Ralph Lauren will release a collegiate-inspired collection, featuring outerwear, tailored suits, dresses and footwear, designed by Morehouse and Spelman alumni who currently work at the company.
The pieces, priced between $20 to $2500, were inspired by the outfits worn by students at the historically Black colleges between the 1920s and 1950s, like tweed blazers and vintage varsity knitted sweaters. The reference images could be found in decades-old college yearbooks that James Jeter, Ralph Lauren’s director of concept design and special projects and a 2013 graduate of Morehouse College, shared with Ralph Lauren’s eponymous founder following the social justice uprisings of summer 2020.
“I began creating these visual presentations and had conversations with Ralph around ideas that I thought could expand the narrative around … how [the company] has shaped collegiate style,” said Jeter.
Following the social justice protests of summer 2020, hundreds of companies across fashion and beauty vowed to help level the playing field for Black people in the US via financial, educational and other commitments. Some companies have since released annual impact reports and joined organisations such as the Fifteen Percent Pledge aimed at fostering accountability and transparency about their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and corresponding results.
Ralph Lauren has long used Ivy League schools — a group of predominantly white colleges and universities in the US known for their academic rigour and social prestige — as the inspiration for the brand’s collegiate designs. But as it sought to make good on a 2020 pledge to take action on racial equity and re-examine how it “portrays the American dream,” Jeter convinced Lauren that a collection that demonstrated that Black colleges are just as “aspirational and inspirational” as their Ivy League peers could serve as a powerful step.
“He didn’t realise that this history existed and … it really kind of opened up this entire world to be inspired by,” Jeter said. “Right now, we’re just talking about HBCUs and collegiate style, but the same could be true of Americana and quilting or the American West … this is only the beginning.”
Ralph Lauren will release an accompanying film, “A Portrait of the American Dream,” on March 28, and a commemorative yearbook, on March 29, featuring archival imagery from Morehouse and Spelman juxtaposed against collection imagery on the campuses. The campaign utilised an all-Black cast and crew, including fashion photographer Nadine Ijewere and students, faculty and alumni from both schools.
“Just like all of our Ralph Lauren clothes, these clothes are for everyone; everyone should see themselves reflected in these clothes,” said Dara Douglas, director of inspirational content at the Ralph Lauren Library and a 2003 graduate of Spelman, who worked with Jeter on the collection. “It’s a dream that we’re inviting you into, if you see yourself reflected in these clothes, please please wear them.”
The collection is available on March 29 on the brand’s website, apps and in select stores, including at Morehouse and Spelman campus bookstores.
