And we have proven pricing power, elevating our AUR across every channel and geography over the last 4.5 years so that we have room to absorb near-term pressures we've seen in our business, such as tariffs or current inflationary headwinds.
On top of all of this, we made further progress toward our long-term target of mid-teens operating margins, with second quarter margins of 17%, representing the highest Q2 rate since fiscal '13.
Together, these campaigns generated over 71 billion media impressions in the second quarter as we continue to inspire new generations of athletes and dreamers.
Early engagement has outpaced our expectations with 100,000 items already sold in just a few weeks.
In all, we added 1.4 million new consumers to our direct-to-consumer channels alone this quarter, a 19% increase to last year.
And our total social media followers continue to grow, reaching 46.9 million globally led by Instagram.
And in its first month, it ranked among the top three men's fragrances in key markets around the globe, including in the U.S. and more than 75% of purchases on ralphlauren.com were made by consumers who are new to the brand.
We continued the build-out of our brand-elevating key city ecosystems around the world in the second quarter, with 35 new stores and concessions opening in top cities globally and 13 locations closed.
Despite COVID-related shutdowns in July and August, our Mainland sales were still up more than 25% to last year and more than 70% to LLY in constant currency.
Our global digital ecosystem, including our directly operated sites, departmentstore.com, pure players and social commerce, grew approximately 45% in the quarter in constant currency and 50% to LLY.
All channels and geographies are showing strong momentum as we build on the healthier foundation we set over the past 18 months.
Second quarter revenues increased 26% to last year with positive growth in every region, led by Europe and North America.
Compared to second quarter fiscal '20 or LLY, revenues declined 12%.
Total digital ecosystem sales grew approximately 45% in constant currency to last year and 50% to LLY, including 35% growth in our own digital business.
Digital margins were also strongly accretive to our second quarter profitability, consistent with last year and about 1,300 basis points higher than LLY.
Total company adjusted gross margin was 67.3% in the second quarter, up 80 basis points to last year on a reported basis and 50 basis points in constant currency despite increased freight headwinds of approximately 150 basis points.
Adjusted gross margins increased 580 basis points to LLY.
Second quarter AUR grew 14% on top of 26% growth last year, with increases across every region.
Adjusted operating expenses increased 17% to last year to $755 million and declined 5% compared to LLY, reflecting our restructuring savings.
Marketing increased 83% to 6.1% of sales in the quarter with a focus on new customer acquisition and long-term brand-building initiatives.
Operating expenses were below our initial plan as we shifted about $25 million of investment into the second half of the year based on COVID disruptions.
Adjusted operating margin for the second quarter was 17.1%, up 450 basis points to last year and 220 basis points to LLY.
This was above our guidance of 13% to 14% margin, largely driven by improvements in Europe and North America wholesale.
Excluding the timing shift, operating margin was still well ahead of our plan, above 15%.
Second quarter revenue increased 30% to last year, supported by strong product assortments, new customer acquisition and market share gains.
Compared to LLY, North America revenues declined 20%, but included a 15-point headwind from our strategic distribution reset and Chaps similar to Q1.
In North America retail, revenues grew 34% to last year.
Comps increased on improved traffic and 23% AUR growth, reflecting our continued elevation around product, marketing and more targeted pricing and promotions.
Brick-and-mortar comps increased 31%, driven by double-digit growth in AUR, basket sizes and traffic.
Although foreign tourist sales improved significantly to last year, they were still down more than 80% to LLY due to continued softness in international travel.
Comps in our owned digital commerce business grew 32% this quarter.
New consumers increased 12% to last year and more than 50% to LLY.
In North America wholesale, revenues increased to 23% to last year.
Overall, wholesale AUR growth continues to accelerate, up 30% to LLY as we elevated our assortments and pulled back on seasonal promotions in the channel.
And our momentum on Wholesale Dot Com drove digital sellout growth of more than 45% to both last year and LLY.
