Ralph Lauren and his family live in Bedford, New York, in a mansion we’ve all admired for years but have never seen in its entirety. It is one of five Lauren residences, and it is the most intriguing since it is the closest to his oldest and most intense picture.
To appreciate it, try not to think about the store windows and displays you’re used to seeing. This is not a stage; it is not about selling; it is the home of Ricky and Ralph Lauren, where they have lived for 13 years and raised three children. It is their house and is unique in terms of interior design. There is no need to look for societal meaning in it, as is sometimes done when the subject is Ralph Lauren. Simply said, it has an English taste but an American vitality, and whether Nancy Mitford approves or not is unimportant.
Ralph and Ricky Lauren reside in a community about an hour north of Manhattan that is to suburbia what the navy cashmere blazer is to men’s coats. Bedford is not a suburb; it is more akin to Manhasset or Old Westbury in the days of the Paleys and the Phipps. Zoning is liberal, residences are tucked away, and horses are welcome.
The paved road ends many kilometres before the Lauren home, surrounded by almost 250 acres of undulating lawn and forests. It was erected in 1919 in the Norman style, using stone and slate, and there is no reason to believe it will look any different in a hundred years. It is large but not overpowering at 17,000 square feet; it seems suitable and cosy. The only indication of who is in the home is the automobile in the forecourt, one of a collection of old sports cars that appear just as they did a half-century ago.
Ralph’s hall opens to a library on the left, a mahogany-panelled chamber with the feel of brawny club furnishings and permanent late afternoon. The customary laptop and BlackBerry are missing, but there are plenty of papers and sharp pencils. The dining room, on the right, has a George III table retreating eternally across three pedestals, vermeil flatware, and a thick hang of paintings and sketches against deep-green velvet walls.
A traditional English drawing parlour occupies one end of the first floor. The centrepiece is an Osler crystal chandelier; sitting groups embrace fires on each end, and the mood is cheerful despite paintings piled against paintings, carpets heaped atop carpets, and stacks of books.
The dining room drapes look like huge fringed kilts, there are tartan cushions, rugs, and runners everywhere, and there are several collections of ancient plaid metal boxes and accessories. Animal iconography and the energy it conveys may also be found in pencil sketches of lions and oil paintings of horses and leopards, as well as the designer’s obsession with leather.
Certain motifs keep resurfacing. Lauren likes his rooms to be darkly coloured, dramatic and turned inward. He enjoys mahogany panelling and Georgian furniture that has been polished like glass, as well as threadbare Persian rugs. Tartan, which most interior designers consider a novelty, appears natural to a fashion person and is utilised freely.
The bedroom, with deep-blue baize walls that read like the full moon at midnight, has dressier furnishings than the rest of the home. The bed is Regency, and there’s a pocket watch, tortoiseshell accessories, and crystal tumblers with a bottle of San Pellegrino on the table next to it.
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