Rugby

Homophobic Remarks Force End of Jaguar Sponsorship for Australian Swimmer

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Celebrity Shopping, Sports

Controversy has reared its ugly head Down Under as Jaguar has terminated its sponsorship deal with an Olympic gold-medalist over disparaging remarks made online. The athlete in question, Stephanie Rice, reportedly derided rival South African rugby team the Springboks as "faggots" after their defeat at the hands of the Australian Wallabies, one of whose players she is reportedly romantically involved with.

The remarks were made via popular social media portal Twitter, and were followed by a tearful apology made at a televised press conference. Jaguar Australia, however, evidently felt the triple-gold-medal-winning swimmer was no longer suitable to represent their brand, ending their relationship and forcing Rice to return the Jaguar XF sedan she'd been driving since earlier this year.

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Tags: australia, homophobic, jaguar, jaguar australia, jaguar xf, rugby, stephanie rice

The Classicist: Ralph Lauren, Whit Stillman & Black Tie

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Men's Style, The Classicist

This past holiday season we broke out the black tie as usual, for what's become basically an annual airing. This got us musing on subjects sartorial and formal attire in particular; then Michael Williams, author of the genius men's style blog A Continuous Lean, pointed us to a page on Ralph Lauren's website for his Rugby line citing the brilliant 1990 movie Metropolitan by Whit Stillman as inspiration. Describing the film (scene pictured above) as "a pitch-perfect examination of our two favorite things: urbane style and preppy angst," Lauren's site declares it can also be viewed as a textbook on how to wear black tie (are you listening, Barack Obama?).

With Metropolitan as a frame of reference, the Rugby writers list a set of rules for stylish evening attire. As Stillman's a good friend of ours, we asked him for his views on the tribute. Actually, he told us, "When we were preparing Metropolitan there was a great two page Ralph Lauren ad running in magazines that we clipped and showed around to illustrate the style the film would aspire to." So, in a way, Stillman notes, "Ralph Lauren influenced the film before it might have inspired Rugby."

And while he says that both the Rubgy site and its commenters "did a good job discussing the film," Stillman takes issue with their 2nd rule for sporting black tie, which states: "You don't need to wear a cummerbund with a tuxedo - that's a personal choice. If you lose the cummerbund, wear suspenders (never a belt), and don't forget that they need not be black; in fact, they probably shouldn't be." Stillman insists that, in fact, "either a cummerbund or waistcoat is required, and suspenders should be worn with either, as with no belt the laws of gravity must be resisted." There you have it, straight from the master (and we fully concur).

Gallery: Whilt Stillman's Metropolitan

We neither of us have any quarrel with Rugby's rule #5, however, which states the following: "You should look sharp in your tux, but there will come a point in the night when jackets are off, ties are undone and anything goes (as evidenced in the movie). If, while wearing your tux, you're invited to dance a rumba: you do. If you're asked to play strip poker: you do. And if you're forced into a fistfight with a count of dubious provenance: by all means, do. Just try not to get any blood on your sweet threads, ok?"

Meanwhile, it seems that Ralph and Rugby aren't the only ones channeling Whit; the hit TV show Gossip Girl also seems to be taking some cues from Metropolitan. Of course, with such an influential film any really comprehensive list of appropriators would have be an extremely long one.

Tags: A Continuous Lean, AContinuousLean, Black Tie, BlackTie, Metropolitan, Michael Williams, MichaelWilliams, Ralph Lauren, RalphLauren, Rugby, Tuxedo, Whit Stillman, WhitStillman

Boucheron's Rugby Ring

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Sports

The latest sport to get the high-end jewelry treatment is rugby. To celebrate the World Rugby Cup, Boucheron has created a special collection of jewelry inspired by rugby. Fashion Week Daily reports that the designs were made for for "L'Art Emmêlé 2007," a series of events organized around an art exhibition featuring pieces inspired by rugby. The designs include a version of Boucheron's MEC watch in pink gold with a rugby ball and a Diablotine women's ring in pink gold and green tourmaline which has been reshaped into a rugby ball. The rugby-inspired pieces will be auctioned off on October 18 at a gala dinner to benefit the Laureus Foundation, a non-profit organization that uses sports to help take on social issues.

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Tags: boucheron, gold, jewelry, rings, rugby

Ralph Lauren Brings Preppy To Paris

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

For the first time since its launch, Ralph Lauren is presenting the Rugby brand outside of their U.S retail stores. Selections from the Rugby Fall 07 collection will be showcased at Colette in Paris starting today until September 15th 2007. The Rugby line was first debuted in 2004 in Boston and was created for the next generation of Polo customers. The sensibility is pure preppy with modern details. For the partnership between Ralph Lauren and Colette, four limited edition rugby shirts have also been designed. Only 50 of these exclusive rugby shirts (two styles for men and two styles for women) will be offered simultaneously at Colette and the Rugby store in NYC during the two weeks of the partnership.

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Tags: clothesrugby shrts, colette, paris, ralph lauren, RalphLauren, rugby