Polo Ralph Lauren Multicolor Sweater Collection Review: We Order Two Sizes, Photograph the Seams, and Wear Both for Three Weeks

What we ordered and how it landed

The listing is called the Polo Ralph Lauren multicolor sweater collection, SKU 7705117792, priced at $22.69 against a $24.94 original. That price is per piece, not per collection, and "collection" is doing heavy lifting: the spec sheet lists colour codes running from 298 up to 397, roughly a hundred variants bucketed into white, grey, navy and black, in sizes S through XL.

We bought two pieces through a Sugargoo haul rather than one, because Priya treats an unknown knit as a fit problem first. Both arrived in the same parcel, both were checked against warehouse photos before we paid for international postage, and both were weighed and measured on the bench before the first wear. The unit price is low enough that ordering a second size is a realistic way to settle the fit question rather than guessing.

Build, and a name that oversells itself

The description leans on graphic motifs: the Polo Bear, a polo player silhouette, varsity-style lettering. The plain specs underneath tell a simpler story — cotton as the main fabric, printing as the decoration method, a solid base pattern, regular thickness, a loose unisex cut aimed at spring and everyday wear. Both things are true at once. The garments are printed on solid grounds; the "multicolor" in the title refers to the spread of colourways on offer, not to one knit pieced from several dyes.

Measurements and the sizing gap

Listing text gives a 1–2 cm tolerance, which is honest but useless on its own — a tolerance tells you how consistent one colour code is, not how the knit compares with the sweater you already own. So we measured both samples flat, before and after the first wash.

On our samples the step between S and M is about 3 cm at the chest, which is a gentle increment for a loose cut — closer to a half-size in practice. That matters, because buyers of Ralph Lauren knitwear widely report the label being an unreliable guide across styles. One long-running thread compares two sweaters in the same tagged size and describes one fitting perfectly while the other runs much smaller and thinner; elsewhere, shoppers who normally take a large in RL tops say they consider sizing down in sweaters because the knit can sit roomier and stretch with wear. Style guides describe the label's Classic Fit as a deliberately loose, relaxed silhouette. None of that is a report about this specific listing, but all of it points the same way.

"The blue one on the left fits me perfectly whereas the grey one is much smaller somehow. Blue seems a bit thicker and weighs a little more." — a Ralph Lauren buyer comparing two sweaters in the same tagged size.

Three wears each, over three weeks

Both sweaters went into rotation for spring layering: over a plain tee, under an unzipped jacket, and on its own with straight-leg trousers. The zip placket is the feature that earns its place — zipped to the collar it reads tidy, opened two-thirds it vents the way a quarter-zip does. The cotton breathes without going clammy on a warm tram, and the loose cut takes a shirt underneath without pulling across the shoulders.

What we noted on inspection: a light halo of fibres at the cuffs after the second wash, which a depiller handled in a minute; the zip pocket sags slightly when loaded, so it works better for keys and cards than a phone; and the knit stretched marginally at the elbows before relaxing back on the hanger. The collar ribbing stayed flat, which is more than we expected at this price. Both colour codes — the plain white and the deep navy — photographed true to the listing images.

Value at $22.69

Before agent fees and international shipping, this sits a long way under what a comparable cotton RL pullover retails for, and the hardware is the part that usually gives a cheap knit away. Here the zip, the placket tape and the pocket lining all function. Seams are single-stitched and neat; the neckline is taped; the watch points are the pocket body and the sleeve length, both minor.

How we would buy it a second time

1. Pick the colour code from photos of that code, not from the collection name — white, grey, navy and black all sit inside the same listing.
2. Ask the seller for flat chest, length and sleeve measurements before paying, and treat the 1–2 cm tolerance as a range rather than a promise.
3. Choose the smaller of two sizes if you are between them and want the cut to stay loose rather than oversized.
4. Expect to wash cold and dry flat; the knit held shape well under those conditions.

On our five-point scale this is 4 / 5 — good, and short of excellent only because the fit question cannot be closed from the listing itself.