The latest Artist in Residence collaboration brings the quilting traditions of the historic Alabama community to apparel and home through a collection created with textile artists Claudia Pettway Charley and Loretta Pettway Bennett.
Ralph Lauren has unveiled Ralph Lauren x Gee’s Bend, the latest installment of its Artist in Residence program, developed in collaboration with acclaimed textile artists Claudia Pettway Charley and Loretta Pettway Bennett. The limited-edition collection translates the quilting traditions of the historic Gee’s Bend community into apparel and home pieces, continuing the brand’s initiative to collaborate directly with artisans whose work has shaped American craft.
The collection features 10 pieces spanning ready-to-wear and home, with prices ranging from $225 for a mug set to $4,998 for a hand-stitched jacket composed of individually pieced panels inspired by original quilt designs created by Pettway Charley and Pettway Bennett. Available beginning Tuesday in North America and globally on Thursday, the collection will be sold through Ralph Lauren’s digital channels and select stores.
Located in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, the community has become internationally recognized for a quilting tradition that spans more than a century. Created from repurposed fabrics and shaped through generations of family knowledge, Gee’s Bend quilts are celebrated for their bold geometric compositions, improvisational construction, and distinctive approach to color, earning recognition as one of America’s most significant textile art traditions.
Rather than reproducing archival quilts, the collaboration incorporates the artists’ individual creative languages throughout the collection. Pettway Charley’s intuitive use of color and composition appears alongside Pettway Bennett’s recurring red triangle motif, which references her sons, allowing personal storytelling to remain central to the designs. Inspired by the community’s longstanding practice of repurposing materials, quilts and garments are constructed using upcycled Ralph Lauren fabrics, while denim serves as a recurring material that connects the brand’s heritage with Gee’s Bend’s tradition of working with everyday textiles.
The collection extends beyond fashion into the home, where hand-painted tableware produced by Ralph Lauren Home’s artisan partners in Italy features asymmetrical forms and soft glazes intended to reflect the handcrafted character of the quilts.
The collaboration marks the fifth installment of Ralph Lauren’s Artist in Residence program, launched in 2022 to create collections with artisans practicing traditional crafts. Previous collaborations have featured Diné (Navajo) artist Naomi Glasses, Zefren-M, and Jocy and Trae Little Sky of TÓPA. According to the company, each partnership is developed collaboratively with participating artists and includes financial compensation as well as support for organizations serving their communities.
In conjunction with the launch, Ralph Lauren will donate 5 percent of the purchase price of every item in the collection to the Equal Justice Initiative, supporting the organization’s relief programs for low-income families across Alabama.
The Gee’s Bend collaboration also illustrates how the Artist in Residence program has evolved since its debut. Rather than drawing inspiration from traditional craft alone, Ralph Lauren increasingly places artisans at the center of the design process, allowing their techniques, stories, and creative practices to shape the final collection. In doing so, the program moves beyond referencing American craft traditions to collaborating directly with the communities that continue to preserve them.
