Vice / Polo: Cold Wave

ColD
Wave

25 Years of Snow BeacH

When Ralph Lauren launched Snow Beach in 1993, something unexpected happened: the Lo-Life crew started a Polo craze from the Brooklyn streets. Twenty-five years later, Lauren celebrates the legacies of the Lo-Lifes and Lo-Heads (collectors not part of the official crew) everywhere with this Snow Beach capsule collection.

Photos by Brayden Olson

the origin

Image courtesy of Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren always knew that the key to long-lasting success was the support of the youth. And as snowboarding dominated the underground in the early 90s, Lauren was watching. He noticed that there was no specific “uniform” for snowboarders, so he made one. But in so doing, he also ended up making a uniform for the streets.

“

Ralph always paid attention to what was happening with younger people. He said, ‘I’m not creating old gentlemen’s clothing. I know we have that customer, that’s fine.’ He wanted to make sure that the kids were just as excited about the clothing as we were.”

Ralph Lauren Design

Image courtesy of Ralph Lauren

“

They did it in a very Ralph way;

they didn’t sponsor snowboarders, they didn’t put money into snowboarding. Most snowboarders back then were not interested in Ralph Lauren or Polo. In fact, they were the polar opposite of what Polo was about. If Polo was the country club, these guys were hopping over the country club

fence to ride the greens in the winter and messing up the lawn.”

ALEX DYMOND, CURATOR OF

SNOW BEACH: SNOWBOARDING STYLE 86–96

“

This [snowboarding] stuff was kind of ugly. But in

its ugliness, it became something that stood for something. What’s really great is the mixing of the bright, offbeat colors, the yellows and greens, with the military tweed and the old flannel shirts.”

RALPH LAUREN DESIGN

Alex Dymond

“

At the time, most of the snowboarders were doing stuff like taking a size 40 waist pair of jeans, cutting them off so it was super wide leg so it could fit over the snowboard boot. There was a bit of hip-hop, but it was very punk too.”

ALEX DYMOND

the rise to fame

The Lo-Lifes, as they called themselves, lived for all Polo everything. They took a brand typically worn by white, preppy kids, and with a different vision in mind, made it entirely their own. Their passion for Polo quickly spread and reached the mainstream when New York rappers, like Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan, began to follow their lead. The Lo-Lifes can be credited with establishing and maintaining Polo’s timeless look on the streets.

Thirstin Howl III

“

Fashion was a big part of [graffiti and hip-hop]. Especially at that time, growing up. ‘95, ‘96, ‘97, that's when I first started traveling by myself, taking the train by myself. You form your identity. Those are important years in terms of who you are for the rest of your life. So you just get more into fashion, you started noticing females, you want girls to like you. My mother is not next to me, I can catch this tag, I can write on something. [Polo] was just the whole scene then.”

MEYHEM LAUREN,

VICELAND HOST AND RAPPER

Meyhem Lauren

“

Back then, it was different. Kids had their own style. It's not like now, where a kid will walk into a store like Supreme or Alife and it's all boxed up for you. We had to create our own styles. We’d go into a store and see some running kicks that was made for white people to go jogging, but that shit looks hot. We’d flip the style and make it look ill. Same thing with Polo. It wasn’t made for us to be rocking out in the hood. The fact that it wasn’t made for us made us want it more.”

POST VSOP,

GRAFFITI WRITER & POLO COLLECTOR

Post VSOP

“

You got to understand Raekwon. It's not like Heidi Chung from whatever news had on a Snow Beach jacket. (That would still be very ill. Like, oh shit, look, the lady on the news got the Snow Beach on.) It was actually one of the illest rappers that we all looked up to who had the illest song at that time with the illest album at that time. And right [then] of all times [he] just happens to have the jacket on. Like, boom. Like this is crazy, you know what I mean?”

POST VSOP

Post VSOP

“

Raekwon helped popularize Snow Beach to the rest of the world. In New York, we weren’t exposed to cameras and social media showing off how we were doing it. Rappers were the ones that exposed how Lo-Life was doing it in the streets. So they were catching on and they were influencing the rest of America with it.”

THIRSTIN HOWL III,

RAPPER, LO-LIFE COFOUNDER

Thirstin Howl III

“

Polo was loud as fuck and it just looked dope when you put it together right. And kids knew how to do that back in the days somehow. [It’s] like a lost art form. Like, oh shit, they have the Snow Beach, and then look at this fishing hat, then look at these boots right here, they're Gore-Tex. These shoes are made for people to go hiking. It was made for ice climbing. We took it, flipped it around, and we would be like Power Rangers in the street. It looked so dope when you saw these little 15-year-old kids in these oversize jackets, 30 deep, walking down Broadway.”

