Designer Naiomi Glasses and David Lauren Explore Talk About Her Collaboration with Ralph Lauren

Naiomi Glasses, the seventh generation weaver from Rock Point, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, and David Lauren, chief branding and innovation officer at Ralph Lauren Corp., are equally passionate about their collaboration.

That was clearly on display at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit, where Booth Moore, WWD’s executive editor, interviewed them about their partnership that’s part of the Ralph Lauren Artist in Residence program.

Glasses’ weavings and designs celebrate Navajo pattern work and centuries-old weaving traditions.

Describing how the collaboration came to fruition, Lauren said, “It was a love story right from the start. Basically, my father has loved the American West. He’s loved Navajo style, and culture and history. He has been telling stories of America for over 55 years. Those stories have built what Ralph Lauren is about today, and in many ways they are timeless.”

As a company Lauren said they looked to see how they could add more authenticity to their story. “The purpose of Ralph and our purpose is to inspire the dream of a better life through authenticity and timeless style. And over the last few years we have thought about that. What does it mean, and how do we make it truly meaningful to who we are?” Lauren said. He said that what Glasses was doing “excited us” and they wanted to do something that was authentic and that shed light on what they love in a much more meaningful and collaborative way.

For her part, Glasses, the Artist in Residence at Ralph Lauren, has been a fan of the brand for many years, had seen the products in stores and saw things that were reminiscent of what her grandmother Nellie used to make in her weavings.

“I think what was so great about this entire collaboration was there really were no ground rules. We’re all simply figuring it out together, and that’s where the true authenticity of it was really built,” the 27-year-old weaver said. “And being able to say, ‘Oh, I see this color story, I want to tell a story in neutral colors,’ and basing them off of weavings I’ve done with hand-spun undyed natural wool. And then the second collection really follows a story of super bright colors and something super youthful.

“And I was like, we can base it on my skateboarding and how I grew up really loving something about skateboarding and how it became so meditative. And then with the third collection, it really pays homage to my family’s participation in rodeo,” she said.

She explained that her dad, brother, uncles and cousins all used to rodeo. “We all used to travel from place to place, going to these different rodeos. And I’ve always loved the fashion that I see my own relatives in, and so honestly, I feel like each and every collection has been able to be a love story to each different facet of my life. And I’m really grateful I’ve been able to share these pieces with the world. And I think that’s what the beauty of us not having ground rules created,” Glasses said. “Just being able to express myself…I already really loved the brand Ralph Lauren so I had all these ideas…how can I bring my weavings to the clothing and make it authentic to who I am, so I’m really grateful.”

Elaborating on whether the collaboration extended to the campaigns as well, Glasses said, “Absolutely. From the very beginning, I came with the list. I was like, if we’re going to do this right and show the world authentically how I want to see these designs on people, it’s only right that we do it with an all-Indigenous cast…and behind the scenes, we had Indigenous photographers.”

They also used jewelry that they styled them in from living artists. “I absolutely love Ralph Lauren and how they have the vintage collections. It would be really neat to see jewelry from artists that are found right now. So we’re able to bring in six different families from different tribes. And we were able to showcase their work alongside my pieces that I felt really complemented the pieces and go along with my personal style.”

Lauren explained that he and the team really got to know Glasses and her family personally.

“We connected with her because we shared all the same values. From the first meeting and then almost every other meeting, her family was in those meetings. She brought her brother, she brought her family and her parents. And so we got to know more than her. We got to see her world. And so the first campaign really was about family,” Lauren said.

He said they wanted to make it about her culture and so they went to where she lived. “We went to meet some of people that she worked with. And I think that was because we wanted people to see what we were seeing. Really, this is about us learning. We went on this as Design with Intent so we can get educated and inspired and learn about culture and share with the community that’s out there.”

Lauren said the second delivery actually came from some pictures that they saw before they even met. “Here she was skateboarding and we just loved the color, the energy of her skateboarding and what she brings out is so cool. It’s just such an eclectic mix of things that was unexpected. So color and vibrancy of that campaign and her energy, combined with what we want, it really was Ralph Lauren’s story brought up to date in a new and modern way, with a personality that we could imagine people would connect with around the world. And the last was maybe the most fashion forward.”

For the last collection, they took away the backdrop. “We kept it cleaner, lean in on the silhouettes and the patterns and really focus on the clothes, and it’s a little bit more of a fashion story. So we really went across the spectrum of style and culture and history…so the customer can feel something that was real and honest,” Lauren said.

Asked how the collections have been selling, Lauren joked, “We sold four sweaters.” Seriously, he said, “We did very well, and we’re very proud of it. But the goal was, as I said, while it’s wonderful to sell product and it’s wonderful to tell people about this amazing culture, we really went at it as a learning experience. This was something that we had to do,” Lauren said. “This was about elevating our storytelling and creating an authentic story.…This was about an evolution in who we are as a company, how we find partners and how we can begin a program that would set us on a course for the future.”

Lauren feels strongly that the collections will sell. “We think it will sell, if we believe in it, the consumer will believe in it,” he said. “Fashion is about passion and when people feel our passion, I think there’s something contagious about that. I think when you love something so much and when you capture that, people respond to it. It wasn’t about being trendy or something buzzy. I think people needed something that was real.”

Glasses described the impact her participation has had on her community.

“On a community level, it has really meant a lot to so many Indigenous communities because it resonates so deeply with the connection of a traditional craft being brought to the focus and how that traditional craft can be translated into clothing that can be worn. And so often, I feel that so many people come up to me and they tell me, ‘I really wish I had something like this growing up to see,’ and it’s so incredibly beautiful being able to hear each and every different story and hear from different people how this has impacted them. And I’m really grateful that I get to be a part of this story. And I really hope that what it does is it brings more light to more Indigenous artists and designers who can create, and that more people recognize there’s incredible talent in the Indigenous community, and that’s what the main goal is, elevating who we are as Indigenous people. I’m grateful about being able to bring visibility to us. But I’m not the only one, there’s going to be so many more after us.”

Lauren described how this program has impacted the way the brand’s team works, in terms of research, communications and archives.

“Our company does a lot of research and a lot of storytelling. And before we design a collection, we look at the world, we look at ourselves and we build storyboards. We are searching for meaning and trying to understand things. That is sort of the impetus…that is sort of the centering of the conversation. When Naiomi comes to the table, it opens the aperture. You have a new person at the table to take us outside of our world and to show us what is real, to try to get some understanding behind that picture, behind that pattern, to tell us the history, to educate us in a way that maybe we didn’t understand,” Lauren said.

“And many people on our team traveled to her home, traveled to trade shows, traveled to watch her weave patterns. And when you start to get that kind of education, it changes how and who we connect with. And you know, we all live in New York City. There’s a lot of design talent, but we’re so somewhat insular. And so this is about getting outside to really understand this history much deeper, in a much more spiritual way. And I think when you get the exposure, it changes you. And our job as a team, our job as a company is to portray the story of our culture and our world in an authentic way. You have to learn, you have to create a school inside your culture…the answers are out there. If you meet interesting people and you’re constantly learning and being curious,” Lauren said.

There’s now a team of experts at Lauren that is reviewing culture that the company might be referencing and there’s an annotation on where it’s coming from.

Glasses was asked what’s next and what does she dream of doing?

She said that when you work on three collections with “an amazing company like Ralph Lauren, you feel so inspired.”

“I totally got lost in the sauce of Ralph Lauren,” Glasses said. She said she really loves weaving and wants to try new shapes and figure out how that can be done and innovate different things with her weaving. “I’m really looking forward to having more weaving time and being able to just be open to any future projects and collaborations coming up,” Glasses said.

Ralph Lauren hasn’t shared design with a lot of people over the years, or brought in other designers and Lauren was asked how this changes things. What is this the start of?

“Well, we have great talent in the company,” Lauren said. “We have amazing talent that comes from all around the world, and we look at it like a school sometimes, with my father looking at those talents and knowing how to build the chemistry, knowing how to build a collaborative spirit, set the vision and make sure that we’re clear on philosophy.”

He noted that his father has always wanted to travel and had visions and dreams of the West, even before he ever went there. “And when he went there, I remember being a child; I remember traveling with him through Santa Fe, going out to Colorado and I saw his love and his passion for the style, craftsmanship, and we met the most fascinating people, so it’s always been there. He started by bringing interesting voices and talent to the table. And I think we’ve come full circle,” Lauren said.

Glasses said she’s looking forward to seeing more Indigenous designers coming into these spaces, and the ways in which they can bring even more visibility to who they are as Indigenous people.

“And I think that’s truly what’s really beautiful about his collaboration, being able to bring so much of who I am to it, but also showcasing my own culture with it.”

She said she was grateful that she was able to bring not only photographers and creatives behind the scenes, but even choosing models in front of the camera, and being able to represent who they are and show different faces, “and being able to even have my family as a part of the first collection campaign, and I think that was so key in telling the story.”

“I can’t wait to see how other Indigenous artists bring their authenticity to either collaborations even with building their own brands,” Glasses said.