Second quarter revenue increased 38% on a reported basis and 36% in constant currency, above our expectations.
Europe comps increased 27% in the quarter.
Bricks-and-mortar comps were up 28%, driven by improved traffic, AUR and basket sizes.
Digital commerce comps increased 24% on top of a 26% comp last year when COVID-related closures shifted more business online.
Revenue increased 14% on a reported basis and 13% in constant currency.
Our Asia retail comps increased 7% with 69% growth in digital commerce and 4% growth in bricks-and-mortar stores.
In total, COVID-related closures and operating restrictions negatively impacted Asia sales by about 3.5% in the quarter.
And while the Chinese Mainland still grew more than 25% this quarter, our performance was also tempered by COVID lockdowns from late July through August.
We ended the quarter with $3.1 billion in cash and investments and $1.6 billion in total debt, which compares to $2.4 billion in cash and investments and $1.6 billion in total debt last year.
Net inventory increased 5%, modestly below our plan due to global supply chain delays.
As we move into the second half of this fiscal year, we are recommitting to our long-term capital allocation priorities outlined prior to COVID.
Second, with peak pandemic closures likely behind us, we are focused on returning 100% of our free cash flow to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases.
And we expect to resume our share repurchase program starting in the second half of this fiscal year, with about $580 million remaining under our current share authorization.
For fiscal '22, we are raising our revenue growth to 34% to 36% growth to last year in constant currency on a 53-week basis, excluding approximately $700 million in annualized revenue we reset during the pandemic.
Foreign currency is expected to negatively impact full year revenues by about 20 basis points.
We expect gross margins to expand at the high end of our prior range of 50 to 70 basis points or roughly 450 basis point increase to LLY.
Our outlook improved on more favorable pricing and product mix this year despite increased freight costs, which we now expect to be in the range of 130 to 150 basis points due to our plans to use more air freight to fulfill strong demand in the back half.
We still expect operating margins of 12% to 12.5%, which compares to 4.8% operating margin last year and 10.3% in fiscal '20.
We continue to expect operating margin rates for the back half of the year to moderate from first half levels based on increased second half marketing investments of approximately 7% to 8% of sales reaching our full year target of at least 6% of sales this year, increased air freight expense in the back half of the year and our assumption of more normalized channel mix compared to last year's COVID disruptions.
For the third quarter, we expect constant currency revenues to increase approximately 14% to 16%.
Foreign currency is expected to negatively impact revenues by about 140 basis points.
We expect operating margins of about 13% to 13.5% in the third quarter, roughly in line with last year.
We now expect the full year tax rate to be about 21% to 22% with a third quarter tax rate of around 22% to 23%.

Summary:
Total digital ecosystem sales grew approximately 45% in constant currency to last year and 50% to LLY, including 35% growth in our own digital business.
Second quarter AUR grew 14% on top of 26% growth last year, with increases across every region.
Adjusted operating expenses increased 17% to last year to $755 million and declined 5% compared to LLY, reflecting our restructuring savings.
This was above our guidance of 13% to 14% margin, largely driven by improvements in Europe and North America wholesale.
Second quarter revenue increased 30% to last year, supported by strong product assortments, new customer acquisition and market share gains.
Second quarter revenue increased 38% on a reported basis and 36% in constant currency, above our expectations.
Revenue increased 14% on a reported basis and 13% in constant currency.
As we move into the second half of this fiscal year, we are recommitting to our long-term capital allocation priorities outlined prior to COVID.
For fiscal '22, we are raising our revenue growth to 34% to 36% growth to last year in constant currency on a 53-week basis, excluding approximately $700 million in annualized revenue we reset during the pandemic.
We expect gross margins to expand at the high end of our prior range of 50 to 70 basis points or roughly 450 basis point increase to LLY.
For the third quarter, we expect constant currency revenues to increase approximately 14% to 16%.
We expect operating margins of about 13% to 13.5% in the third quarter, roughly in line with last year.