To the manor worn: Ralph Lauren’s take on “old money”
The young generations’ discovery of Ralph Lauren has given the designer a resurgence at the age of 86. With “old money” trending among Gen Z, Ralph Lauren stages a lesson in heritage dressing.
One of the most amusing hashtags on Instagram is “old money”. Popular with the younger ranks of Gen Z, it’s used to describe a look that strives to embody the instinctive style of those born into generational wealth. It’s amusing not because it’s aspirational – nothing wrong with that – but because its aspiring practitioners more often than not misunderstand the values and visual language of “old money”, at least in English and European terms. Rather than flashing your pedigree, the lifestyle of the landed gentry is typically characterised by dilapidated country houses, clothes repurposed several times over, and a delightful lack of polish. Just look at members of the royal family off-duty.
The young generations’ discovery of Ralph Lauren has given the designer a resurgence at the age of 86. In a time when “old money” is also having a revival – cf. the emergence of a new generation of aristocratic socialites – it’s in no small part due to the way his clothes are coded and the way they make you look and feel: heritage, class, “old money”. On Tuesday evening at the Jack Shainman Gallery, Lauren offered his new following a course in what “old money” actually looks like. He attributed the collection to his love of adventurers and the renegade spirit, but surrounded by printed nature tapestries evoking those of stately homes, it also reflected an aristocratic mentality.
“She respects the timeless quality of things from the past but reinvents them for now. Her style is not defined by time. It’s enduring,” Lauren said of his season muse. Capturing the endurance at the heart of true “old money” dressing, he adapted the outdoorsy gentleman’s heritage wardrobe into womenswear and layered it with tropes of country house interiors.
Rendered in a dark autumnal palette, tweed jackets, inverness capes and aged shearling flight jackets were paired with faded upholstery florals, silks printed with antique-looking equestrian motifs and trophy-like faux leopard pelts as if lifted from the decor of country estates. The interior-to-wardrobe transformations culminated in leather and chainmail pieces that nodded at the suits of armour you might encounter in a hallway of one of those dilapidated aristocratic piles. Many of the silhouettes could have come straight out of the wardrobe of the Princess of Wales, including H.R.H.’s signature leather walking boots.
Lauren did not come from inherited wealth. He grew up in the Bronx and built one of the most impressive careers in fashion history. He created not only a brand but a lifestyle, embodied by a visual language that now belongs as much to him as it does to its high-born English and European provenance. In that sense, Lauren is the hero of a new age of aspiration where young generations are discovering the value of a less flashy approach to dressing the part. Say what you will about generational wealth, but at its best, it’s about looking after what’s been given to you: preserving old buildings, repairing old clothes, passing things down. Lauren knows a thing or two about endurance, and as he demonstrated on Tuesday night, he’s one classy gentleman.
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