Oak, Wool, and Saddle Leather – Ralph Lauren Home and the American Southwest

At Milan’s Fuorisalone, Ralph Lauren is introducing “Canyon Road”: wool instead of linen, brown instead of green, surfaces that bear marks and stains, amidst mountains and desert. It’s a rougher texture replacing refined polish

Fuorisalone: Ralph Lauren Home Departs from the Hamptons to Bring the American West to Milan

This time, Ralph Lauren leaves the East Coast’s Hamptons—an aesthetic famously tied to his brand—for the American Southwest, where the imagery taps into a raw, natural ruggedness. The burnt-orange hues of terracotta replace indigo blues, and warm brown woods take over from navy and emerald greens. Heavy wool stands in for breezy summer linen; the Navajo-inspired weaving of thick fibers replaces nautical stripes and ginghams. This is Canyon Road, Ralph Lauren Home’s newest collection for the coming seasons, showcased at Fuorisalone in Milan within a historic green stone residence on Via San Barnaba 27.

Canyon Road: Rugged, Saddle Leather, and Rustic Oak

The collection is as much about fabrics and materials as it is about minimal forms. Rustic oak appears in the table and console, while hand-polished saddle leather covers a sling-backed chair. The tactile quality of the design calls to mind the atmosphere of the American West, with earthy shades and sun-washed tones.

Canyon Road gathers inspirations not typically associated with this New York designer’s usual vocabulary. It’s a counterpoint to the crisp, orderly imagery of the East Coast—where Ralph Lauren hails from, and where his brand’s identity is often set. Think navy blue polos, cable-knit cotton sweaters in white and fuchsia, afternoons spent at riding lessons. Now he’s illustrating a different, parallel take on American style—distinct from but not in conflict with the more familiar coastal aesthetic. It’s also a major shift from last year’s Modern Driver collection, presented at Design Week as a tribute to luxury automotive design, all about mahogany wood, stainless steel, leather, and carbon fiber.

Ralph Lauren, Colorado, and the Freedom of the West

This new turn for Ralph Lauren Home is by no means the first time the brand has journeyed into these territories. Canyon Road is the latest expression of Lauren’s longtime fascination with the landscapes of the American West—less about California’s oceanfront or Oregon’s damp forests, and more about Arizona’s heat, New Mexico’s rough, dusty plains, and the mountainous regions of Colorado. In 1982, Ralph Lauren and his wife, Ricky Ann Loew-Beer, purchased a property at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Ridgway, Colorado, beneath the San Juan peaks.

That property spreads across some 17,000 acres (about 7,000 hectares). At its center stands a nearly century-old building, constructed with local timber on a 25-by-20-meter footprint and rising 18 meters high. For Ralph Lauren, discovering this site was a dream come true::

“My love of the West began in childhood, going to the movies and watching cowboys on the big screen. I liked their style and also the beauty of the Western landscape. I dreamed of a home under the big sky, and many years later I found it. I discovered a freedom in the West that inspires the way that I live and all the color and character that I bring to the different places we call home—in the mountains, in canyons, on mesas, in the desert, or in the city”.
(From Ralph Lauren Way of Living: Home, Design, Inspiration, Rizzoli New York, 2023.)

Double R Ranch – The Same Love of Weathered Patina Found in Canyon Road

The site’s history began in 1905, when its former owner, Thomas Vance, decided to build a barn. By the 1980s, it was in ruins—its porch, loft, and flooring all in desperate need of repair. But that was precisely what Ralph Lauren wanted:

“When I first came to Colorado, I didn’t want to build a new house. I wanted to find an old one,” he writes in the same volume. Over the next twenty years, the property underwent a careful restoration and became Double R Ranch—“Double R” for Ralph and Ricky—a place that later inspired the brand’s Western clothing lines, an homage to cowboys and the American mythos.

“I love the character of old things. I built the house out of old barn wood. I wanted a screen door with a squeak. If something’s really old, let it feel that way.”

