Sarah LesslerCelebrating the rich history and traditions of Northern Plains artistry.
Polo Ralph Lauren’s Fall/Holiday 2025 season arrived with a collaboration that blended heritage, craftsmanship, and contemporary American style. The company introduced its latest Artists in Residence partnership with TÓPA, the Indigenous-led brand founded by Jocy and Trae Little Sky, marking one of its most culturally grounded projects to date.
The collaboration debuted in November in North America and reflected Ralph Lauren’s ongoing effort to shift from drawing inspiration from Native communities to working directly with them.The TÓPA capsule followed earlier Artist in Residence partnerships with Navajo textile artist Naiomi Glasses, Diné weaver Zefren-M, and the 2025 Ralph Lauren Home collection created with Naiomi and Tyler Glasses.
A Family Rooted in Tradition
Jocy and Trae Little Sky, a wife-and-husband team, had built TÓPA around the traditional arts they practiced within their family and community. Jocy, who is Dakota and from the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations, and Trae, who is Oglala Lakota and Stoney Nakoda, were known for hand-crafting powwow regalia using quilling, beading, and leatherwork. Their work served as both artistic expression and cultural preservation, and those values shaped the collaboration from its earliest sketches.
The couple’s emphasis on honoring lineage and technique aligned with Ralph Lauren’s long-standing fascination with the American West—its landscapes, its craftsmanship, and its sense of home. Those themes also anchored the brand’s 2025 holiday campaign, which celebrated family and community against sweeping Western backdrops.
A Collection Built on Meaning
The Polo Ralph Lauren x TÓPA collection featured men’s, women’s, and accessory pieces that merged modern silhouettes with Native design motifs. The name “TÓPA,” meaning “four” in the languages of the Oceti Sakowin, carried layered symbolism: the four directions, four seasons, four stages of life, and the four colors—red, black, yellow, and white—that hold cultural significance. Those themes appeared throughout the collection’s patterns, palette, and handcrafted details.
A short film accompanied the launch, offering a portrait of the Little Skys’ artistry and daily life. It was filmed on the ancestral lands of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, grounding the project in the place and community that shaped the couple’s work.
A Collaboration With Community Impact
The partnership extended beyond design. A percentage of the purchase price of each item in the Polo Ralph Lauren x TÓPA collection was donated to Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, specifically supporting its Lakota Language and Education Initiative. The Little Skys had been learning their ancestral language as part of their commitment to cultural continuity, and the collaboration helped fund programs that advanced that mission, including Lakota language immersion, traditional arts, and storytelling.
For Ralph Lauren, the initiative aligned with its Design With Intent framework, which aimed to broaden the company’s portrayal of America and build authentic relationships with communities whose traditions had long influenced its aesthetic.
Availability and Reach
The collection was released on RalphLauren.com, the Ralph Lauren app, and select stores across North America, followed by a global roll-out. It was also sold through TÓPA’s own platform, 4Topa4.com, at Bloomingdale’s locations in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on Bloomingdales.com.
A Continuing Evolution
The Artist in Residence program had become a defining part of Ralph Lauren’s recent creative direction, offering a model for collaboration, rooted in respect, shared storytelling, and craft. With TÓPA, the company deepened its engagement with Indigenous artists while giving the Little Skys a platform to share their heritage with a global audience. As Jocy Little Sky said at the time, the partnership honored “our community, culture, and way of life,” and carried the hope that it would inspire others to take pride in where they come from.
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