Another American icon gets his due in a small-screen documenta-
ry, out this month. Susan Lacy’s Very Ralph, also on HBO, tackles the
half-century-plus reign of Ralph Lauren. The designer and his family,
friends, and fans (including Kanye West, Calvin Klein, Martha Stew-
art, and Hillary Clinton) tell the story of his rise from Bronx-born tie
designer to lifestyle emperor and exporter of the American Dream.
Whether drawing his inspiration from western attire or Old Hollywood,
the designer helped make our nation’s fashion aspirational and cool
around the world.
In an era of excess, he pushed for the casual, undone, no-makeup
look that is now de rigueur. He emphasized diversity in his ads early on,
was ahead of the athleisure curve (for proof, there’s fun footage of a 1995
Polo Sport show with models Rollerblading down the runway), and pi-
oneered the concept of a lifestyle brand. With his Rhinelander mansion
flagship, which opened in New York City in 1986, he presented retail as
theater and shopping as entertainment in a way that feels canny even by
2019 standards: At one point in the documentary, New Yorker writer Ju-
dith Thurman calls the store “a stage set in which everything is for sale.”
Particularly resonant was the portion of the film that follows the
Lo Lifes, a group of young men of color in New York who obsessively
collected Lauren’s Polo wares, and for whom the clothes signified an
entire world of aspiration. In the same way it did for the young Lau-
ren, fashion became a way for them to dream. As fashion critic Robin
Givhan puts it in the film, “He represents something that is more than
just a bunch of clothes.”FRONT ROW
“IT DOESN’T MATTER how many times you see her. It’s always spe-
cial,” says Diane von Furstenberg. She’s not talking about a supermodel
or a socialite, but a very different kind of muse: the Statue of Liberty,
which has been an object of fascination for the designer since she first
glimpsed it upon her arrival in the United States from Europe on the
SS Raffaello in 1969. She chaired the fundraising drive for the Statue of
Liberty Museum, which opened in May. Now Von Furstenberg’s ardent
support for the icon extends to a documentary, Liberty: Mother of Exiles,
coming to HBO on October 17, which she appears in and co–executive
produced. In a time when the statue’s message of inclusion feels more
potent than ever—our acting immigration director’s recent revisionist
take on the Emma Lazarus poem on her pedestal underscoring how
essential it is—the film features people as varied as Statue of Liberty
memorabilia collectors, including one woman who legally changed her
surname to Liberty; descendants of Gustave Eiffel, who designed the
statue’s interior; and construction workers involved with renovating
Lady Liberty. (Almost all the onscreen figures are identified by tags
listing their country of origin.) And when Von Furstenberg visits Statue
of Liberty designer Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi’s namesake museum in
France, the influence of American fashion around the globe is clear: The
museum director has bought a DVF wrapdress just for the occasion.Two documentaries anchored
by fashion designers explore
what it means to be an American.
By Véronique HylandSTAR
SPANGLED
FROM TOP: LAUREN
TAKING HIS RUNWAY
BOW CIRCA 1990;
WITH HIS SONS
ANDREW (LEFT)
AND DAVID IN 1972;
AND WEARING
CLASSIC DENIM-
ON-DENIM IN 1978.FROM LEFT: VON
FURSTENBERG ATTENDS
THIS YEAR’S MET GALA IN
COSTUME; THE DESIGNER
WITH PRODUCER-
DIRECTORS FENTON
BAILEY (LEFT) AND RANDY
BARBATO; DVF’S STATUE
OF LIBERTY SILK SCARF.LAUREN ON RUNWAY: DAN LECCA; LAUREN WITH SONS: LAUREN FAMILY ARCHIVES; LAUREN IN DENIM: LES GOLDBERG; VON FURSTENBERG: TAYLOR HILL/FILMMAGIC; VON FURSTENBERG WITH BAILEY AND BARBATO: COURTESY OF HBO; DVF SCARF: COURTESY OF THE DESIGNER.62