As controversy swirls around American Eagle ads featuring actor Sydney Sweeney for what some say is culturally insensitive messaging, a campaign for a different famous apparel brand is also grabbing attention.
Ralph Lauren’s Oak Bluffs campaign launched last week, building on a collection inspired by crisp styling ingrained in the culture of historically Black colleges and visible in the Black enclave on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, for which the campaign is named.
The way Sheryl Wesley sees it, the collection represents deference to the deep history of Black people on this island about 90 miles south of Boston.
“What it has done is illuminate what we’ve already been doing here for years,” said Wesley, a Howard University graduate who organizes HBCU Legacy Week on the Vineyard, a multiday celebration of Black culture featuring social, professional and political events.
Massachusetts abolished slavery in 1783, allowing Black residents there to live freely, often alongside members of the Wampanoag tribe, which had existed there for thousands of years before colonization and helped those who escaped from other states settle there.
After emancipation, newly freed Black people fled north, with some finding agricultural work on Martha’s Vineyard and building homes in Oak Bluffs. During the early 20th century, the neighborhood became a haven for middle-class Black travelers seeking refuge from racial segregation, eventually attracting celebrities like singer Lena Horne, leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Adam Clayton Powell, and upwardly mobile Black American families.
Locations like Inkwell Beach and the Shearer Cottage, though created out of the forces of racism, have become sites steeped in history. The Ralph Lauren campaign launches as “Black August” approaches, with events like HBCU Legacy Week and the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival.
For longtime Martha’s Vineyard visitors like Wesley, there were concerns about how the designer would “respect” this legacy.
But it helps that the collection was conceived five years ago under creative director of concept design & brand direction for Polo Men, James M. Jeter, a Morehouse College graduate, and Dara Douglas, a Spelman alumna and the company’s brand and product lead for design with intent. The collection, inspired by the traditions and fashions of HBCU campus communities and launched in 2022, was the first time Ralph Lauren curated a campaign with an all-Black creative team and cast.
Jeter and Douglas said they drew upon HBCU alumni they knew and families that had lived or vacationed in Oak Bluffs for generations.
“A lot of the people in the campaign also knew each other, had seen each other over the years on the island and grew up together,” Jeter said. “So it felt like bringing this charming community together to tell the story.”
Jeter added that he’s been enjoying “being able to reveal some of these really interesting pockets of American culture and Black culture that a lot of folks maybe have not been aware of.”
Wesley said the collection and campaigns have reflected strongly on Oak Bluffs’ history and the community’s ties to HBCUs.
“He did a great job of making this campaign feel organic and authentic,” Wesley said of the designer. “And he did it very carefully, with a scalpel instead of an ax.”
The brand has long been seen as an outfitter for affluent Ivy League colleges, with its preppy fabrics and sharp tailoring. The HBCU and Oak Bluffs collections strive toward the same affluence, just with a different American community in mind.
“This is a deeply American story of heritage, tradition, family and community, and these are the stories that Ralph Lauren has always woven throughout our campaigns,” said David Lauren, the company’s chief branding and innovation officer and the son of Ralph Lauren.
Jeter said this approach shows the company’s commitment “to really expanding our portrayal of the American Dream.”
Black people have owned homes on Martha’s Vineyard since the 19th century, according to the book “Black Home Ownership on Martha’s Vineyard.” In many cases, those homes have been passed down from generation to generation.
“And we honor that lineage” during Legacy Week, Wesley said, noting it’s currently underway. It features social activities, poetry readings, discussions and panels on topics like creating generational wealth and the legacy of hip-hop, as well as a keynote address by Norfolk State University President Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston.
“There’s a legacy of these Black professionals from HBCUs that are out here in the workforce, contributing to society and being pillars in their communities,” said celebrity stylist Avon Dorsey.
Merging one of fashion’s iconic brands and a place that has been a refuge for Black people for more than a century “feels right,” Dorsey said.
“We’ve been here,” Wesley said. “We’re going to be here during the campaign launch, and after it.”
CORRECTION (August 1, 2025, 10:04 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated where James Jeter works, and his full title. He is the creative director of concept design & brand direction at Polo Men, and not the creative director at Ralph Lauren.
