Benz and a Backpack

Last week, Thirstin Howl The 3rd listed his favorite Lo gear. This week, another Polo Godfather blesses us with knowledge. Straight from Rack-Lo, major props to him.

The Polo Godfather Rack-Lo & Polo Ralph Lauren (The Connection)

As a young kid in junior high school, I became fascinated with the lifestyle of Polo Ralph Lauren. First, it started as just getting my hands on any Polo that I was able to get at that age. But as I got older and gained more understanding I started expanding my likes, interests and wardrobe all based around Polo Ralph Lauren. And all of my friends from Friz-Lo, AV Rock, G George, Hector, Dollar Bill Dave to Boostin Billy to countless others all did the same thing. People around the neighborhood called us the “Polo Boys” or the “Polo Crew” until “Polo Posse” came along and then finally USA and Ralphie Kids to “Lo-Lifes”. Since 1986, I have been a lo head and done seen a lot of people come and go. I’ve seen people try to dress like us and use our dress code to get them further in life, but they always fail because they are frauds and clones. Only the real, the originators, the founders deserve to benefit from all of the blood sweat and tears we have experienced through the decades of rocking Polo. In my plight to be the “Flyest In The City” and the “Lo-Life” catalyst that I am, here’s some of the RL Polo symbols that I liked and made sure I got my hands on. These are five of my favorites.

1. Yacht - The yacht sail boat symbol was very attractive to me during boostin sprees. Being a kid from the ghetto and inner city, riding a yacht was something I always dreamed about. You know living that fabolous luxurious lifestyle. I had something like 5 big Yacht hoodies since my journey with collecting and wearing Polo and/or RL brands. My favorite Polo yacht sail boat piece is the one I wore to the 2006 Lo-Life Polo BBQ. That joint is crispy fresh and definitely shut ish down. That’s another reason why I loved the yacht sail boat because if coordinated properly it’s a killer piece plus it’s antique.

2. P Wing - This is one of my all time favorites right here. During the P wing era we went crazy and traveled distances to get our hands on them. For me the P wing had significance because of the way it was designed. The letter P with the foot going across. That was a hot commodity in the hood and still is to this very day. Ralphie relased different P wings as well such as: the invisible p wing, the original green p wing of of course the red and blue joint. It was dope and peoples mission to get the entire P wing collection. I remember being released from NYC’s Riker’s Island and heading straight to Macy’s 34th Street (Manhattan) were I scored four (4) P wing polo short sleeves, 2 knitted Freddy Kruger sweaters and 2 P wings jackets all in one taken. I made sure the P wings were a dominate force in my Polo collection.

3. Chief (Indian) Head - The chief head symbol for us was related to the Native Americans and we felt proud to be sporting it. See for some people  they were satisfied with just wearing Polo, but for me the symbols had to have meaning. Or they had to have some type is history as it relates to people and society. Of couse my favorite pieces were the Big chief head blue turtleneck sweater and the 2 chief heads gooses BEIGE and BLUE. From a different standpoint, the chief head gave me that leader role when it came to getting money and living the lo lifestyle. And in most cases, I lead, orchestrated and executed the boostin sprees for Polo. As the saying goes “Everybody wants to be chief, but nobody wants to be a indian”. Yeah, I was a indian and a chief. Got to be an effective indian and master that before you can become “chief”.

4. Teddy Bear - The teddy bear is classic and probably one of Ralph Lauren’s prized creations. This symbol has become synomous with Polo heads all over. It’s so prevalent in the world of Polo and fashion because it embraces relates various types of of living the American way like: sking, golf, tennis, basketball, hocket, executive, sit down teddy, stand up teddy etc etc. I loved the teddy bear because it allowed me to sport Polo in all of my elements in life. I even wore my Polo teddy bear to work, to college and corporate social and family affairs and meetings. Furthermore, the Polo teddy bear always seems to grab peoples attention. And that is what this fashion and dress code is about, to have people break their necks to look at you. For you to be the center of attention no matter where you go. “My polo teddy bear surf, animal on your turf, I even wear my Polo teddy bear to church”.

5. Scribble - The scribble always stood alone in the world of Polo. For me, it was like having shirts (rugby’s) with that rich, harvard quality feel. This symbol always made it difficult for people to recognize that it was Polo. And for me, that was dope because it said something about “exclusiveness”, never scene before or it was just to expensive to purchase for people.  See people are so shallow and they think that the Polo or Horsey is the only logo or symbol that represents Polo. Wow, they were sleeping. When I wore my scribbles, I felt like I had everybody beat because of the exclusiveness of the item. Scribbles came in all sorts; hats, shirts, sweaters, jackets, socks, scarfs etc. One of the scribbles that really caught my attention was what we called“The Big Scribble”. These pieces were made for women, but it didn’t matter. We turned them into UNISEX shirts because they were so fly. Saks 5th Avenue got ransacked for them and we literally took them all.

Accessories:   Polo RL Silk Scarfs & P Wing & Lo-Life Medallion Pendants

RL Polo accessories are cool, but I’m more into creating my own accessories that compliment my Polo outfit (s) and wardrobe and visa versa. To date, I have created about 4 Polo jewelry accessories which are; p wing pendant, pioneer pony pendant, P.O.L.O keychains and the Love and Loyalty cookie medallion. These fashion jewelry pieces definitely puts one in a class by him or her self, but more importantly it gives me Rack-Lo a sense of being a trend setter and cultural and lifestyle trail blazer as it relates to the life of lo and fashion accessories. They come in various colors and ideally were created to match and blend with folks daily outfits. Accessories coming from Ralph Lauren that attracts me has always been the SILk SCARFS. Since day one of this lo movement, Polo scarfs have always been worn by Lo-Lifes (originals) in  different styles and manners. To have the Polo scarf fit our lifestyle we wore them as follows; around the face (only our eyes are seen), tied around the forehead whereas the RL Polo symbol is fully exposed and finally as a cape and around our necks the standard way. Polo silk scarfs come in various sizes and the higher the cost $$$ according to the size and symbol. But in any case, the RL Polo Silk scarf only illuminated our looks. They only elevated the look and style. Some Lo-Lifes even created their own polo shirts out of Polo silk scarfs that made them even more exclusive and heavily sort after. Even to the very day, I have carried on that “look” and “likeness” of the RL Polo Silk Scarf.

Other P Wing shots:

Rack-Lo + The Polo RL Silk Scarf

Tweet This Post