Exclusive: Ralph Lauren Let Cult Japanese Brand Beams Rework the Polo Bear

If an ability to adapt is the most important quality for surviving our rapidly changing times, then the Polo Bear may be the cockroach to our culture’s nuclear explosion.

For nearly all its life, the Polo Bear has been the child of Ralph Lauren and/or his brother Jerry Lauren, who handles men’s design at the brand. The Bears skied, lifted martini glasses, or cosplayed as Bruce Springsteen in actual Ralph Lauren designs that reflected some dimension of the brothers. (The Polo Bears are famously inspired by Steiff teddy bears wearing Ralph Lauren clothes that are given to the brothers during the holidays.) But over the past year, the Polo Bear has made a larger and more substantial claim: it isn’t just about Ralph and Jerry but the world the designers have created over the decades and the many acolytes they’ve inspired.

There is no better evidence for this than the new Polo Bear releasing Thursday, the beautiful fuzzy result of a collaboration between Ralph Lauren, the beloved Japanese retailer Beams, and the department store Nordstrom. Nordstrom, for its latest in a series of short-term concept shops, has partnered with Beams and a handful of American fashion institutions like Brooks Brothers, New Era, and Ralph Lauren.

The Ralph Lauren slice of the collaboration started off as an idea to bring back the brand’s “Big Polo” collection from the mid-’90s. The original collection was comprised of polos and chinos, supersized to appeal to a generation for whom baginess was close to godliness. Not only is it a good time for Big clothing and ‘90s style generally, but it made sense for a collaboration with Beams “because Big Polo was massive in Tokyo, specifically,” Sam Lobban, Nordstrom’s vice-president of men’s fashion, told me.

The collaborators stuck to that original collection as much as possible, while incorporating a couple new elements. One new piece is the oversized rugby, which felt like a natural addition to the capsule for Lobban, and the other is the “Big Fit Polo Bear” (I know!) and the hoodies, hats, and tees it appears on. All the pieces will be available at eight Nordstrom stores across the U.S. and its website starting Thursday.

Lobban considered the Polo Bear “hallowed ground,” he said—the sort of opportunity you unlock after enduring a series of increasingly risky obstacles Indiana Jones-style. Naturally, waiting at the end of dungeon atop a golden pedestal would be the bear. Lobban said the whole process was actually much simpler: “We said, ‘Any chance we could do a bear?’ (Good question). And the Ralph Lauren team said, ‘Well, what would you want to do?’ (Better question!) And we said, ‘Well, could the bear be wearing the oversized capsule?’ (Even better question) And they said, ‘That's a cool idea.’” Still, as easy as the opportunity materialized, the significance of getting to rework the critter was not lost on him. “The bear is the ultimate signifier of the Ralph Lauren world wrapped up into one emblematic icon,” Lobban said. “And to have a mascot like the bear wearing the clothing project we're working on, it is very special.”

The resulting bear differentiates itself from all the ursa that have come before it in subtle ways. It’s wearing a tie and oxford peeking rakishly out from underneath a great big polo and oversized chinos that pool over its loafers. On its wrist, a watch but also what looks like a threaded bracelet. While the bear is dressed up in prep staples deeply embedded in the Ralph Lauren brand, the clothes are all jet-puffed and oversized in foreign ways. The proportions are Beams’s contribution to the capsule. “The idea of doing a slightly oversized take on classic Americana preppy Ivy league makes a lot sense through a Japanese lens,” Lobban said. This looseness with the Polo Bear, and willingness to frequently change its style with the times, is what makes this collaboration exciting.

If the Palace Polo Bear is an ode to students who rebel and tweak a school-instituted uniform, then this Beams collaboration represents the trans-atlantic translation of Ralph Lauren style by a country that’s long revered and nurtured Americana. Even if Ralph and Jerry wouldn’t necessarily wear the Big Polo collaboration in this way, they are at least partially responsible for the subcultures that have taken their designs and made them their own.

Of course, the Big Fit Polo Bear isn’t possible without the rest of the collection. The Bear, like all others before it, are wearing actual real-life designs. So the collection includes perfect-for-the-times baggy chinos, a big oxford in classic pale blue and white, big polos, and a series of big striped rugbys. Once the collaborators landed on the collection, the last piece to the capsule was the simplest. “Who better to wear them,” Lobban asked, “than the bear?”

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