This afternoon’s Polo presentation was held in a swanky residence 5 minutes behind Madeleine. Inside, the hunky waitstaff in all-white Polo duds was serving madeleine muffins. I availed and was startled to find that the cake’s first influence on my style buds was…salty. Each odd and acquainted, it tasted scrumptious. Proust would have been appalled. But that salty cake encapsulated the problem going through Polo’s design crew each season: find out how to formulate a brand new batch of clothes that stays true to the model lexicon but hits totally different sufficient to impress a recent urge for food.
This time round, Polo discovered its reply in Jamaica, a locale it rigged on the heart of a seasonal story primarily based round Ricky Lauren and her many visits there with Ralph. As he wrote in his 2007 memoir: “I didn’t just like the woman with all of the make-up and excessive heels. I preferred the woman in denims and a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, sporting her boyfriend’s jacket. That’s the woman I’m interested in. That’s the woman I married—Ricky.”
That pragmatic eclecticism was mirrored within the static-model styling of a set that ranged throughout loads of Polo tropes. Khaki three-piece tailoring with nation particulars got here garnished with paisley tie– print scarves and loose-cinched big-buckle belts. That white shirt was right here, this time worn exterior a fringed leather-based skirt above yellow sand sneakers. A inexperienced madras costume with a diamond panel on the midriff was minimize in silk and worn with pony-logo flip-flops. There was a collection of full-leg tapered pants with a panel of fabric that looped from exterior of the proper angle up and throughout to the belt buckle, like half-fashioned and inverted Thai fisherman’s pants.
Heaped beads, a classic Polo Sport surf-style brand T-shirt, and sarongs in tie-dye and paisley ramped up the beachiness a bit. A Polo cable knit that got here stitched to a full-length skirt was the gathering’s boldest salty madeleine. Printed cotton gardening gloves and a green-edged white cable cardigan styled like a jaunty cape above a wide-check linen shirt have been different delicately utilized changes to the basic Polo recipe.
