“Did Ralph just make frat boys chic?” It’s hard to come up with brand-new sentences nowadays. But not at Ralph Lauren’s spring 2027 outing in Milan on Friday night. Post-show, as guests beelined straight for the handsome dudes carrying trays of champagne, the fashion vernacular I overheard pushed some new limits. Things got weird. “God, I need a cravat,” someone said over the lip of a negroni. (Okay, maybe it wasn’t all that new.)
Still, innovation seemed to be an agenda item for Lauren. On a blistering Italian evening, before a starry front row that included the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Colman Domingo, the 86-year-old designer presented a collection full of twists on the classics: a dinner jacket made entirely out of boro- and sashiko-style patched denim. A bibbed dress shirt and waistcoat worn under a leather moto jacket, the model sauntering with some extra swagger. A field jacket cut from woven raffia. A silk bomber jacket boosting the fortunes of the three-piece suit beneath it.
Anyone who was a fan of last season’s psychedelic college-boy look is in luck. After 37 looks of timeless, handsome Americana—all hailing for Ralph’s upper-crust Purple Label collection—some thought the show was over. Kit Butler swanned down in a white tuxedo jacket, the soundtrack going sweeping and cinematic. Hands were raised to clap. But then the music kicked up (Michael Kiwanuka’s “Cold Little Heart” went into Son Little’s “The River”), heads started bopping, and out came the Polo boys. Cargo shorts, camo pants, technicolor jumpers, and tilted caps. Madras rain jackets turned heads while beaded necklaces spilled out of sweaters. Shorts were scribbled with pen and splattered with paint. These were college class clowns who could certainly dress, but probably couldn’t be counted on to pet-sit.
It was a big boy of a collection—78 fits in total—and one that deserves a much deeper dive. But in the meantime, here are your first-look takeaways from Ralph Lauren spring 2027.
Trad Menswear Still Goes Hard
The suit will never die. This we can count on. But there are elements of old-school tailoring that no longer get the love they did back in the 1920s. Horseshoe waistcoats, which slope generously down to the navel with skinny little lapels, are a relic. The ruffled bib shirt was eclipsed by the plain-front dress shirt decades ago. Details like pocket chains and cravats and carrying a pair of gloves in your hands (just ’cause!) are rarely seen anymore. But Ralph is bringing them back. In the midst of the good suits and the college boys gone wild, OG menswear made its return. Maybe it’s a sign to lean back into the stiff, potent garments that built us. Maybe it’s a sign to give our great-grandfathers the flowers they deserve. Either way, you should buy a cummerbund and a waistcoat and make it snappy.
