This is an edition of the newsletter Show Notes, in which Samuel Hine reports from the front row of the fashion world. Sign up here to get it free.
In case you haven’t been on TikTok lately, Ralph Lauren is beloved by Gen-Z-ers, who are obsessed with his lifestyle flourishes, from the way he tucks his shirts to his high-WASP holiday decor.
And as it turns out, he loves them back.
On Friday evening, the opening night of Milan Fashion Week, Ralph Lauren commenced his fall 2026 men’s show with a masterclass in modern street style—as in, what kids actually wear out and about—filtered through Ralph’s wide world of Americana. There was an oversized Polo Sport rugby shirt, baggy jeans, toques perched perilously on top of heads, and tiny sunglasses. One model had a tartan scarf knotted around the upturned hood of his sweatshirt—a dead giveaway of a babyfaced menswear influencer.
Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
As Lauren put it to GQ in an exclusive statement, “What makes American style so enduring is its ability to evolve while staying true to itself. It’s not about changing tradition; it’s about letting each generation discover its own connection to it.”
Back when Lauren was building his American fashion empire one Polo shirt at a time, he was known to stop exceptionally stylish New Yorkers on the sidewalk or in restaurants and offer them jobs at his Madison Avenue headquarters. At 86, his eye is evidently sharp as ever.
“Ralph has such an affinity for so many different diverse lifestyles and sensibilities,” noted John Wrazej, Lauren’s gentlemanly senior brand creative director, in an interview before the show. Wrazej pointed at the sporty, ’90s-esque frames that dotted the catwalk. “Whether Ralph’s in Colorado and sees an 18-year-old lift operator wearing these funky glasses, or he sees kids down in SoHo buying vintage polo and wearing it in a very eclectic way, or kids who are wearing vintage tailoring…he’s so attuned to understanding, look at how creatively that young girl or guy is putting those things together.”
Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
The event, held at the opulent Rationalist palazzo Lauren purchased in 1999, marked only the brand’s third dedicated men’s runway show since the turn of the millennium. Inside the airy marble courtyard, Colman Domingo chatted with Morgan Spector as waiters floated around with silver trays of champagne.
“The last time I was here was in 2019 when I was getting fitted for a tuxedo for my first Oscars, so it feels like coming home,” said Henry Golding, dressed in a razor sharp chocolate brown three-piece pinstripe suit. “I haven’t worn one in a long time,” said the actor, a tailoring aficionado who has nevertheless clocked the new wave of Polo style: “The iconic Ralph tuck, I think that’s coming back!”
The rare return to the men’s runway can be seen as a victory lap of sorts for a brand that a decade ago was losing ground to fast fashion and struggling to define itself amidst the rise of streetwear. Today, thanks in part to the unlikely emergence of Zillennial preppy nostalgia, the Polo pony is riding high, with the company reporting booming sales amidst a wider luxury downturn. Said Wrazej, “Ralph talks about this rolling thunder of our business. We’ve just got all of this energy and such great momentum. Whether we do a show next season or what have you, right now this feels like the right thing to do.”
(In a few weeks, another Ralph show of sorts will hit Milan with the Winter Olympics, where Team USA will be decked out in frankly exceptional Polo Ralph Lauren kits for the opening and closing ceremonies.)
Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
Courtesy of Ralph Lauren
The production was a two-parter. First out were the Polo boys, and then—lest you worry that TikTok fame is going to Lauren’s head—came a parade of rarefied Purple Label.
