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🇨🇭 Switzerland /Culture & Society

Do You Hate America? Ralph Lauren Might Change Your Mind

From Le Temps · () French

Translated from French and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Sources not specified Context piece
  • The article examines Ralph Lauren’s fashion brand as an idealized vision of a happy, united America.
  • It questions that image against the inequalities and power structures running through the United States.
  • The writer recalls reacting with disbelief when France named Ralph Lauren a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2010.

Ralph Lauren wants us to believe in a happy, united America, far removed from the systems of domination that run through the country. We know the image is false, yet we badly want to believe in it.

“Seriously, Ralph Lauren?” That was the writer’s reaction when the New York fashion designer was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010.

The timing seemed especially striking. Barack Obama had just come to power, carrying the dream of a more inclusive and equal American society. In Paris, another New Yorker, Marc Jacobs, led Louis Vuitton’s ready-to-wear business with a mix of expertise and exuberance while supporting LGBTQIA+ causes. The hope of major change seemed to hang in the air.

So why Ralph Lauren? The article acknowledges him as an immense entrepreneur, but calls him dated, particularly because he built his fortune on a chimera: an America supposedly united by the sporty, bourgeois style of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant elites, an old ruling class.

Seriously, Ralph Lauren?

· The writerThe reaction to Ralph Lauren’s appointment as a Knight of the Legion of Honour by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010.
About this summary

Originally published by Le Temps in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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