Ralph Lauren opened Milan Fashion Week Men’s with his most cinematic show yet — a dual-brand presentation that moved from Art Deco speedboats to Ivy League campus, with a few unexpected stops along the way.
There are shows that present clothes, and there are shows that present worlds. Ralph Lauren has always belonged to the latter category — and this season, titled Dream Racers and staged across a sun-drenched Milanese courtyard in June, he put that cinematic instinct into overdrive.
The collection ran in two acts: Purple Label opened, painting a picture of the well-travelled gentleman of leisure — somewhere between Lake Como in the 1920s and a private jet terminal in the eternal present. Then Polo Ralph Lauren closed the show with a more spirited, colour-saturated take on American prep, remixed and roughed up in the best possible way.
“My approach has always been cinematic,” Lauren wrote in his show notes. “Creating visual stories and aspirational worlds. Each a tribute to the personality of the man who lives to push creativity, competition, and expressions of personal style to the limit.” On this evidence, that personality is extremely well-dressed — and considerably more interesting than you might expect.
Here are the eight looks that stuck with me.
Look 3 — The Arrival
Purple Label opened with exactly the kind of quiet authority that makes the line so compelling. A tailored silk-blend suit in deep indigo — rich enough to read as almost navy in certain light — was styled with a band-collar shirt and a sleek utilitarian jacket thrown over the top as if it had been grabbed on the way out the door. The effect was effortless in the way that only very expensive things can be. This is a look for someone who travels light and arrives already dressed for the evening.
Look 5 — The Gentleman Racer
Ralph Lauren Purple Label SS27, Look 5 — Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
The Art Deco chapter of Purple Label is where the collection really found its stride. Racing-inspired leather outerwear in a buttery, barely-there tan referenced the geometric lines of 1920s speedboats without ever tipping into costume territory. Beneath it, open-stitch linen-cotton knitwear added texture and warmth without weight. The overall silhouette was slim, easy, and thoroughly considered. This is how you reference history without being consumed by it.
Look 38 — The Reversible Jacket Moment
One of the single best pieces in the entire show walked out in Look 38: a reversible lambskin jacket lined in pinstriped linen-cashmere. The kind of garment that justifies the Purple Label price point in a single wearing. Worn over high-waisted trousers with a flash of Old Hollywood glamour, it managed to feel both utilitarian and deeply luxurious at the same time — that rare category of outerwear that works in the cabin and on the cobblestones with equal conviction.
Look 40 — East Meets West
The KUON collaboration deserves its own exhibition. The Japanese design house brought handcrafted sashiko embroidery — executed by the Sashiko Gals, a multigenerational collective of female artisans based in Otsuchi — to impeccably constructed Italian tailoring, and neither tradition was asked to compromise. This look exemplified that cultural conversation beautifully: classic Purple Label proportions animated by intricate boro-technique patchwork across the lapels and chest. The result felt neither Japanese nor American, but entirely and unmistakably Ralph Lauren.
Look 42 — The Indigo Dinner Jacket
The standout piece from the KUON capsule, and arguably from the entire show. A double-breasted evening blazer constructed from various tones and textures of indigo patchwork — paired with a crisp white tuxedo shirt and a formal black bow tie. On paper it sounds like a contradiction. On the runway it read as the new standard of evening elegance. This is what happens when you take black-tie seriously enough to question it; the result is simultaneously more dressed up and more interesting than the original premise.
Look 57 — Prep Gets Interesting
When Polo Ralph Lauren took over the runway, the energy shifted — more colour, more noise, more personality. This look captured the transition beautifully: Indian madras in a traditional bleeder colourway, worn with an Edwardian-style tie that had no business working as well as it did. The whole thing felt like prep through the lens of someone who has lived in those clothes long enough to stop caring whether they match. Which is, of course, when prep looks its absolute best.
Look 65 — The Rugby Revival
Polo Ralph Lauren SS27, Look 65 — Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
A nod to the now-defunct Rugby line — which, for the record, is not relaunching — came in the form of a patchwork rugby shirt assembled from an eclectic range of patterned broadcloth. It should have been chaotic. Instead it was exuberant in the most compelling way, the kind of piece that will read as a collector’s item a decade from now. Worn with Nantucket red chinos and vintage rodeo-buckle inspired hardware, it was one of the most wearable expressions of the collection’s patchwork obsession.
Look 77 — The Grand Finale
A show that opens with Italian tailored elegance and closes with a hand-embroidered patchwork varsity jacket is a show that knows exactly what it is. The finale look distilled the entire Dream Racers ethos into a single garment: American heritage, artisanal craft, vivid colour, and a certain studied nonchalance that is ultimately what Ralph Lauren has always been selling. Bold, joyful, and deeply considered — it was the right way to end the night.
The Verdict
What makes Dream Racers land so well is that it never feels like a designer trying too hard to be relevant. Lauren has been making these kinds of clothes for fifty years, and the best moments here — the reversible lambskin jacket, the KUON dinner blazer, the riotous varsity finale — feel like the work of someone who has earned the confidence to follow his instincts without apology.
The KUON collaboration in particular is worth watching: the sashiko capsule sits at the intersection of two very different craft traditions and finds something genuinely new in the conversation. That’s not easy to do, and it suggests that Ralph Lauren’s best creative instincts are very much intact.
Refinement, it turns out, is an attitude. And this season, Ralph Lauren wore it very well..
