Ralph Lauren picked up the Menswear Designer of the Year Award at the CFDAs earlier this week. He also took home the organization\u2019s first men\u2019s prize in 1981. That means\u2014if I have my dates right\u2014he\u2019s been at the top of American fashion since before this year\u2019s other winners were born. In an industry built on change, renewing and maintaining a legacy can be as difficult as building one, but even as he approaches the brand\u2019s 60th anniversary, Lauren still has fashion\u2019s attention. PoloFest, the vintage marketplace the company organized in Tokyo last month, with its 5,000 specially selected archival Polo pieces and 10,000 visitors, is bound to spawn imitators across the business.<\/p>\n
This pre-fall collection wasn\u2019t designed to make that kind of noise, but it\u2019s as rooted in the brand\u2019s iconography as anything else it does. Take the glen plaid pantsuit in look 3\u2014it\u2019s based on a suit that Lauren himself frequently wears and made by tailors in Italy with the specialized techniques that give men\u2019s suiting its sharp lines and structure. The track pants in look 1 are another Ralph tic; he\u2019s always liked mixing casual and formal, low and high. Purple is the accent color here this season,<\/p>\n