French Country Travel Life Ralph Lauren

The French Country Travel Life Ralph Lauren can only be “the” Ralph Lauren. N’est ce pas? He of the Polo shirt fame. And one of the World’s most gignormusly successful designers. Plus being the 162nd richest guy on the planet. (if we are to believe statistics.)

So, what does Ralph Lauren have to do with France? Other than selling massive quantities of his wearables here? Well, it’s like this: Mr. Lauren has a long standing love affair with France. So, ONE thing in common with DA BG.

In spite of his great success, Mr. Lauren regrets never having gone to Art School. (We do not have that in common.) Ergo, putting these two elements together, it’s easy to grok why Mr.L. is footing the bill to restore the Amphithéâtre d’honneur at the heart of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

The New York Times’ Suzy Menkes has the lowdown:

“The amphitheater has always been central to the heartbeat of this institution, and all the great artists and thinkers came together to discuss ideas,” David Lauren said. “Our goal is to figure out how this is going to be part of the 2000s. By wiring this place, you will be able to share these ideas globally, whether you are in China or the United States, wherever you are in the world, you will be able to hear great ideas about the arts and culture.”

Nicolas Bourriaud, director of the school, oversees both its complex artistic program and its buildings. That includes the entrance courtyard, where students on their lunch break sit beneath classical statues.

Mr. Bourriaud described the school’s buildings themselves as a kind of encyclopedia, referring to the artists’ names, from Dürer and Van Dyck to Holbein and Rembrandt, carved in red stone in the glass-roofed central court.

The amphitheater’s frieze, known as the Hémicycle, carries the same message of heritage, but with the artists shown grouped around the creators of the Parthenon, who are wrapped in white robes. The work was painted in a period when the classics were part of a general education.

Mr. Lauren famously started his career not in art school, but by selling neckties, with his personal dreams dashed by his boss telling him that “the world is not ready for Ralph Lauren.”

And it is his enthusiasm for Paris — which he expressed in an early visit by kissing the Arc de Triomphe — that has encouraged the current Beaux-Arts project. The initiative follows in 2010 the restoration of a 19th-century hôtel particulier on the Boulevard Saint-Germain that became the brand’s Paris store. Mr. Lauren received the Legion d’honneur the same year from then-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

After that building had revealed its cellar of historical artifacts and bones, it became the brand’s European flagship store.”

Read More HERE.

THROW ME A BONE HERE,PEOPLE!

What are ya thinkin’?