Ralph Lauren has gone all American again, though in a roundabout way, nodding indirectly to old boy Ernest Hemingway and frenemy F. Scott Fitzgerald. The designer referenced the Lost Generation's favourite haunts and pastimes with berets and poet shirts, neck scarves and matador trappings. A vivid coloured striped blanket or bag said Southwest by way of the South of France, er the new "South by Southwest?" There was fringe, multicolour trade beads and so much turquoise - the colour not the stone, for the collection to retain its signature sensibility.
It's not often that one thinks Cristobal Balenciaga at Ralph Lauren, but the bullfighting references whispered of the master - or maybe the All American translations of Oscar de la Renta as apprentice of the old school. Two more things. 1) It's biker shorts for evening, go Vera and Ralph! and 2) Raf Simons' Dior debut seems to have inspired a legion of bustiers paired with pants. Allies all the way.
