Ralph Lauren’s Not-So-Gilded Age

Ralph Lauren is having something of a moment. He was named women’s wear designer of the year at the 2025 Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, a Ralph Lauren Christmas became the aspirational aesthetic of the last holiday season, and the brand’s outfits for the U.S.

Olympic team carried a vintage Aspen vibe. For his fall 2026 show he transformed the soaring bank hall of the Clock Tower Building in Lower Manhattan — marble Corinthian columns and a coffered ceiling — into a palatial woodland retreat, as if Balmoral had been airlifted to TriBeCa.

The floor was carpeted with 36 very large, slightly worn Oriental rugs, the walls hung with hand-painted scenes of windswept woodlands, and benches and armchairs were covered in tweed, tapestry, tartan and aged, cracked leather. On the runway appeared beaten-up knee-high riding boots and supple brown leather corsets alongside tailored tapestry jackets, paisley ties and cravats, and woody tweeds with peplums and leg o’ mutton sleeves.

United States, Lower Manhattan

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