Ralph Lauren

Fashion Designer

• Born: October 14, 1939
• Place of Birth: Bronx, New York

Lauren started his fashion empire with a line of men’s neckties in 1967 and expanded to clothing, home furnishings, luggage, and accessories—a complete lifestyle.

Early Life

Ralph Lauren (LOHR-ehn) was born Ralph Rueben Lifshitz on October 14, 1939. His parents, Frank Lifshitz and Frieda Fraydl, already had three children: Theresa, nine, Lenny, seven, and Jerry, five. The family lived in a Jewish neighborhood of the Bronx in New York. Lauren’s grandfather, father, and aunt emigrated from Pinsk, Belarus, in Eastern Europe to the United States in 1920. Both of Lauren’s parents were from prominent Jewish families. Frank was a house painter by trade but considered himself an artist. In addition to painting he was an actor and a writer of Yiddish theater. Frieda ran the family, making sure that they remained kosher and attended synagogue every Saturday. She hoped that Lauren would continue the family tradition and become a rabbi. Lauren attended Yeshiva Rabbi Israel Salanter from third through eighth grade, graduating in 1953. He had an after-school job and used the money to buy expensive suits. Lauren was determined to dress stylishly no matter the expense, even at age twelve. When Lauren turned sixteen, his brother Jerry suggested changing the family’s surname. Jerry was in the Air Force Reserve and became tired of people mocking his last name. The two discussed it, eventually settling on Lauren.

Lauren graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1957, listing his future career as “millionaire” in the school yearbook. He studied business at the City College of New York, dropping out after two years. He served in the United States Army from 1962 to 1964. Lauren met Ricky Anne Low-Beer at a New York eye doctor’s office, where she worked as a receptionist. The two married six months later, on December 20, 1964. While working for a tie manufacturer, Lauren began designing his own ties. Ties in the early 1960s were narrow, around two and a half inches wide. Lauren’s ties were colorful and four inches wide. Lauren approached manufacturing companies with his designs, and Beau Brummel agreed to produce them. Lauren wanted his line of ties to have a name that sounded British and tweedy. He eventually settled on Polo. In 1967, with his designs and a fifty-thousand-dollar loan from Norman Hilton, Lauren entered the fashion world.

Life’s Work

Lauren’s theory that tie fashions would shift radically away from the narrow designs of the early 1960s proved both correct and profitable. Polo ties were all handmade and sold for fifteen dollars. Other designer ties at the time cost only a fraction of that, around five dollars. Initially, Bloomingdale’s tried to get Lauren to produce narrower ties, but the store changed its mind when the wide ties caught on. Lauren’s company sold $500,000 worth of ties in his first year alone. In 1968, he created his first menswear line, with wide-collared shirts and wide-lapelled suits. Lauren’s clothes were soon sold in boutiques within stores such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s. His designs were more vibrant than traditional preppy attire, but less flamboyant than the hippie styles. Lauren and Ricky’s son Andrew was born in 1969, followed by another son, David, two years later. The couple’s daughter, Dylan, was born in 1974.

In 1971, Lauren introduced a women’s tailored shirt, soon followed by an entire line, and he opened his first stand-alone store, located in Beverly Hills. His famous mesh short-sleeve shirt with the polo-player logo on the left breast was released in 1972, and it was available in twenty-four colors. Lauren designed Robert Redford’s wardrobe for the 1974 remake of The Great Gatsby and the wardrobe for Woody Allen and Diane Keaton for Annie Hall in 1977.

Lauren expanded his label to include cologne (1978), boyswear (1978), girlswear (1981), luggage (1982), eyewear (1982), home furnishings (1983), and handbags (1985). Lauren opened his first international store in London in 1981. He also created athletic wear, a denim line, and the Polo flag sweater in the 1980s. During the next decade, Lauren further expanded his brand with various lines, including Polo Golf (1990), Double RL (1993), Polo Sport (1993), Purple Label (1994), Polo Jeans (1996), and RLX (1998). The company went public for the first time in 1997. Two years later, Lauren opened a restaurant in Chicago. He opened a second in Paris, offering classic American cuisine, in 2010. Lauren has also designed clothes for the US Open tennis tournament, Wimbledon, and the US Olympic team. In 2007, Lauren became the corporate sponsor of the Black Watch polo team.

Lauren was diagnosed with a noncancerous brain tumor in 1987. In April of that year, the tumor was surgically removed, and he made a full recovery. During the 1990s, Lauren had an affair with Kim Nye, a model for his Safari fragrance. Photographs of the couple were published in Spy magazine. Lauren later said that his relationship with Nye was his one regret in life. He also endured a controversy surrounding his clothing designs for the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. Like many previous collections, the clothes were made in China, but in the economic and social atmosphere of the time—with many Americans sensitive to outsourcing—that fact became a minor scandal widely covered in the media. To rectify the situation, Lauren provided US-made versions for the closing ceremonies.

Lauren and his wife own several homes, including a Fifth Avenue apartment in New York, a cattle ranch in Colorado, a home in Jamaica, a beach house on Long Island, a home in Connecticut, and an estate in Katonah, New York. They also own a private jet. Lauren has an extensive antique car collection, including many rare and historically significant models. Vehicles in the collection have won awards in various shows, and in 2005 the entire collection was on display in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. A smaller selection was shown in 2011 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France. In 2018, Lauren celebrated the 50th anniversary of his fashion brand in Central Park. In 2024, Forbes magazine estimated Lauren’s wealth to be $9.4 billion.

Significance

Lauren grew up in the Bronx in the years following the Great Depression. Both sides of his family were prominent members of the Eastern European Jewish community. In addition to his influence on the fashion and design world, Lauren had a significant impact as a philanthropist, especially toward organizations devoted to researching and fighting cancer. Shortly after Lauren's brain tumor was removed, his friend Nina Hyde, a journalist, was diagnosed with the breast cancer that would take her life. In 1989 Lauren helped establish Georgetown University's Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research, and was part of the 1994 launch of the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer initiative. In 2001, he formed the Polo Ralph Lauren Foundation to coordinate the support of various worldwide charities and donated the funding for the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention located in East Harlem, New York. The center is community based, focusing on education, outreach, and new approaches to patient care. Lauren also created a series of Pink Pony products, and ten percent of their profits go to the Pink Pony Fund. The fund works to educate and to treat women with breast cancer, especially those in communities around the world that may not have access to high-quality medical care.

In 2014 Lauren announced a partnership with The Royal Marsden, a cancer charity based in London, England, which would see the development of a cutting-edge center for breast cancer research. Lauren and his wife also donated money for the Ralph and Ricky Lauren Center for the Performing Arts at the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York.

Bibliography

Gross, Michael. Genuine Authentic: The Real Life of Ralph Lauren. New York: Harper, 2004. Print.

Lauren, Ralph. Ralph Lauren. New York: Rizzoli, 2007. Print.

Leitch, Luke. "Ralph Lauren: The Man Who Dresses America." Telegraph Luxury. Telegraph Media Group, 2 May 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

McDowell, Colin. Ralph Lauren: The Man, the Vision, the Style. London: Cassell Illustrated, 2005. Print.

"Ralph Lauren." Forbes, 2024, www.forbes.com/profile/ralph-lauren/. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

Royce-Greensill, Sarah. "Watch: Ralph Lauren Partners with The Royal Marsden." Telegraph Luxury. Telegraph Media Group, 13 May 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Trachtenberg, Jeffrey. Ralph Lauren: The Man Behind the Mystique. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988. Print.