It was not unlike the famous Star Wars cantina scene: a gathering of different inhabitants and cultures from across the far-flung corners of a universe, all of them set on enjoyment. The Japanese attendees included fathers and sons, couples, and entire families, often in highly individual combinations of pieces drawn from different decades and different corners of the Lauren landscape of Americana. American visitors included fly-ins from Atlanta and Brooklyn; French, Italian, and Aussie-English accents could be heard in the queue at Ralph’s Coffee and the PoloFest merch store.

In the main vintage selling space dealers mingled with their customers, collectors with more casual enthusiasts, and influencers and editors with brand executives. It was all very unhierarchical and horizontal. David Lauren spent much of the first two days wandering through the marketplace, chatting with visitors, hanging out in the courtyard and happily posing for photographs. As we talked on the opening night, I noticed that a patch of herringbone on the right lapel of his herringbone jacket had become snagged and faded into a kind of woven static. “This is a jacket that my father gave me maybe 40 years ago,” he explained, adding: “In fashion, it’s rare for clothes to stay with you your whole life, but what my father wanted to do was to create clothes that would be handed down. Things that are a part of your life and tell stories about who you are.”

It seemed very unusual to see a brand embrace not only the conception and sale but also the life and resale of its products so wholeheartedly. “The people who are here are swapping those stories as much as they’re swapping the clothes,” Lauren added.

One of the sellers was Richard Colligan, who has been trading vintage clothing since 1984 and opened his Manhattan store Metropolis in 1990. He likened entering PoloFest to Charlie entering Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. “It’s just eye candy from one end to the other,” he said, during one of the series of talks that were programmed during the event. He thanked the brand for giving himself and the broader vintage community “this unbelievable respect I never thought I could ever receive in my life.”