How Ralph Lauren Got Jill Biden to the Hamptons
The New York Times
The designer held a show on Long Island and built a dream world as a backdrop.
On the far southern fork of Long Island, past East Hampton and Sagaponack and somewhere in the shadow of Gatsby’s West Egg, there is a place that could be termed Ralph Hampton: the Hamptons of the designer Ralph Lauren’s mind.
Ralph Hampton is a place of verdant fields and blue skies, of horse farms and Aston Martins and old-fashioneds. In Ralph Hampton all sharp edges have been sanded, all teeth gleam, and even the distressed jeans come in silk and are embedded with sparkle. It is an awfully alluring place to spend an hour or two — if also one that is increasingly removed from reality.
Or so it seemed on the eve of New York Fashion Week, when Mr. Lauren conjured up his fantasy getaway at Khalily Stables (officially in Bridgehampton) and invited 250 guests to make the multihour journey eastward from New York City.
Jill Biden, the first lady, who had worn a Ralph Lauren dress at the Democratic National Convention, arrived wearing (of course) Ralph Lauren. So did Jude Law, Usher, Naomi Watts and Colman Domingo. Guests, including journalists, were ferried by helicopter, seaplane, black S.U.V. and jitney. The excuse was a fashion show, but the point was the escape.
