"Somehow Lauren, who thinks it's fine for men to wear (as he does) black velvet slippers in the office, has become the designer of choice for guys to whom the mere mention of velvet slippers causes first one and then the other eyebrow to be raised. Men with no tolerance for velvet slippers in the office, at home, in the tool shed, or on the moon. Men whose feelings toward men who do wear velvet slippers may fairly be expressed as: Yikes!"
"Any rancher, that is, who's willing to break either a sweat or a few vertebrae chasing after cattle? Real cowboys have nicknames for such ranchers. Ralph's might be "Hopalong Casually." And yet mainstream guys bought $2.7 billion in suits, shirts, ties, and other Ralph Lauren garments last year. Add in women's clothes, eyeglasses, perfume, bedsheets, dinner plates, leather couches, and the rest, and consumers around the globe spent some $5 billion on Lauren goods-making him the best-selling designer in the world."
Ralph Lauren cultivates refined, photogenic poses and affects, such as wearing black velvet slippers in the office and adopting a faux rancher image. The personal style contrasts sharply with mainstream male consumers who would reject such eccentricities yet embrace the brand's clothing and lifestyle goods. Consumers purchased about $2.7 billion in Lauren menswear and roughly $5 billion in total Ralph Lauren products, including women's apparel, eyewear, perfume, bedding, dinnerware, and leather furniture. The brand translates crafted romantic fantasies into broadly appealing merchandise, making Ralph Lauren the world's best-selling designer despite the inauthenticity of some portrayed lifestyles.
Read at Fortune
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