Ralph Lauren’s Vintage Guru Is Doing a Closet Sale. Here’s a Sneak Peek.

As the business of vintage clothing continues to boom and new generations of secondhand enthusiasts push the market to stratospheric levels, Doug Bihlmaier is settling into his next chapter. He’s known in the fashion industry as the vintage guru behind Ralph Lauren and the progenitor of RRL, its Western-inspired sublabel, which itself has accrued legions of fans who largely don’t even know Bihlmaier exists. The vintage man of mystery was surprised, then, when he gained admirers of his own after street-style photos of Bihlmaier began circulating on social media in the 2010s. His fanbase has only grown since.

Much of his time at Ralph Lauren (and basically his whole life) has been spent traveling the world, wandering through flea markets, and digging through mountains of vintage. “Growing up in Kansas, I enjoyed my denim and my corduroys and my flannel and it all sort of came from that,” Bihlmaier said. “So when we started the Double RL thing—and even before that, Polo Western—it was all very, very familiar for me. This is all the stuff I’d already loved. And it would happen to be all the stuff Ralph loved.” As you’d expect, he’s amassed an enviable personal collection along the way.

In his early days collecting, Bihlmaier, 72, says that most other collectors were after deadstock goods, clothes that were never sold and thus kept in pristine, unworn condition. While the unblemished deadstock items were being snapped up at premium prices, he was happy to purchase the overlooked, worn-in pieces which were less coveted—and less expensive. “I felt it was very liberating to be going through all this great denim that was all faded and patched by the original owner, and nobody else was really interested,” he said. “It was always half the price, so it was almost like, Wow, I love this and it’s actually cheaper?”

Thanks to Bihlmaier’s impact, there’s much less deadstock now and today’s vintage buyers are ravenous for clothes not only with careful patina but also rips, holes, and stains. His influence in the industry is impossible to calculate, but there’s no doubt he’s at least partially responsible for the acceptance of and eventual fervor for secondhand goods today. “Not that I single-handedly created this monster, but I sort of have, I guess now that’s what everybody wants: that great patina, that great age.”

His impeccable eye for vintage was instrumental in the design process at Ralph Lauren, where rare grails are often reproduced to a tee. Per Bihlmaier, making something as good or better than the original was often the challenge. Now, countless Polo and RRL pieces occupy the same rarified air as the vintage clothes they reference, a legendary achievement only reinforced by Ralph’s legions of devotees.