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As a reporter for WWD, I have a confession. I hadn't visited the Ralph Lauren flagship in the Rhinelander mansion for years -- I mean really visited, aside from a cursory traffic check during Christmas season. For me, anything above Barneys is a northern excursion, and Polo prices are up there too, with men's suits starting at $850. But my assignment was to see how the 16-year-old flagship has held up over time. For my visit to the Rhinelander, on Madison Avenue and East 72nd Street, I would get the guided tour by Charles Fagan, president of Polo Retail Corp.
I found the mansion as I remembered it -- still intimidating with its rich Honduran mahogany caselines, vaulted carved ceilings, impeccably Lauren-attired sales associates and clubby atmosphere. And the store was still a model of service efficiency. With Fagan running a few minutes late, I was well attended to, with two sales associates greeting me, as well as Ward Simmons, the affable young store director, who expected me. I was served coffee on a silver platter, with cream and sugar cubes. Late in the day, customers were still trickling in, and when an elderly man entered, an associate instantly appeared to help him. The man requested a white shirt for a formal, gave his neck size and the associate said he would check the stock on two styles he had in mind. There was no small talk. Just action. On any given day, Ward informed me, there are about 50 sales associates in the four-level, 20,000-square foot store, who behave more like servants at an English estate than typical retail clerks.
Then Fagan appeared at the sweater counter in the center of the first floor, which is where sweaters have always been, and where Fagan began his Polo career. He was hired as a sales associate when the store opened in 1986, and for a long time, he was likely to be the first person you'd see when you entered the store, an important first impression.
"It was terrifying," Fagan recalled about his early moments on the job. "I didn't grow up in these...