EXCLUSIVE: Ralph Lauren Returning to the Runway Sept. 5

Ralph Lauren is returning to the runway Sept. 5, kicking off New York Fashion Week with a destination show in a place near and dear to his heart: the Hamptons.

The exact location will be revealed in the coming weeks.

“The Hamptons is more than a place. It’s a natural world of endless blue skies, the ocean, green fields, and white fences, rusticity and elegance with a quality of light that drew artists here decades ago. It has been home, my refuge and always an inspiration,” Lauren said in a statement regarding the collection of towns on the eastern end of Long Island, N.Y., known for their shingle houses, windmills, roadside farm stands, beautiful beaches, and celebrity and artist scenes.

Like the American West, Colorado, Jamaica and New York City, the Hamptons have been part of the Lauren lifestyle and brand iconography for decades. The Laurens have been spending time on Long Island since the 1970s, renting houses in Southampton, Amagansett and East Hampton when the kids were little, then buying their first home set on a cliff in Montauk in the ’90s.

“Every time I come into my house in Montauk, there is a smell of pine that I always remember. It’s like the smell that says summer is here,” the designer wrote in the 2023 book “Ralph Lauren: A Way of Living, Home, Design, Inspiration.”

The Ralph Lauren company first established itself in East Hampton in 1992 when it opened its Country Store on Main Street. Back then the town was more residential than resort. But as the population grew, so did the company’s presence and involvement in the community.

The Ralph Lauren children’s store opened in the summer of 2007 in the oldest surviving building in East Hampton, and contains the framework of a 16th century settler’s home. In 2008, Lauren committed to historical preservation of the town’s Mulford Farm homestead and land, with a plan for a longer partnership with the East Hampton Historical Society. And in 2012, wife Ricky published “The Hamptons: Food, Family, and History” detailing 40 years of the family’s experience in the region, with recipes, personal photos and original watercolors.

There are currently three Ralph Lauren stores in East Hampton and one in Southhampton, and Lauren now owns three contiguous beachfront properties on Montauk.

The designer has for the last few years been staging runway shows in experiential spaces that have personal meaning to him and his lifestyle. Last September, for his spring 2024 collection, he constructed an artist’s loft in a barn at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, after one on his Double RL Ranch where his son David was married. In June, he held his fall/holiday 2024 runway show at his offices on Madison Avenue in New York.

Defying the broader luxury brand slowdown, Ralph Lauren topped profit expectations as it continued to elevate its brand positioning in the fourth quarter, and clearly the runway has been part of that strategy. Revenues for the three months ended March 30 increased 1.8 percent to $1.57 billion from $1.54 billion. Comparable sales in the direct to consumer business grew by 6 percent, driven by price increases and full-price retail sales.