Thirteen stamps, one country, chosen by the man who dressed it.
For the nation's 250th birthday, the Postal Service presents a pane of 13 commemorative stamps curated by Ralph Lauren, who has shaped American style for nearly six decades. The images, drawn from his own archive and from visuals that have inspired him, gather what he treats as shared fabric: freedom, independence, equality, opportunity, the pursuit of happiness. The flag recurs throughout, and not only because of the anniversary — in 1998 Lauren led the fundraising that helped the Smithsonian conserve the 1813 Star-Spangled Banner. Also in the pane: a colourful blanket by Naiomi Glasses, a seventh-generation Diné weaver who became Ralph Lauren's first artist in residence in 2023, and a baseball glove used by Jackie Robinson. Art director Greg Breeding calls the collaboration “a rewarding personal experience,” and Lauren “a true American patriot.”
Thirteen small windows, one argument about what the country is.
PERFECT FOR: patriotic correspondence, gifts for design and fashion people, journal pages, classroom discussion, the pane kept whole rather than broken up, and a gift for someone who has just become a citizen.
