ranch photographs courtesy imperial stock ranch
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Thanks to partnerships with fashion designers Anna Cohen (2010 collection, middle) and Ralph Lauren (bottom left), Imperial Stock Ranch (top left and below) is entering a stylish new era.
In the summer of 2012, Jeanne and Dan Carver of Imperial Stock Ranch got a call that drastically changed their lives. The owners of a Shaniko, Oregon, ranch picked up the phone to find that Ralph Lauren wanted to use their yarn for a special project—later revealed to be the U.S. Olympians’ uniforms. The 35,000-acre ranch has been raising sheep for 142 years and producing yarn since 1999. Its roots can be traced back to its founder, Richard Roland Hinton, who was born in a wagon when his family came west on the Oregon Trail. This made-in-America credibility, and the ranch’s renowned high-quality yarn, were exactly what Ralph Lauren, Team USA’s official designer, was looking for when it came calling. After being criticized for producing the U.S. Olympians’ apparel in China for the London games in 2012, Lauren pledged to source, design, and manufacture the 2014 uniforms entirely in America. Connecting with the Carvers was one step toward that goal. After six months of screenings and a site visit, the company ordered 5,625,000 yards of Imperial yarn, used to knit Team USA’s opening-ceremony sweaters, which will make their official debut in Sochi, Russia, on February 7. Ralph Lauren also enlisted more than 40 other U.S. enterprises in his effort, ranging from a See the ranch in Ralph Lauren’s Made In America video: graymag .net/olympics
Spun Gold
A collaboration between Ralph Lauren and a rural Oregon sheep ranch spells Olympic-sized success. Written by Alanna Greco
dyeing plant in Hickory, North Carolina, to a knitting company in Los Angeles. This isn’t Imperial Ranch’s first foray into fashion, though it’s certainly the most high profile. In 1999, during a period of offshoring and globalization that contributed to 26,000 American sheep producers going out of business, the ranch lost its wool buyer to a cheaper producer overseas. In response, Jeanne started a homegrown clothing operation, recruiting 20 local women to make garments with Imperial Stock wool. In 2009, she partnered with designer Anna Cohen to headline Portland’s fashion week with a ranch-to-runway collection. Carver and Cohen are currently working on their 2014 line, Imperial Collection by Anna Cohen. And the ranch’s collaboration with Ralph Lauren may continue—it is now sampling for the designer’s fall season. Carver’s family and ranch staff are still reeling from their recent successes: the Ralph Lauren deal doubled their sales and has kept Carver busy with emails and phone calls from a growing number of interested companies. But she has no complaints. “After many decades of obscurity on this ranch, now all of a sudden we’re on people’s radars,” Carver says. “This whole thing … is bigger than dreams. I never would have dreamed this big.” h GRAY ISSUE No. FOURTEEN
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