By Gabriela Afanador
Wednesday 24, June 2026
Photo: firstVIEW
Ralph Lauren returned to Milan for only the second time in over twenty years with the Spring Summer 2027 menswear collection, titled Dream Racers, presented in the stone courtyard of the Palazzo Ralph Lauren on Via San Barnaba. The setting did a lot of work before a single look appeared, a gleaming 1920s mahogany speedboat positioned at the center of the courtyard, fresh pink peonies arranged throughout, cushioned outdoor furniture that read more Hamptons estate than fashion week venue. The front row included Tom Hiddleston, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, Henry Golding, Scott Eastwood, and Maluma, a deliberately diverse and globally facing assembly that said something about who Ralph Lauren sees wearing these clothes and in what contexts. The show presented both Purple Label and Polo Ralph Lauren within a single runway, which sounds like it could create a tonal disconnect but instead illustrated how the two labels occupy the same creative universe at different volumes, one quieter and more considered, the other louder and more layered, but both unmistakably the same house.
The first half belonged to Purple Label, and it opened with a relaxed vision of tailoring that had nothing stiff or corporate about it. Silk-blend suits in deep indigo and sandy cream were cut with high-waisted pleated trousers that moved easily, and a chalk-stripe pinstripe suit with a dark silk tie and leather fisherman sandals landed somewhere between boardroom and boat deck in the best possible way. The Western influence that runs through so much of Lauren’s work appeared here in sterling silver jewelry with hand-engraved rodeo scrollwork and ornate belt buckles, placed against pristine cream linen rather than denim, which is the kind of juxtaposition the house has always done well and has never fully explained, it just works. A distressed faded indigo suede jacket with utilitarian patch pockets worn over those cream linen trousers was one of the stronger individual pieces of the first act, the kind of thing that reads as effortless precisely because the effort is invisible.
The vintage aviation and Italian lakeside leisure references came through in reversible lambskin leather jackets lined in linen-and-cashmere pinstripe, open-weave slub linens, and a white linen boiler suit cinched with a studded Western belt and finished with retro driving goggles resting at the collar and perforated white driving gloves carried in hand. A three-piece short suit with an Edwardian high collar, structured waistcoat, dark silk necktie, and tailored shorts grounded by black leather fisherman sandals was one of the most complete looks of the Purple Label segment, the kind of outfit that belongs on the deck of something expensive and moving fast across the water.
One of the collection’s most significant achievements was a capsule developed in collaboration with Japanese design house KUON, built around sashiko, a hand-embroidery technique dating back to Edo-period Japan, executed here by the Sashiko Gals, an artisanal collective of elderly Japanese craftswomen dedicated to preserving the method. The centerpiece was a double-breasted evening blazer constructed from hand-patched indigo cloth in varying tones, weights, and textures, the irregular geometry of the weathered denim and linen scraps creating a painterly surface worn with a formal white tuxedo shirt and black bow tie. A longline indigo coat combined a kimono-like drape with the sharp shoulders of classic Roman tailoring. The collaboration worked because neither tradition was asked to compromise for the other.
The Polo Act
Photo: firstVIEW
The second half shifted registers entirely, and the energy in the courtyard shifted with it. Where Purple Label moved with quiet authority, Polo Ralph Lauren arrived with the relaxed confidence of someone who has worn every piece before and knows exactly how it all fits together. The reference point was Take Ivy, Shosuke Ishizu’s 1960s photobook documenting Ivy League campus style, and the models walked with their hands in their pockets and fresh bouquets of pink peonies in their arms, which set the tone immediately.
We see a navy double-breasted blazer with a green knit sweater draped over the shoulders, a striped shirt, a repp-stripe tie, Nantucket red wide-leg chinos, a navy R baseball cap, and white Converse, carried in a canvas tote overflowing with more peonies, is exactly what this act was about. Nothing matched in the conventional sense and everything worked together completely. The layering was deliberate without being labored, the kind of look that references decades of American collegiate dressing without being trapped by any single era of it.
Above you see the look pushed further into the maximalist direction, a camouflage field jacket layered over a madras hoodie, a striped scarf knotted at the neck, wide white trousers, and blue loafers, the whole thing held together by a green canvas tote and a bucket hat, the kind of look that should read as chaotic and instead reads as someone with a very specific point of view about how things go together. Look 4 brought a different kind of layering, a navy blazer over a Polo Ralph Lauren logo shirt, paired with heavily sashiko-patched wide-leg trousers in cream and indigo, navy loafers, and a bundle of silk ties carried loosely in hand, ties that appeared throughout the collection as belts, luggage accents, waist cinches, and in one case the uppers of espadrilles, which is either eccentric or brilliant and is probably both.
The varsity jacket that closed the Polo act was hand-embroidered with archival athletic insignia, collegiate letters, and historical crests across its entire surface, worn over a white tuxedo shirt, white waistcoat, black silk bow tie, and deep green velvet slippers. Look 5 operated in similar territory, the same patchwork energy applied to a fully embroidered varsity jacket covered in pennants, numbers, and collegiate crests in every color, worn over a white formal shirt with a chain detail and wide navy trousers with green velvet loafers. It was the show’s clearest statement about what Ralph Lauren has always believed, that the line between sportswear and black tie is not a line at all but an invitation.
What the Dream Racers collection ultimately demonstrated is that Ralph Lauren’s visual world is genuinely large enough to hold all of this simultaneously, the Lake Como refinement and the Montauk utility, the Purple Label tailoring and the Polo patchwork, the Japanese sashiko and the Western belt buckle, without any of it feeling forced or contradictory. The brand surpassed eight billion dollars in revenue for the first time this year, and looking at this collection it is not difficult to understand why. It is fashion that knows exactly what it is and has absolutely no interest in being anything else.