A Bronx Cowboy In Europe?

Ralph Lauren is betting $1 billion that Continentals will buy the same Gatsby-rancher fantasies that Americans love

"It's like trying to sell ice to the Eskimos," says a London fashion writer. "It's like trying to sell sand to the Arabs," sniffs an executive at a competing British fashion house. The news that Ralph Lauren, the icon of American style, is pushing hard to expand in Europe is being greeted with a certain degree of skepticism. And bitchiness. Who needs a mass American brand like Lauren's when you have the class of Armani, Zegna, Dior and Savile Row? Sure, Europeans are happy to wear a polo player by Lauren instead of an alligator by Lacoste when summering in Cannes....

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