Ralph Lauren’s 2027 menswear splits between restraint and loud

At Ralph Lauren’s Men’s Spring 2027 show in Milan, a dry-ground speedboat and 1920s Lake Como references set the scene. Purple Label leaned into wealth-as-restraint with utility and small disruptions, while Polo pushed brighter colors and constant motion throu

The moment you stepped into Ralph Lauren’s old-world Milan headquarters for the Men’s Spring 2027 show. the setting seemed to argue with itself. A mahogany speedboat sat on dry ground—absurd in the way fashion sometimes needs to be. and oddly persuasive in the way it suggested Lake Como as a kind of mental destination.

In one half of the show, that Como pull felt deliberate. The design team appeared to have followed a 1920s Lake Como thread—Italian businessmen and their racing rituals—then spun it into a world where menswear could borrow from the theater of wealth. On benches across the courtyard. Ralph Lauren’s purple-inked show notes framed the collection’s spirit through older references: “When I began designing menswear. my inspiration came from the ease and traditions of collegiate style and the gentleman athlete. It was about character and camaraderie, a timeless style they made their own. I loved the oldness. the craftsmanship. the utility that wove together an individuality of ease. eclectic mystique. and a romantic sophistication.”.

Guests like Colman Domingo. Lewis Hamilton. and Tom Hiddlestone were easy to spot around that message—people accustomed to seeing a brand build myth into fabric. John Wrasej. senior brand creative director of men’s Polo. Purple Label. RLX and children’s Polo. was also part of the conversation. alongside the show’s visible nod to Lauren’s “dialogue” through the way the lines moved.

What looked like a shared starting point quickly diverged.

Purple Label. described as an established European man who treats wealth as something best expressed through fashion restraint. would disappear into that idea “from time to time.” Even when it stayed polished. it wouldn’t behave like a museum piece. The disruptions were small but pointed: fisherman sandals, a bandana tied loosely around the neck. When the break from formality became more intentional. it was through utility—sometimes a utility jacket—and even a jacket with sashiko hand-stitching.

That sashiko detail had a journey of its own: it travelled to Japan to meet the Sashiko Gals, then returned to Italy to settle into its final form.

The jackets, especially, seemed to be enjoying themselves on the runway. One was embroidered with Ralph Lauren’s Como Speed Club—a fictional society built from research into 1920s Lake Como boat racing and its very well-dressed participants.

Polo, by contrast, kept insisting on a different kind of energy. It was introduced as Polo’s younger cousin—an Ivy League student somewhere in the States who looks up to Purple Label but “insists on being more social.” The clothes didn’t just suggest that personality; they performed it. The line leaned hard into color: loud. insistent shades. often paired with what passes for neutral even when it plainly isn’t.

There was an orange puffer that the show notes described in effect as the kind you could “blind” if you stared too long, sitting over camouflage trousers—an echo of a Polo memory from Lauren’s own earlier Montauk era, reinterpreted decades later.

Then madras refused to stay put. When it wasn’t taking over full looks. it slipped into the edges: peeking through blazers. going under jackets. climbing over jackets. and showing up in windbreakers. collars. and even bags. The lineup kept moving between roomy trousers. cricket jackets. rugby shirts. Edwardian neckwear. patchwork details. and gingham—so many textures and references that the line-up didn’t settle for long enough to feel finished.

Purple Label and Polo kept their distance from each other, but the runway didn’t seem to care. The cousins’ separation only made the contrast sharper: one line treated restraint as a form of power. breaking tradition with targeted quirks; the other turned play into structure. letting color and pattern do the work of connection.

In the end, the boat-on-dry-ground fantasy and the Lake Como romance didn’t unify the show so much as split it into two competing definitions of how a man dresses his wealth—whether it’s controlled, quiet, and meticulously disrupted, or loud, social, and constantly in motion.

Ralph Lauren Menswear Spring 2027 Milan fashion show Purple Label Polo line Lake Como Como Speed Club sashiko Sashiko Gals Colman Domingo Lewis Hamilton Tom Hiddlestone John Wrasej