POST VSOP

Meyhem Lauren & Post VSOP

the revival

Tom Gould

Years after Thirstin Howl III and the Lo-Lifes turned Polo into a cultural phenomenon, collectors like Meyhem Lauren and Post AOW carried the movement forward.

At the same time, people from all over the world began to take notice. Tom Gould grew up as far away as it gets from Brooklyn: Auckland, New Zealand. He loved the gear but what really fascinated him was the story of the Lo-Lifes and the culture they created.

Thirstin Howl III

“

In 2010, I met Thirstin Howl III and we worked for six years on a book documenting the Polo fashion subculture. Not just from when it started with Lo-Life, but how it spread from the streets of Brooklyn to music to mainstream popular culture, and how it traveled across the globe.”

TOM GOULD,

PHOTOGRAPHER, BURY ME WITH THE LO ON

Tom Gould

“

As the evolution grew and spread to other countries, hip-hop was a huge catalyst. It became a vehicle for this fashion subculture to spread and for the stories of the

Lo-Lifes to travel around the world. We were on a small island in the South Pacific but were being influenced by this style and colorful imagery coming out of New York—and we weren't the only ones.”

TOM GOULD

Meyhem Lauren

“

I probably went through about seven, eight Snow Beaches in my Polo-collecting career. I bought a Snow Beach off eBay in about ‘01, ‘02, like in the early days, when eBay was taking money orders. The person I bought it from actually had a bunch of skiing patches on it. Like, he didn't have it for fashion purposes, he actually wore the jacket to ski. I had to go to the dry cleaner and get the ski patches removed. So, I could say at least one made it to the slopes.”

MEYHEM LAUREN

Post VSOP

“

I always looked at Polo items like...the shirt looks dope, but I'm always afraid of it getting messed up. The Snow Beach was different. It was rugged. You can be outdoors with it, running around doing graffiti and catching tags and it's not going to get fucked up.”

POST VSOP

“

I think it was similar to a lot

of their experimental [stuff], trying to tap the youth collections [that were] at the time catering to Gen X. Let’s not forget in ‘92 they were giving Ski a go. I have always loved the [Snow Beach] palettes and color combinations, especially

the red, green, purple, and yellow color-blocking of the Cold Wave jacket which I imagine was inspired by the Tibetan prayer flag colors.”

ALEX DYMOND

Alex Dymond

“

It's much harder now to get a Snow Beach in great condition. Supply and demand. The less there are, the more they're worth. It's a sought-after jacket. It’s not just a Lo-Head thing—

I know people that don't have any Polo items other than the Snow Beach. That's the only Ralph Lauren item they own or want. So it's big because it's actually bigger than the culture. People outside of, like, the Lo collective want their jacket. So it's just…it's a big deal.”

MEYHEM LAUREN

the rEbirth

By all accounts, the rebirth of Snow Beach wouldn’t be possible without the Lo-Lifes’ continued influence. Twenty-five years later, collectors are still searching for Snow Beach. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, and everyone who has kept the spirit of Snow Beach alive, Ralph Lauren is launching a two-part Snow Beach capsule collection. The color capsule features ten styles including the iconic Snow Beach pullover, which is made to the exact specifications of the original model. The black-and-white capsule offers a new take on the original collection, featuring designs in a modern, tonal palette.

Black & White photos by Tom Gould

Tom Gould

“

Snow Beach is still here because of Lo-Lifes. Lo-Lifes made it a legendary thing. Ralph Lauren made it a beautiful design, but we made it like a Holy Grail. We made it more than just clothes to people. We made it a lifestyle and a culture. That’s what the world needs to know.”

THIRSTIN HOWL III

Thirstin Howl III

“

It’s cool and exciting for it to be somewhat accessible again and for new generations to experience it. This is the original brand and collection that inspired so many of the streetwear labels the younger generation has grown up obsessing over, so I hope it’s inspiring for them to be able to see the source other than just on Google searches and social media.”

ALEX DYMOND

“

You got the Lo-Heads, you got the Lo-Lifes, you have the sneaker community, then you got the streetwear community —so many different people that are all going to be going after it. They could be stylists, fashion designers—if they know one thing about vintage Polo, it's Snow Beach. That’s all they know. This is going to be, like, everyone wants it. Probably even, like, the snowboarders, they’ll go ‘I want it,’ just to get it.”

POST VSOP

Tom Gould

“

I’ve done all kinds of things and I’ve been handed all types of uniforms. Whenever I put them on, you would have sworn to God they were Polo. It could have been a jail suit, it could have been some thermals. You would always think whatever I’m wearing is Polo because of my persona, the way I put it together, the way I match it up. So it has a lot to do with the individual wearing it to make it his style.”

THIRSTIN HOWL III

Thirstin Howl III