I think it’s more useful to look at Mr. Lauren, and the source of our fascination with him, in a literary way. And the obvious parallel is Fitzgerald’s bootlegger, Gatsby. Both came from nowhere; both prize the trappings of old money but have made theirs in new ways; both surround themselves with people, yet are essentially asocial; both are single-minded in their quests….
Fitzgerald also wrote of his hero, “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him.” It cannot be said that Mr. Lauren has that kind of personality…. But in remarkably consistent ways, he has transferred his dreams and romantic ideals to products and images, and in that there is something gorgeous.
