Ralph Lauren’s Latest Collection Is a Love Letter to His Round Hill, Jamaica Home
Monday was a bleak day in New York. A steady drizzle hung over the city. It was cold—not enough for it to snow, as New York in the snow is a beautiful thing—but cold enough to hang over everyone and everything. But inside a studio on Washington Street, Ralph Lauren gave editors, buyers, and fashionistas a little ray of sunshine.
At his Spring 2018 Ready-to-Wear show, models walked in and out of a white wooden cabana filled with linen wicker chairs, tropical plants, and coral sculptures. The runway was made of a blue plexiglass which rippled with the light, reminiscent of a lap-sized pool. “His models were clearly in full vacation mode, too, bounding out barefoot and dressed in sun-bleached batik and woodblock-print summer dresses with woven tourist baskets and canvas totes swinging at their side,” Vogue Fashion News Director Chioma Nnadi wrote in her review. The inspiration behind all of this? Jamaica.
For Lauren’s past few shows, home is where his heart has been. The Spring 2017 collection was presented in the Ralph Lauren Mansion on the Upper East Side. Fall 2017 took place at his Bedford Mills garage. And for his current show, it was on to his next home-turned-muse: Round Hill, Jamaica. “Everyone wishes for a magical place where they can step out of time into the beauty of nature. For Spring 2018, I wanted to share the mood, the light, the blue and white freshness of my retreat in Jamaica,” Ralph Lauren said in a statement.
Lauren’s tropical home has a storied history. He brought his first house well over 20 years ago, called High Rock, on the highest point of the famed Round Hill resort.
But one place wasn't enough for his growing brood, so a few years later, he bought a second cottage, White Orchid (White Orchid, it seems, attracts famous owners: before Lauren, it was the vacation home of William and Babe Paley, the president of CBS and his socialite wife).
But Lauren’s love for Jamaica didn’t just stop at personal property. He also designed the 36 guest rooms and 27 villas at the Round Hill Resort, adorning them with dark wood four-poster beds, white linens, rocking chairs, and checkerboard-tiled porches.
It’s not only the New York set that was inspired by Jamaica this season. Ralph Lauren’s home line—which includes items like wicker wine totes and blue-and-white striped linen napkins—is also an ode to his little slice of paradise.
Looking at Ralph Lauren’s latest collection, many may feel drawn to faraway places filled with white-sand beaches, carefree nights, and palm trees. But for Lauren himself, it seems, it’s just about feeling at home.
