Ralph Lauren's Oak Bluffs collection celebrates historic Black beach community

USA Today

2 days ago

Cricket sweaters, patchwork blanket, and distressed baseball caps.
Each is part of the new collection called Polo Ralph Lauren for Oak Bluffs, celebrating the historically Black community of Oak Bluffs in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
The collection is an evolution of the 2022 collection based on Historically Black Colleges Morehouse and Spelman, who are again partners in the Oak Bluffs collection, and is a part of the company's "Design with Intent" portfolio.
"Ralph Lauren as a man, as a brand is sort of the world ambassador to Americana," James Jeter, Creative Director for Polo Men's at Ralph Lauren told USA TODAY. "With that comes this incredible responsibility for us to tell these incredible American stories as fully, as broadly, as accurately as possible."
The collection deftly weaves HBCU campus style drawn from Morehouse and Spelman with resort wear that references the historic Black beach town and Black traditions.
"It was just very important to tell that story, the multi-faceted, multi-dimensional experience that is the Black experience that also translates into the American experience," Dara Douglas, Product and Brand Lead for Design with Intent, told USA TODAY.
It is accompanied by a documentary on the community directed by Cole Brown titled "A Portrait of the American Dream: Oak Bluffs" that debuted on the brand's YouTube page on July 24.
"Oak Bluffs' unique history, traditions and sense of community deeply inspire me and speak to what we are all searching for – a place where you can be free, uncontrived, joyful and truly at home," Ralph Lauren, Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the eponymous preppy stalwart, said in a July 23 press release.
Historically Black beach community celebrated by Ralph Lauren
Oak Bluffs was once a part of nearby Edgartown and was deemed to be the place "suitable" for Black workers at nearby resorts, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Oak Bluffs community envisioned by the collection started in earnest when Charles Shearer opened Shearer Cottage in 1912, according to The Root.
The Black news outlet described the inn as, "an act of defiance in an America riddled with discrimination and racial segregation, where safe lodging for Black travelers was a rare luxury."
"So by default really, Oak Bluffs becomes the place ... for young, educated, affluent African Americans—the politicians and the movie stars." Dr. Elaine Weintraub, historian and co-founder of the Martha's Vineyard African American Heritage Trail, told the Trust.
At the heart of Oak Bluffs, according to the Root, is a beach called the Inkwell that served as a place where, "Black folks could swim, sunbathe, and just be, without getting side-eyed or harassed."
Weintraub described vacationers to the Inkwell, Shearer Cottage, and Oak Bluffs throughout the decades as a "who's who" including Madame C.J. Walker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., actress Ethel Waters, and singer Lionel Richie.
"Well, I think perhaps I should say what you I think are aware of. Our people are deeply mystical, you might say spiritual and we have a an appreciation for place," Dr. Lawrence E. Carter Sr., the Dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, said in the documentary. "How Martha's Vineyard became Martha's Vineyard has an awful lot to do with traffic, who came through here and by coming through here bequeathed something."
Dorothy West, the youngest member of the Harlem Renaissance, said of Oak Bluffs, "I thought there was always summer here" in an interview published by the Martha's Vineyard Museum Oral History Channel.
"I think historically it has represented a place where African Americans could be successful, could be around other African-Americans, could share in a culture and a place in the sun and that they'll own and that they'll belong," Weintraub said.
Oak Bluffs still holds that same significance today. Netflix's show "Forever", released in March, showcased this on an episode titled "The Vineyard", allowing viewers to see the vibrance and richness that still exists in Oak Bluffs.
Oak Bluffs collection intends to broaden view of Black experience
The 2022 collection was described by Jeter as a "period piece" that drew from the ephemera of Morehouse and Spelman, of which Jeter and Douglas are alumni, from 1920's to the 1960's.
"You'll notice that there's this kind of decorum (in the 2022 collection). We leaned a little bit into politics of respectability, which really started such an incredible conversation," Jeter said.
He added that imagery for the collection's campaign was "intentionally less serious" and leaned into a multi-generational interpretation of summers on the shore.
"Quite frequently people think of the output that comes from the Black experience, whether it's through entertainment, through sports. So you constantly see the Black body in motion, but this notion of rest and relaxation as a space that the black body could occupy I think is quite revolutionary," Douglas said.
The collection comes as companies have backed away from concepts labeled DEI following pressure from the Trump administration and other right-wing forces.
Jeter and Douglas both pointed to the collection as a part of the company's commitment to widening the brand's view of what is included in "Americana," with James saying "we intended to stick to that."
"We are the leaders. So we look not outside of ourselves, but we look toward our purpose to be the guiding light to the kind of stories that we tell," James said. "The hope is that other corporations or other folks see us as an example."