he riffed on generous draping of featherweight fabrics, and styled fluid floor-length skirts with oversized sleeveless tuxedo jackets.
The longtime designers Lauren and Kors paid tribute to Armani, whose funeral was held days before New York fashion week began.
“Armani influenced my whole life,” Kors said, who “saved up and bought my first Armani jacket when I was 19. I wore it to work, I wore it dancing – I wore it everywhere.”
Lauren praised the quality of “foreverness” in the work of “a designer who never strayed from his vision, a man who loved his family and friends and his homeland in such a special way”.
