“I’m the year of the horse,” said 1978 baby Usher, one of the first people I met at Ralph Lauren’s latest elaborately produced, celebrity-filled runway show on Thursday night. We’re talking horses on the grounds of Khalily Stables, a 19-acre “equestrian sanctuary” in Bridgehampton, the kind of ultrarich vacation destination where you imagine Ralph Lauren models spend their summers. (It’s currently on sale for $15,250,000.) For one night, these pristine stables were transformed into an interactive Ralph-land, with trotting equestrians, antique sports cars, and a temporary Polo Bar — re-created with painstaking detail, down to the horse paintings crowding every surface of the walls and the plush leather booth seats.
This is what we’ve come to expect from a Ralph Lauren fashion show: a notable destination where the brand puts on its show and rewards its guests with a Polo Bar–style dinner; dozens of A-list movie stars who rarely go to fashion shows who have been helicoptered in; several supermodel special guests; and a runway collection that remixes the brand’s classic take on all-American sportswear without ever varying the core formula. The models are traditionally beautiful and happy, oozing success and ease. By the end of the evening, the idea of wearing all the colors of a sailing flag at the same time seems not only natural but necessary.
Thursday night in Bridgehampton was no exception. The first thing I saw when I arrived, before a staff member helpfully pointed to me a high-end porta-potty (did I mention the drive from the city took four hours?), was a pristine white-picket-fence-lined field. Half a dozen equestrians were putting on their own little show for us, warming up their horses and trotting around. They kept it going throughout the cocktail hour, held outside between the estate’s main barns. Nearby Jude Law and Justin Theroux greeted each other with a hug while Tom Hiddleston asked First Lady Jill Biden, “Do you ride?” (She responded she does not.) NBA player Kevin Love strolled by with his wife, Kate, looking for the bar. Kacey Musgraves got a last-minute spritz of hair spray from her stylist before following Naomi Watts onto the “red carpet,” which was really just a photo line in front of one of the walls of the barns. Lauren’s extensive family milled about, including his son David, who stood out in a pair of garish lime-green trousers. “Of all the shows to go to,” actress Phoebe Tonkin tells me during the pre-show cocktail hour, “this is the one to be at.”
She’s not wrong. Ralph Lauren is one of the few shows left on the calendar that give the international press a reason — and sometimes budget — to attend New York Fashion Week, at least for a few days. And these lavish fashion shows have helped reinvigorate Ralph Lauren’s business in recent years, just as the TikTok set discovered the allure of Polo Bar (impossible reservations and juicy hamburgers).
And what about the clothes? The runway featured Hamptons-ready options for the whole family: men, women, preteens, and some of the cutest child models you’ve ever seen. The spring 2025 collection leaned summery and covered everything from flow-y long linen separates to pin-striped suits, American-flag sweaters worn with crochet micro-shorts, wedged heels and chunky silver concho belts, blue paisley summer dresses, and monogrammed robes (one, naturally, with a matching pair of monogrammed smoking shoes). Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington closed the show, walking down the runway holding hands — Campbell in a white satin bomber and ankle-length skirt and Turlington in ripped jeans and a cropped white tuxedo jacket.
After Ralph came out for his bow (wearing an Olympics-style USA jacket in red, white, and blue) with his wife, Ricky, we all dutifully followed him into another tent structure, where the one-night-only Hamptons Polo Bar was waiting. “I loved the explosion of color at the end,” said Theroux to a friend asking about the collection as Hiddleston and Colman Domingo got stopped by some cameramen for a quick interview. Later I caught up with Lucky Blue Smith, who had just walked the runway, and his TikTok-famous wife, Nara, as they kicked off a busy fashion month. They have been married for almost five years, but this was the first time she had ever seen him walk the runway in person. Would we see the whole Smith family walking down the runway together soon? “It’s going to happen one day,” Nara said. “But it has to be a special moment.” For now, though, their schedules are busy enough. Nara is hosting a pop-up with Hourglass Cosmetics this week, then the couple will be “all over Europe for the next little bit.”
Behind us, the First Lady was settling in for dinner in the seat of honor next to Ralph, surrounded by framed photos of horses and saddles and equestrians of yore, and I’m left wondering how they will top this all again next year or next season. Personally, I think the answer is obvious. My vote is for a fashion show at his famous Double RL Ranch in Colorado. I promise no one will complain about the travel.
