That pairing had followed other successful partnerships-with Umbro, on a reproduction of an old English football shirt, and with Reebok, on a couple of pairs of trainers-and together those projects spoke to the very essence of Palace's identity: that they could be more than just a skate brand, and that a skate brand could be about more than just skating. And there's a twinkle in his eye as he recalls the Ralph Lauren collaboration.
MEDUSA SKATES SERIES
The conversation is one of a series of rare interviews he and his team have agreed to, offering unprecedented insights into Palace's history and design process.
Lev Tanju recounts this story one recent afternoon via Zoom from his home in London. “Lev stood out,” Fergus Purcell says, “because even at his very young age he didn't have any barriers on what he was or what skate culture was.” “He's so varied in what he wears, do you know what I mean? He looks like a fucking mountaineer or a cowboy half the time. “Ralph don't care about that shit,” he says. Lauren, for what it's worth, isn't the type to be too concerned about dress codes, Tanju says. What Tanju hadn't considered was that he might be meeting with Ralph himself.Īfter a preliminary conversation with executives in a very corporate boardroom, Tanju and Palace cofounder Gareth Skewis were led through a pair of doors directly into Ralph's office. The pants were particularly noticeable: They had a giant hole in one of the knees. Nevertheless, Tanju arrived for the meeting attired as he would be on most any other day-whether he was going to the pub or the skate park-wearing a pair of heather gray track pants that Palace had produced for a collaboration with Adidas, along with Gucci loafers in fluorescent green croc skin. Ralph Lauren had always been one of Tanju's favorite brands (and a favorite of just about any skater who came up in the '90s). Palace, the skate brand Tanju had founded with friends in 2009, was on the brink of a momentous collaboration: working with the legendary American fashion company on a co-branded collection that was set to include silk pajamas, velvet slippers, and the beloved “heelflip” Polo Bear sweater. In 2017, the English skater and designer Lev Tanju traveled from London to New York to take a meeting at the Madison Avenue headquarters of the Ralph Lauren Corporation.
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