PRL x Naiomi Glasses Wrap Cardigan

Presenting the Polo Ralph Lauren x Naiomi Glasses collection, the inaugural collaboration of the Ralph Lauren Artist in Residence programme, reflecting our evolved design approach with the artisans and communities that inspire us. The Polo Ralph Lauren x Naiomi Glasses collection honours Navajo heritage and centuries-old weaving traditions. Naiomi Glasses is a seventh-generation Diné (Navajo) textile artist and designer whose work reflects the beauty of her Indigenous culture. Through the first drop in this collection, Naiomi draws inspiration from her family, homelands and community on Dinétah (Navajo Nation). This unisex cardigan is partially developed using undyed, hand-spun wool yarn, which is a material she has been using since the start of her weaving journey. It is crafted in collaboration with Manos del Uruguay, a non-profit collective of rural artisan women that promotes social and economic development. Its motif is a combination of Naiomi’s weavings and includes dragonflies, which reflect the Navajo tradition of using symbols significant to water as adornment and in art to call in more moisture to the desert landscape, as well as Spider Woman crosses—a reference to the creator and protector of the weaving tradition in Navajo culture—and traditional four-directional crosses. The four-directional cross and the number four carry great significance in Navajo tradition, as well as in other Native communities. They reference the Earth’s four directions and the stars.