The cultural history of a fashion iconfrom @alextwma

Transcript

This bear changed the way you yes. You just never knew it. This is the polo bear, a teddy bear dressed in Ralph Lauren clothing stitched onto some of the most iconic sweaters in fashion. And it starts with a president and a bear. In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear that had been tied to a tree on a hunting trip. The Washington Worst ran it as a cartoon and toy makers named their stuffed bears after him creating the teddy bear including a German company called Steiff, the most renowned maker in the world. Fast forward to 1990, Jerry Lauren, Ralph's brother has collected Steiff better his entire life. Both brothers receive custom Stife Bears dressed in their likeness as a gift. Ralphs arrives in preppy polo clothing and he loves it. So a tradition is born where every year both brothers receive a custom bear inspired by Ralph's personal style. In 1991 that private tradition goes public. The polo bear debuts as an actual Scythe teddy bear in a limited run of just 200. They sell out of the Madison Avenue flagship store in a single weekend. Soon the bear starts appearing on sweaters, tier shirts and denim jackets. They're whimsical, slightly absurd, and at the tier, completely unlike anything else in luxury fashion. But Ralph Lauren built his brand for a very specific customer, the prep school elite, sort of old money America. That was never the lowlife crew. The lowlifes were a Brooklyn gang built entirely around an obsession of Polo Ralph Lauren. They couldn't afford it, so they stole it. Entire collections right off the rank and the polo bear sweaters were the most prized pieces of all. Polo was made for the rich worse kids, said Raklow, one of the lowlife's founders. It wasn't made for urban kids and as teenagers we couldn't afford it. The lowlife worse polo in ways Ralph Lauren never intended. They gave the brand a new audience, a new context and an entirely new meaning. And the rest of the world took notice. By 2004, Kanye West wore a polo better knit on the cover of the College Dropout. Raekwon wore a polo snow beach pullover in a Wu Tang Clan music video. One by one, the culture caught up to what was happening in Brooklyn. The New York Tier called the lowlifes the gang that brought high fashion to hip hop. The blueprint, their laser like focus on rank, the lifestyle aspiration, the subversion is everywhere now. The genre tier collaborate with high fashion houses and create their own labels. None of that would have been possible without what started in Brooklyn in 1988. Ralph Lauren built a brand for good money America, but the lowlifes took it anyway. And in doing no, they rewrote the rules of who luxury fashion belongs to. Many of those rules still govern how you shop, what you buy, and what it means to wear luxury today.