In other words, the cars have character from their previous lives, just like an old tweed jacket or vintage flask or hand-me-down sweater that your older brother wore and treasured. And character, perhaps above all, is what vintage goods evoke for Ralph. “When you wear an old military jacket, there’s some sort of connection to those qualities—to being strong, to being tough, to being a warrior,” he has said. And you could express a similar sentiment to, say, cowboy boots and cowboys, beat-up leather jackets and golden age aviators, and tweed jackets and the effortless style of an old-world movie star. It’s not that the clothes transform who you are, but they transcend who you are, allowing you to be the best version of yourself.
And besides, where do characters reside but in stories, the kind of stories that Ralph has been telling through Polo for years? In a sense, these stories, and these characters, are now being told to a new generation, with the online vintage shop. Pieces that have previously been part of someone else’s story can now be part of yours, having already played their part (and taken their inspiration) from a half-real, half-imagined past.
The fact that these clothes live on today—that they feel as relevant in 2024 as they did when they were designed—speaks to the timelessness that is perhaps the core Polo value. It’s a timelessness born of functional beauty, as Mr. Lauren might say. That is, these clothes were made to be worn, not just at a particular time and place, but in our time and our place, whenever and wherever that might be. Each one has a beauty, a craft, and, above all, a story that endures and is meant to be passed on. That story might begin with a sweater, but it doesn’t end there.