SHARP x RALPH’S CLUB NEW YORK

When Ralph Lauren Fragrances first announced its newest release, Ralph’s Club New York, it did so as a tribute to the city in which the iconic brand was founded. Headlining the release, naturally, was the face of the scent: global R & B icon, Usher. The announcement marked Usher’s first-ever fragrance and, simultaneously, the first time Ralph Lauren Fragrances has worked alongside a musical icon. The result was the signal of a bold new chapter for two of America’s most enduring icons. But while the scent itself reflects the many inspirations that went into the partnership, it’s the bottle itself that perhaps best represents the release as a love letter to New York City.

Ralph’s Club New York is housed in a flacon that looks as though it could moonlight as a piece of high jewellery, balancing timeless elegance with bold, contemporary sensibilities. Like Usher himself, it’s as if the bottle could have been drawn from any number of eras. Designed after a polished gentleman’s flask, the chrome bottle is instantly iconic — its weight, sheen, and silhouette evoking a sense of refined power.

“My career started in New York. So, while I’m not from New York, the spirit of New York is something that I think everybody can participate in.”

— Usher

The distinctive “R” diamond monogram is framed by architectural lines inspired by New York’s Art Deco landmarks, capturing the city’s golden era of design. With its pinpointed geometry and striking materials, the bottle pays homage to classic design codes while standing as a sculptural object of contemporary sophistication.

“It’s about being unapologetically individual,” Usher explains, speaking to not only the bottle but its striking campaign that pays homage to New York City. While the fragrance itself delivers a seductive fougère ambery-fruity fragrance featuring juicy blackcurrant accord (used for the first time in a men’s fragrance) and an addictive blend of creamy vanilla and warm sandalwood, the Art Deco design echoes the same unbridled sense of romance born from the city’s golden age.

The same Art Deco design elements reflected on the bottle helped shape New York City’s modern cityscape, embodying its spirit of luxury, innovation, and optimism through skyscrapers like the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings. Those elements even bleed into the city’s culture, integrating the dynamism of the Jazz Age into design and symbolizing a true cosmopolitan identity.

While Usher wasn’t born and raised in New York City the way the Ralph Lauren brand was, he credits the city for making his career as a multi-platinum recording artist what it is today. Moving from the American South to chase his dreams, New York represents the ambition, timelessness, and boldness that have always been so core to Usher’s personal style. The bottle, the fragrance, and the scent itself act as a love letter to the city.

“They say if you make it in New York, you can make it anywhere, right?” he says. “My career started in New York. So, while I’m not from New York, the spirit of New York is something that I think everybody can participate in. […] It’s elegance. It’s boldness. It’s unapologetic style. […] Those are things that are all about an attitude. And you can pick up an attitude no matter where you’re from. But it is something that is synonymous with New York. There’s a boldness that comes with New York. I’m just so happy to be a part of the story. It’s a character that I’m in the middle of, but one that is organic and that I happen to be in my life right now.”

This tension – between heritage and edge, tradition and evolution – is what defines the spirit of Ralph’s Club New York, from the bottle, to its ambassador, to the iconic city that inspired it.