For over 50 years, Polo Ralph Lauren has been a staple of American fashion. And this year, the brand will celebrate Pride with a campaign and capsule collection putting a new, queer spin on their all-American designs.
Today, the brand will release their fully unisex limited edition Pride capsule collection, whose star is a reimagined logo rendering their famous polo boy logo in a rainbow gradient. They’ve partnered with the amazing Stonewall Community Foundation for the collection, pledging to donate 100 percent of all proceeds from every T-shirt sold and 50 percent of all other proceeds to the nonprofit organization. These funds will help the Stonewall Community Foundation grant money to a number of vital LGBTQ+ organizations and programs worldwide, including those that directly address some of the most pressing issues facing our community, like homelessness and the lack of available (and affordable) housing.
The brand has also tapped an incredible, diverse group of queer people to be the face of their collection. There are athletes, like Olympic skier (and silver medalist) Gus Kenworthy and Houston Ballet soloist Harper Waters. There are performers, like actress Josie Totah, best known for her roles in Champions, Jessie, and Glee, and comedian Patti Harrison, whose hilarious response to Donald Trump’s transgender military ban is still one of the most clever bits to emerge from The Tonight Show in recent memory. And there are artists, like famed fashion photographer Cass Bird (who also shot the campaign photos you see here) and model/director/photographer Jacob Bixenman. The cast is rounded out by several members of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, an organization that works to empower LGBTQ+ youth.
For the accompanying Pride campaign video, premiering today on them., Polo Ralph Lauren asked each member of their campaign to explain what Pride means to them, using the symbolic intention behind the colors of the LGBTQ+ Pride flag: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for serenity, and purple for spirit.
“I think life is really important to include in the flag because everybody deserves an authentic life,” says Patti Harrison. “People in the LGBTQ+ community deserve to be seen and their stories deserve to be heard and told,” says Josie Totah, asked to speak about sunlight. (As an actress who came out as transgender in the middle of an already highly visible career, Totah knows this importance firsthand.) Harper Waters suggests that healing means we “embrace the pain because you will overcome it,” and Gus Kenworthy describes serenity as “being at peace with yourself and who you are.” For nature, Jacob Bixenman offers, “it’s your intrinsic sense of self — the way that you were naturally created.”
When asked about his experience at the shoot for the campaign video, Bixenman said it was a lot of fun from start to finish.
“It felt like a party. I’ve always admired Cass Bird’s work and to spend the day shooting and dancing with her was really cool. She’s a baller,” Bixenman said about his experience at the shoot for the campaign video. He also enjoyed spending time with the members of the Hetrick-Martin Institute: “It was great to see micro-environments of queer people supporting each other and coming together for a shared purpose.”
And that shared purpose is a big deal, especially considering what this particular brand means to the American fashion industry at large. “Polo Ralph Lauren is a brand and image deeply embedded in our collective American consciousness and identity,” says Bixenman. “I think that them committing as wholeheartedly as they are, visually and financially, to promote the message of Pride sets a real precedent.”
