Greetings,
A Tale of Two Seasons
Picture it. Late Fall 1988. San Jose, California. A young man from Mississippi is enjoying his first few months of working for Ralph Lauren. Learning more every day.
Spending day upon day learning about fabrics. And design inspirations. And advertising. And fashion.
Each afternoon, the UPS driver would deliver boxes and boxes of new merchandise. And he would almost giggle with delight upon opening each and every one.
It was Fall, so the boxes would be filled with his favourite things. Heavy hand-knit ski sweaters. Thick wool tweed trousers. And beautiful plaid sport coats.
But, one day he noticed that the boxes contained men's cream linen shorts. And silk sport shirts. And ties with pictures of palm trees on them. He was very confused.
"Why would we sell these clothes in November?"
The store manager took him aside and tried to explain the reasoning behind such odd things. He said, "Many people go to warm climates to celebrate the holidays. And we must have clothing to them as well." "Cruise" and "Holiday" are the same season.
The young man from Mississippi had never HEARD of such things. The holidays are about snow and cold weather.
So for the next few weeks, the young man from Mississippi sold many ski sweaters. But, also linen pants - for the mysterious people who spent their holidays in warm climates.
And by the way, this entire missive has been written whilst in the mid-west. In 20 degree temperatures. And wearing heavy ski sweaters and warm wool pants.
Cheers,
Scot
images of Ralph Lauren's home in Jamaica. From Architectural Digest.
