Gender and Desire in Polo Ralph Lauren 5: www.jolique.com

Gender and Desire in Polo Ralph Lauren, continued...

Polo Ralph Lauren's Heterosexual Project and its Polysexual Possibilities

In this section, I will focus on one advertisement created by Polo Ralph Lauren in 1979 (Figure 1). (35) Before beginning an analysis of this advertisement, however, some brief personal information about Ralph Lauren, the chairman and chief executive officer of Polo Ralph Lauren, may be useful. Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz on October 14, 1939 in Bronx, New York and was raised in a four-room apartment with his parents.(36) His father, a Russian Jewish immigrant, painted houses for a living. (37) In his teens, Lauren adopted his current surname. (38)

Above: Roughwear (Fig. 3)

Lauren attended college briefly and then served in the Army, after which he got a job selling men's ties. His first major success occurred in 1967, when he convinced Beau Brummel, a men's clothing manufacturer, to manufacture his wide, brightly-colored ties that he had designed. (39) His designs were well-timed, hitting stores at the peak of the Peacock Revolution. They became an instant success, and in 1971 he opened his first store in Beverly Hills. (40) In 1974, inspired by myths of the West, Ralph Lauren launched his first "western-inspired" casual sportswear line, Chaps. Today he is one of the world's most successful fashion designers, with annual revenues exceeding $2 billion.

In the early 1970s, at a time when many designers were still promoting the Peacock trend, Ralph Lauren told a reporter, "'I think it looks chic now to look straight'." (41) This word, straight, can be interpreted in many ways. As a reaction to the Peacock Revolution, looking "straight" may have meant looking "traditional" or "conservative." But in the context of sexuality, it can also imply looking "heterosexual." (42) Following this play on words, I would like to investigate what plays (and pleasures) are available to viewers of Polo's advertisements. Specifically, I would like to argue that: 1) Polo Ralph Lauren not only presumes a heterosexual viewing subject, but also attempts to position the viewer as a heterosexual (in some cases, a heterosexual man, and in other cases, a heterosexual woman—something I will address below), and 2) in spite of this project, the Polo Ralph Lauren advertisements that specifically feature cowboy figures actually leave much to the (sexual) imagination. Thus, just as the real history of the cowboy ruptures its popular stereotype, so too do the numerous, unintended desires and pleasures available to viewers have the potential for rupturing Polo's two-dimensional portraits. I use the word unintended here because there is indeed intention in Polo Ralph Lauren's images, just as there is intention in any advertising image. In "Rhetoric of the Image," Roland Barthes writes,

[...I]n advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional; the signifieds of the advertising message are formed a priori by certain attributes of the product and these signifieds have to be transmitted as clearly as possible. If the image contains signs, we can be sure that in advertising these signs are full, formed with a view to the optimum reading: the advertising image is frank, or at least emphatic. (43)

The Heterosexual Project

Ralph Lauren has stated in a number of interviews that films and books about the West have influenced his work considerably. But the version of the West that has inspired him is a specifically white, heterosexual one. For example, he once said, "I wanted to be Randolph Scott. He was tough; he wasn't a fancy cowboy" (emphasis added). (44) Another favorite actor of Lauren's was Gary Cooper; in fact, his likeness appeared in one of his company brochures." (45) In no interview with Ralph Lauren have I found any references to cowboys and their role in the gay liberation movement, or any discussion of the cowboy as a gay icon. Thus, it seems that Lauren's intent in his western advertisements is to convey some of this so-called "true spirit of the West"—a West inhabited by "tough," not fancy (i.e., effeminate) cowboys. None of Ralph Lauren's cowboys wear "heifer" brands and none of them cook beans for the boys.

A second point that suggests a heterosexual project is the fact that many of Polo Ralph Lauren's advertisements for men's clothing appear in women's fashion magazines. The reason for this is, I believe, that these men are to be viewed as objects of female, heterosexual desire. Furthermore, because the market for men's clothes relies considerably on purchases that women make for the men in their lives, these advertisements are designed to cater to women as potential purchasers of these clothes for their boyfriends and husbands. (46) Thus, in Polo Ralph Lauren's advertisements, the cowboy is not just a "man's man" but a "woman's man" as well. Although I do not think that Diana Fuss had Polo Ralph Lauren's advertisements in mind (and their placement in Vogue) when she made the bold statement, "Women's fashion photography, and the industries of mass clothing production and commercial advertising it supports, all presume and indeed participate in the construction of a heterosexual viewing subject," I think her statement can be applied to men's fashion photography when it appears in women's magazines. (47) Finally, I think it is important to note that none of the magazines or newspapers in which these advertisements appear (most frequently, Vogue and The New York Times) deliberately caters to a specifically gay audience, even though many of these publications' readers may be gay.(48)

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