Today, that ranch is a wildlife refuge for eagles, elk, and deer, with wild sunflowers and pine trees scattered across the expansive grounds. Multiple cabins and outbuildings named Little Creek, Elk Meadow, Little Bear, Blue Pony, and Wild Rabbit dot the property and showcase a trove of Western relics—vintage saddles, old tools, artworks—and even the cowboy hat once worn by John Wayne in Henry Hathaway’s True Grit (1969), scenes of which were partly filmed in this region. Over the years, various photo shoots have documented these interiors, revealing the same embrace of sun-bleached, time-worn surfaces that defines the Canyon Road collection.

Ralph Lauren Home’s Tribute to Navajo Weavers – The Collaboration with Naiomi and Tyler Glasses

In an era when cancel culture often makes brands cautious—sometimes stifling creativity—Ralph Lauren’s respect for the West also takes the form of honoring its Indigenous populations. The new collection doesn’t blindly replicate traditional Navajo designs, nor does it offer a shallow celebration of “diversity” for commercial gain. Instead, it presents a translation into a context that remains tied to Ralph Lauren Home’s broader design story.

Canyon Road incorporates the work of two Diné (Navajo) artists and designers, siblings Naiomi and Tyler Glasses, seventh-generation weavers from Rock Point in Apache County, Arizona. Pillows and wool blankets are patterned with symbols and motifs tied to these tribal traditions—visual references to the Navajo Nation (Dinétah)—and to weaving techniques passed down from their grandmother Nellie. The color families include indigo, flashes of red and black with traditional dye processes, and the neutral tones of the desert. Designs feature diamonds, four-direction crosses, and horizontal stripes. While distinctive, they also align with the Lauren brand: these same shapes appear throughout the Double R Ranch in Colorado, decorated by Ralph and Ricky in a style that merges Western heritage with their personal signature.

“As I dove deeper into the heritage of the West, I discovered the crafts and artworks of Native American and Indigenous peoples. Ricky and I began to fill up our log home with collections of vintage woven baskets, silver-and-turquoise concha belts and jewelry, faded trade blankets, and bold-colored rugs and weavings. Later, I shared that spirit on the runway, with collections that evoked the natural beauty and lifestyles of that western world. It wasn’t long before I shared that same spirit on beds and blankets splashed with bright southwestern colors and motifs, and on leather furniture and chairs with the well-worn feel and heritage of handcrafted boots”.
(From Ralph Lauren Way of Living: Home, Design, Inspiration.)

Naiomi Glasses already had a relationship with Ralph Lauren prior to Canyon Road. In 2023, she became the brand’s first Artist in Residence, creating a three-part collaboration titled Polo Ralph Lauren x Naiomi Glasses. With the Canyon Road release, this marks the first official Artist in Residence collaboration for Ralph Lauren Home—shifting the dynamic from “inspiration” to a genuine partnership with master artisans preserving ancestral trades.

Ralph Lauren Home – From the English Countryside of the Bedford Collection to a New York Penthouse

Also at Fuorisalone, visitors to the historic building at Via San Barnaba 27 are treated to a retrospective on the chapters that shaped Ralph Lauren Home since its launch in 1983. Lauren’s guiding idea is clear:

“It was never about a house; it was about a way of living. Our homes are a canvas for life. Whether we live in a city, in the country, on a farm, by the beach, in a penthouse, or in a cabin, each one is home and tells our story. And just as we dress differently in each place, we want to live differently in each of them.”

Four main styles from the archives are on display, featuring custom furnishings made in Italy by Haworth Lifestyle Design, each reflecting a place Ralph Lauren calls home. The first is a Western homage with four patina-finished saddle-leather armchairs and red-and-black Navajo-inspired textiles. Overhead hangs the Straton Triple-Tier chandelier with natural deer antlers.

Next, an “Estate” section replicates an English country vibe reminiscent of Lauren’s “Bedford” style: draped fabrics, floral motifs, gray and blue paisley prints, and furniture in mahogany with leather upholstery. Shifting to a Manhattan look, the “Penthouse” corner includes carbon-fiber RLCF1 chairs—evoking the sleekness of a McLaren F1—and a Duke rosewood dining table with hints of Art Deco. Finally, the “Island” realm imagines a coastal retreat, featuring rattan and coarse linen. Fuchsia and turquoise pillows brighten the space, along with the hand-carved Beekman Cocktail Table in mahogany and the Jamaica Salon Sofa.

Giacomo Cadeddu