American fashion designer Ralph Lauren is a paradoxical person. His life credo is not to chase fashion! The designer’s country house on Long Island is decorated in the same way.
Text: Michael Boodro. Photo: Pieter Estersohn. Producer: Anita Sarsidi.
Fashion designers
As a child, Ralph Lauren went to school in a carefully ironed suit, ignoring the teasing of peers who wore leather jackets and jeans a la Marlon Brando. Later, the ability to live and work without regard to others brought him worldwide fame. Lauren’s classic business suits and polo shirts are not those things that look hot today, but six months later – ridiculous. His models do not age for decades. “Fashion trends come and go, but style remains,” the designer says philosophically in response to criticism of conservatism. Ralph Lauren’s country house on Long Island is proof that this recipe works not only in the fashion world.
“West is West, East is East, and they will never converge.” For Long Island, these words of Rudyard Kipling fit perfectly. In the west of the island are located not the most prestigious areas of New York – Brooklyn and Queens. Smog, traffic jams, dark alleys, where in the evening it is better for a casual passer-by not to meddle, and other delights of the big city are evident … But the eastern part of Long Island is a rural idyll.
Pine groves, sun-drenched beaches, sleepy provincial towns … Only sky-high real estate prices remind of the proximity of the metropolis – among New York millionaires, having a summer house on Long Island is considered good form. Ralph Lauren’s family is no exception. For many years, Ralph and his wife Ricky have spent the summer in their country house on Montauk Point, in the very east of the island (for several seasons in a row they rented the estate for the summer, and then got so used to it that they decided to buy it). By all accounts, this is one of the most scenic spots on Long Island. Green pines and wild rose hips, snow-white sand, and beyond it, to the very horizon, – the dark blue waters of the Atlantic … The silence is broken only by the sound of the surf and the cries of seagulls. Thick foliage hides from prying eyes a house with a roof of cypress shingles, to which a rocky path leads.
This house was built in 1940 by the famous architect Antonin Raymond, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. From the facade, the building looks emphatically modest – as if hesitated to compete with the beauty of the surrounding landscape. The walls are made of local stone. Inside there are cypress columns and large antique fireplaces. Built-in furniture fits into the space gracefully and precisely, like on a yacht. Despite the fact that neighbors are building on the site of the old “modest” beach houses of 2 meters, the house of the Lauren family has not changed much over the past twenty years. Most of the furnishings have remained from the previous owners. The new owners have added just a few touches to the interior; vintage furniture in light wood, bamboo and ratan with cushions in light linen covers and, of course, accessories from the Ralph Lauren Home line. Wooden floors and ceilings were polished, household appliances were replaced with new ones, the walls were painted in pristine white. But the rest of the house is a living reminder of the good old days, when people went out of town to communicate with nature, and not with business partners via mobile. “For creative people, the atmosphere here is the most suitable! – Lauren assures. – Tested in practice, and more than once: once in this house were recorded songs by John Lennon and Diana Ross.
In the living room and the adjoining dining room, the furniture that was originally in the house has been lovingly preserved. Sliding glass doors, as before, slide on wooden rails (sometimes, however, they get stuck). It never even occurs to anyone to change the smoke-darkened masonry around the fireplace and the worn steps of the staircase leading to the master’s bedroom.
There are three small buildings not far from the main house. Guest house, consisting of one room and an adjoining kitchen. A cottage with a large open kitchen and three bedrooms of the Loren’s grown-up sons Andrew, David and Dylan.
And finally, a small cinema with a tiny kitchenette and a popcorn machine. Home movies are the favorite entertainment of the Lauren family. “I am an incurable film lover, and I often look for ideas for my collections in films,” the owner admits. The interiors of all these buildings look spectacular not only in summer, when they are flooded with bright sun, but also in winter, when the curtains are drawn and flames play in the fireplace. Ralph claims that he likes it here even more in winter: “Breathe in the frosty air – and you feel that you are reborn!” But the main advantage of the estate is the stunning views of the vast Atlantic. “I can’t live without the ocean,” Lauren exclaims. – And here, at every step, such panoramas open up that it is simply breathtaking! For me this is the best place on earth! ”
The enthusiastic patriotism of Americans is known to everyone, but Ralph Lauren is called the only one hundred percent American in the fashion world: he is a rancher, an athlete, and a race car driver … And the interior of his house clearly indicates that Lauren is close to two main principles of American practicality: that is not broken “and” the best is the enemy of the good. ”
In Moscow, furniture and accessories from the Ralph Lauren Home collection can be purchased in the new Park Avenue showroom on Smolenskaya Street. The clothes are sold in the mono-brand Ralph Lauren boutiques in Tretyakovsky Proyezd and in the Barvikha Luxury Village complex.