What’s the one thing only Ralph Lauren can deliver?

It can be a wonderful feeling to have your expectations dashed. That’s exactly what I experienced on the first day of Milan Men’s Fashion Week, as I watched Ralph Lauren’s first all-menswear show in over 20 years. Passing under the gray stone arch of the company’s palace, I expected a sort of old-money mix, replete with cable knits and navy blazers for meeting your fiancée’s parents (something that would capitalize on the brand’s TikTok generation fans enamored of blue-blooded American style).

That’s not what Ralph Lauren came up with. The opening of the show was half full of courage and motives. What came out was a duck-print fleece polo jacket, a Fair Isle Cowichan sweater for skiers and a just the cardigan on the right side of the twee representing a cabin. (Much of this throwback collection was a reminder that “Polo country” is an interesting eBay search.)

The most astonishing thing in the show was a knee-length shearling, with a fur hood, the color of vanilla ice cream, dotted with small pockets on the front. Was it Western? Was it chic? Was it military? Yes to all.

The Lauren show was split between looks from Polo and her dressier Purple Label line. This last offer actually worked out in the old silver suit I had planned. Cream pants with sharp pleats, cigar suede tassel loafers, and checked cashmere jackets have had less impact, if only because there are already so many similar products on the market now.

And that’s really the dilemma Mr. Lauren, who at 86 hasn’t traveled for this show, faces at this point in his career: He’s outlived almost all of his generational peers. When it comes to design, his competition is his much younger imitators, busy repackaging things he could have been doing decades ago.

That is to say, what really charmed me in this series were the things that demonstrated this daring Ralphness that only he can offer. I was less seduced by the scribbled pants (RALPH on the left leg, a Polo pennant on the right) or by the black jeans studded and adorned with jewels – than by the Fair Isle fur fleece with its orange security pocket.

The ralphness is best found in the style. We are, after all, talking about America’s maestro of “Can I do that? Oh, yes, I can.” A blazer with gold buttons and neon hiking sneakers? Ralph did it. A tuxedo and blue jeans? Child’s play for Mr. Lauren.

This collection embodied this stackable spirit. The Fair Isle fleece was worn with baggy jeans, a clementine-colored puffer jacket, a purple cap, a tartan scarf and a pine green tote with a different checkered scarf tied around the handle. Sunglasses hung from shirt collars, scarves were tied under hoods, a sweater stuck out of a bag like pink lava, a red sweater with “Polo” in gothic script was worn, for some reason, with tuxedo pants and a black bow tie.

When a model came out in a rumpled flight suit with silver conch shells the size of ashtrays on them, I smiled. Rather than reinforcing taste, these outfits seemed like a rebuke to the very notion of taste.