THE RL Q&A: Geraldo Rodriguez

Tell me a little about your work. What does a creative strategist do?

A lot of what I do is act as the link between the cultural and the corporate. The creative world and the commercial one often don’t speak the same language, so there’s always a need for someone to bridge that gap, whether I’ve been internal at a brand or external at an agency. So, it’s been a lot of different roles covering strategy and partnerships. But really, I don’t believe in limitations in the creative field. Standard thinking says someone is a “designer” or a “director” or one specific thing. I think creatives are polymaths—they can do a variety of things. I’ve recently started directing music videos, which is another creative outlet for me. I’m also starting my own lifestyle brand centered around health and wellness. I’m breaking the internal barriers I had for most of my life of focusing on one outlet because I want to express myself across multiple avenues.

Is that where your style comes from, that sense of creativity?

Everything I do has always been very calculated and intentional. Clothes and style have always been a part of that. It’s the primary way of how I’ve been able to express myself creatively. That started at a very young age, since I’m the youngest of three boys, and my two older brothers are similar in nature—so I was following in their footsteps but also tried to develop my own style along the way.

How did you first get into collecting?

I’ve always been a collector. Of vintage clothing, vintage furniture, vintage ephemera from my travels. It started at a very young age. But that journey of collecting really started with Ralph Lauren, and that’s a fact. In my early teenage years, I had older people guiding me, so I started collecting vintage Ralph pieces from their time, and I just fell in love with that world. It’s similar to how I fell in love with music that predated my own life. It was all one thing to me: listening to things and looking the part. These days, I’m very intentional with what I buy and what I wear so that at this point in my life, everything I own has some type of story behind it. You can ask me about anything in my life—my watch, my hat, my car, my house, my dog—and I’ll have a story for you about not just the “what” but the “why” and “how” they came into my life. The things I have now are the ones that I really care about. A lot of that was trial and error because I used to just purchase things impulsively. Now, I really need to fall in love with the story of something before I acquire it.

What would you say your personal style is like these days?

It’s evolved a lot over time. Over the decades, yes, but also just over the past few years. My style now is very uniform in terms of color palette and overall refinement. I’m no longer the loud graphic-print guy I used to be. I like simplicity, elegance, a certain timelessness of design. To me, that usually means a kind of uniformity, a really locked-in color palette, and really strong design. That’s where I’m at right now across the board, creatively, but especially in my wardrobe and sense of personal style. Over the years of collecting, I first got into the original blue label Polo garments. But then I also got interested in Polo Country, Polo Western, Polo Sport, all the different worlds. Now I really like having access to that wide range—feeling like I could be a different character in my own life every day, which is something I think Ralph has said himself.

Did you hang onto all the vintage pieces from your early collecting days? And are you still collecting now?

I’ve refined it a lot. I still have a lot of the graphic classics that I’ll love forever, and I have some favorite pieces I keep on ice and take out from time to time. I’ve traded and sold off a lot, but there are pieces that I’ll always keep—some of the early 1900s items, the iconic “USA” graphics, the Stadium pieces, my silk Polo Crest shirts—a lot of things that are very high-ticket and coveted in the vintage collector world. I’m still on the hunt to acquire what I deem the top pieces in that world, too. I don’t think that’s ever going to stop, because even for someone like me, I continue to see pieces pop up here and there I’ve never seen before. So, my vintage Ralph collection is very substantial already, to say the least, but I think it will always be an ongoing journey.

Do you have any favorite pieces?

There’s always a debate in hip-hop about, “Who’s your top five?” I’ve never liked that question, because I think it’s impossible to answer overall. It’s just too hard to compare artists across eras; you have to think in terms of segments or eras, instead. So likewise, it’s hard for me to have a “favorite” Ralph Lauren piece. But I do have favorites from the late ’80s, favorites from the early ’90s, favorites from the early ’00s. In terms of labels, my favorite is probably Ralph Lauren Country, the line that predates Double RL, especially the pieces from 1993 and earlier. I love the Americana aspect and the lifestyle story that Ralph was telling at that time and how that storytelling translated across the advertising. I also love RL2000 and the sport and activewear point of view there. But overall: it varies. I don’t have one favorite; I have a variety. It really just depends on my mood and what I’m into at the time.

What’s been your method of vintage collecting over the years? How have you found the best pieces?

There’s not really any one single thing. The Internet has been huge, obviously—I always say that the Internet is the best thrift shop. A lot of people on there know what they have and price things accordingly, but you still sometimes find folks who don’t really see the same value in what they’re selling as you do, and you can get a deal. I know people in the vintage community who might trade pieces, which is another big one for me. I also go to estate sales and have randomly found some amazing things in peoples’ old closets. Another way, though it’s rare, is literally just from seeing people on the street wearing something. You can tell whether someone knows what they’ve got or not. One time I was walking down Main Street at Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens. It’s the third busiest intersection in New York City, but this guy stood out to me because he was wearing a vintage Ralph Lauren USA hat, a piece that I really wanted. He was in his 60s, probably, and when I asked him if he’d sell it to me, he thought I was crazy. But I just showed him some money and pointed to the hat, and that was that.

Do you have any tips for young creatives? People trying to find their own voice and personal style?

Don’t be scared to reference things. No idea is truly original in the fashion and creative worlds; things are referenced, mixed up, made into something new. For me, that philosophy comes from hip-hop and how the music I love is made from sampling older songs. Likewise, Ralph’s clothing references military and workwear and all these other worlds and styles that came before. So, look for something to be inspired by, and know that you don’t need to start from scratch. Fall in love with something—and then figure out how to make it your own.

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