The year that Ralph Lauren launched his “RL Vintage” website, Newsweek published an article about the appeal of old Ralph Lauren clothes. An excerpt:
“RL Vintage” comes in response to a phenomenon that even David Lauren didn’t know about at first. Five years ago, when the brand was looking to commemorate its 40th birthday, executives discovered there were fans who might be celebrating harder than they were. They found a store in Tokyo that sells only vintage Ralph Lauren, with pieces dating back to the 1970s. There was a Japanese magazine devoted to heritage Americana that had an entire issue on old Ralph Lauren pieces. In the United States, a club of Lauren collectors was limited to 67 members, in honor of the year the master first began producing clothes. David Lauren takes out his iPhone and searches eBay for his father’s name: 309,119 items come up (including a life-size aluminum nude that’s supposed to be of his father and that he didn’t know existed). “There is a cult of Ralph Lauren that is kind of amazing,” he says, mentioning the block-long crowds that form at an appearance by dad, now 73.
You can read the rest of the article here. The RL Vintage site – which has been inactive for a long time now, unfortunately – also has a page dedicated to vintage RL collectors. Worth a look, if you haven’t seen it already.