Last night, Ralph Lauren held a much buzzed about event featuring a 10 minute, 4D light installation projected onto the façade of the designer’s London and New York City flagship locations. The incredible show was in celebration of 10 years of RalphLauren.com in the U.S. and the launch of e-commerce in the UK.
I attended the New York City event, which was preceded by a cocktail hour. As I made my way into the 72nd street flagship, weaving around the various rooms in awe of the impeccable décor (even the security and wait staff looked straight out of a Ralph Lauren ad), I found myself on the second floor in the Purple Label Room. Suddenly, I look to my left and saw Ralph Lauren himself shopping!
After spotting Mr. Lauren, I overheard him say that he loves shopping his own store when it’s not too crowded. I quickly snapped a photo and made my way back towards the stairs where I spotted Ricky Lauren heading up to join her husband.
The rest of the hour was spent ogling the new Ralph Lauren watches and the gorgeous exotic bags and luggage sets. I also sampled the new Big Pony fragrances for men. Inspired by the four players on a polo team, there are four fragrance options designed for different types of men: the Stylish, the Seductive, the Adventurous, and the Sporty man, though they all smell pretty unisex to me. My favorite fragrance was the Seductive cologne which has strong notes of musk and dark chocolate.
After browsing the store, the guests made their way outside to witness the installation. I was told that the air was misted with the new Big Pony fragrances, though with the amount of people there and the cold breeze, I couldn’t tell. After officially opening his new Manhattan flagship, Ralph Lauren received a key to the city (which may explain how the designer was able to shut down the high traffic 5th Avenue block between 71st and 72nd streets for his installation).
The exhilarating light installation emerged with 15 riveting scenes unfolding into one seven minute presentation using a ground-breaking approach to architectural video mapping. Among the many larger-than-life optical illusions were four story tall Polo players playing polo, a runway show with models appearing to walk on the edge of the building, a belt wrapping the mansion, and – my two favorite parts – a huge display of the new Ralph Lauren Ricky bag and the designer himself taking a digital bow at the end. The projection gave the illusion that images were extending beyond the building and floating out into space toward the audience.
Here is a video featuring the show as well as some behind-the-scenes footage showing how it was created:
