Fashion Icon Ralph Lauren & His Not-So-Iconic Mobile Offering

Being a long-term fan of the Polo brand by designer Ralph Lauren, I was pleasantly surprised to find out they had a mobile site.  Admittedly, my own lack of fashion sense has often been supplemented by taking a quick glance at their full blown website and perusing current trends and can’t-go-wrong classic looks. 

Boy was I let down.  Honestly, that doesn’t even cover it.  I was agast, abandoned, disillusioned, discarded by the side of the road and left for dead.  (Perhaps that last one was a bit strong.)  I’m really not this obsessive about Ralph Lauren or his Polo brand, it just amazed me that for all the money that his fashion empire rakes in (I shutter to think just what I’ve spent over the years), this is the absolute best that they could muster up?  Really? 

Ralph, can I call you Ralph?  No?  Ok, Mr. Lauren, if I could just pull you aside for a moment.  I’ve seen your ranch, your houses, your cars (if your a car fan, you need to check out the Ralph Lauren Car Collection on Autoblog.com.  I’m not sure if taste and gobbs of money are directly related, but the guy has plenty of both)  but you could have paid a high school student in Polo shirts and ended up with a better site.  I wasn’t expecting a full blown ecommerce offering, but there has to be some middle ground we can meet.

My mother always told me that if I couldn’t say something nice, I shouldn’t say anything at all.  Unfortunately that mom-ism doesn’t work with reviews.  However, since this review is overwhelmingly, um, not positive, I will say one thing.  I liked how they tried to work in some of the RL Magazine content on the site.  Again, though, a little underwhelming to say the least. 

On a not-so-related side note, with Prada, Armani, and rumored Adidas & Nike cell phones gaining traction for the uber fashion conscious, cell phone toting A-Listers, anything in the pipeline for a Ralph Lauren or Polo-branded mobile phone?  Ralph - I mean, Mr. Lauren?  Anyone?  Hmm…you may be missing the boat here, especially in the US mobile market.

Bottom line?  Perhaps Ralph Lauren is best left to his fashion industry and not mobile web design. 

Added to the Fashion & Textiles Directory.

-wS.