Usher Suits Up for His New Role as the Face of Ralph Lauren Fragrances’ Latest Scent (Exclusive)

Usher’s got a confession.

The music superstar, 46, is the face of Ralph Lauren Fragrance’s brand-new scent, Ralph’s Club New York Eau de Parfum, which celebrates N.Y.C. and all its glory.

It’s hard to believe this partnership marks the first time the music icon has fronted a fragrance campaign, yet, no collaboration would be more fitting than this.

Usher, who appears in images shot by famed fashion photographers Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot, certainly believes so. “It’s a journey come true,” he tells PEOPLE exclusively ahead of the launch.

That journey started with Usher before the albums and accolades, when he was a kid.

“I couldn’t quite access Ralph,” he shares of his humble beginnings. “My mom and family couldn’t afford it, so to finally receive a Ralph Lauren shirt was a major treat as a kid.”

In the 1990s, Usher moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Atlanta, Georgia. Eventually, he would meet music producer and songwriter Jermaine Dupri, who would help ignite his music career and “sense of style.”

Usher, who recorded his first album in N.Y.C. in 1997, remembers Polo Sport representing “New York culture.”

“I had obviously seen advertisements with Tyson Bedford and Naomi Campbell, That made it aspirational,” he says.

The musician remembers one of his first pieces, a puffer. “There was just something about them” and their bold colors (the yellow ones were his favorite), he recalls.

“That was my first introduction to Ralph Lauren,” he says. “As I grew older, I learned that there was so much more to offer. There was an elegant side.”

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Indeed, Usher has since worn some of the finest designs Ralph Lauren has to offer during milestone moments in his career, including a custom Purple Label outfit to the 2025 Met Gala.

And naturally, for the campaign, which “captures the timeless glamour of Manhattan’s golden age” according to a press release, he’s decked out in the label as well.

“I think we were all in the afterglow of what had happened in Las Vegas,” Usher says of the style direction for the campaign. “I think around that time, I really just decided to dress up for my fans.” Usher says when he translated his ideas for stage to ones for this campaign, the Ralph Lauren team “was accepting.”

“A lot of the clothing that we made for the campaign was special made — never made before, probably never made again — and these were all things that I felt like represented the next chapter for me, represented what I felt was a collaboration that would be worthy of Ralph’s legacy and also would give me the freedom to be myself in his house.”

“I feel proud,” Usher says of wearing Ralph Lauren in the campaign, adding that it’s representative “of where I have gone over time, with fashion. It’s led me to this very timeless character in terms of how I dress. Whether it’s very formal, or a little bit more relaxed and casual, it’s always fresh.”

Fashion is also about connection, such as the one he feels to southern culture and the when he puts on RL. “For it, it’s a staple of success. So, in some way, I feel honored to have not only been a person who was a fan of the brand, but who is now a representation of its expansion. This opportunity to bring heritage, edge, style and tradition all together is the spirit of what this campaign is.”

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Inside the “R” monogram chrome flacon, which takes inspiration from bold accessories, a flask and New York’s Art Deco landmarks, is a sensual, elevated and daring luxury fragrance. It opens with notes of black currant accord and is rounded out with creamy vanilla and warm sandalwood.

“For some, fragrance is the cherry on the top. It is the final layer to whatever your attire and whatever your statement is. But, for me, it always starts with it,” Usher says of his scent method.

“When I’m out of the shower, the first thing I do is look towards the fragrance that represents how I want to feel and how I want to dress for the occasion,” he explains, adding, “I’m a little bit more direct on the skin. Of course, there’s a second, third, fourth spray before I leave the house.”

His take on Ralph’s Club New York? “I really do feel like the scent represents something that feels sophisticated, bold and commanding in the way where when you walk into a room and people smell it, there’s an identity and there’s something that people remember. There’s something that plays in these two spaces, casual and formal. It works.”

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Usher wasn’t present in 2019 when Ralph Lauren presented his RTW collection on an Art Deco-inspired set dubbed Ralph’s Club. But he’s seen the experience online, and “I loved it,” he shares. In essence, the fragrance, he says, “is like being a part of a club that we can’t go to, yet, but we have the ability to enter by way of simply having this bottle.”

For the campaign, the performer also got to flex his vocal muscles. He puts his spin on “New York, New York” which Frank Sinatra made famous.

When asked to sum up this past year, Usher explains, “I think that most people live for the dream. I live for the journey. At a very young age, my reality was the one that I lived. It was one that imagined would be real. It was one that I spoke to a truth. Everything that I’ve said that I wanted to do, I’ve done because I applied myself. I was willing to take the time and dedicate my commitment to convey what it is that I have to offer.”

“My career started many, many, many, many moons ago, and I think that this is a grand crescendo. The only thing that I would’ve wanted more is for Ralph to have been with me within that process of the Super Bowl. But I knew we would have a grand moment, and that is this moment. It’s a moment that I feel it’s going to last if not as long as the Super Bowl, maybe longer. It feels organic. It feels like once again, another part of the journey come true.”

Shop Ralph’s Club New York now.

Source People.com