Inspired by turn-of-the-century Manhattan mercantile shops, Ralph Lauren’s rustic and storied home on West Broadway was originally built in 1867 as a store, warehouse, and manufactory for tobacco production—and now houses new and vintage curations of Double RL wares.
In an open-plan storefront with sweeping ceilings, Double RL styles are offered alongside vintage jewellery, clothing, and home wares. To the side, a formal haberdashery environment showcases vintage-inspired tailoring, while a back section is separated by a metal and glass screen wall to create a warehouse-like utility area—inspired by the on-premise manufacturing sections found in turn-of-the-century mercantile shops.
The historic shop was built in 1867 alongside others on the same block, known as the Lorillard Buildings, by the architect J.B. Snook. All of them exhibit a solid, respectable quality, typical of his brick buildings on West Broadway and his others on Spring Street, with a narrow brick with stone trim on the piers and stone sills and lintels at the windows. The ground floor façades are also made of cast iron; iron piers support an iron lintel that is flanked by neo-Greco console brackets beneath neo-Greco terminal blocks.
