Ralph Lauren (born Ralph Lifshitz) was born on October 14, 1939, in the Bronx, New York, a famous American fashion designer and businessman, awarded the title "Fashion Legend" by the U.S. Design Council.
New York 1939. On October 14, Ralph, the youngest son of the Lifshitz couple, is born. An artist by vocation and a painter by profession, Frank Lifshitz took the family from Bolshevik Russia. Now his heirs are divided into four rooms and a wardrobe in the poor Bronx. Already being a celebrity,
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Ralph Lauren (born Ralph Lifshitz) was born on October 14, 1939, in the Bronx, New York, a famous American fashion designer and businessman, awarded the title "Fashion Legend" by the U.S. Design Council.
New York 1939. On October 14, Ralph, the youngest son of the Lifshitz couple, is born. An artist by vocation and a painter by profession, Frank Lifshitz took the family from Bolshevik Russia. Now his heirs are divided into four rooms and a wardrobe in the poor Bronx. Already being a celebrity, in an interview with the cult TV presenter Oprah Winfrey Ralph Lauren recalled the call, as once he saw that his peer has a separate wardrobe, and in shoes there are special shoe struts! For the first time, the boy wondered: could something similar happen in his life? At the age of 12, having disemboweled the hoard, Ralph bought his first classic three-piece suit - he really wanted to look rich and stylish. In his dreams he saw himself as a famous basketball player. At the age of 16, long before he decided on his profession, Ralph changed his name from Lifshitz to Lauren.
After serving in the military, Ralph Lauren married Ricky Loby and set foot at City College in Manhattan in the Department of Economics and Business. He studied marketing, worked for A. Rivetz & Co., sold various haberdashery. And he came up with his first model - a silk tie, wide, like the hero of Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. It was 1967. Ralph was 26. After 7 years, he will create all the men’s costumes for the film by Jack Clayton “The Great Gatsby” with Robert Redford. At the time, all male Americans wore tight herring ties like John F. Kennedy Jr. Ralph's idea was not wanted for a long time, but finally his wide tie still fought in Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus. The step was made. So, fearlessly borrowing $50,000, Ralph Lauren and his older brother founded Polo Fashion. Why did I name the brand Polo? I couldn’t call it Basketball! And seriously, the game of polo has always been associated with a certain lifestyle - with power and wealth, with athletic grace and enduring elegance. A role he wanted to play in the near future. A year later, the newborn brand shakes the foundations of the retail business: in New York Bloomingdales, Ralph Lauren presents the concept of a “store-in-store” hitherto unseen in the United States, creating his own sketch of a large male world in the middle of the department store. In 1970, he won the Coty Award for Men’s Clothing, the first of many awards in his life. Only from CDFA - Council of American Designers - Ralph Lauren received 4 awards. The fifth is “American Fashion Legend.”
New York, 1970s. Ralph built his first female line on white cotton shirts modeled after men’s. The muses are Ricky Lauren ("My wife has a superb sense of style") and Katherine Hepburn. Informational reasons followed one after another: the first boutique monomark in the United States, the launch of a full-fledged women’s clothing collection with the subtle nuances of men’s cut (this is how Lauren Diane Keaton was dressed in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall) and a one hundred percent hit in 24 colors – a polo shirt.
However, Ralph Lauren entered fashion history as a designer who “discovered America.” It was he who introduced the fashion of cowboys to the aesthetics - Cossack boots, leather jackets in the style of "ranch", multi-tiered country skirts with frills. He turned the national clothes of the Indians into the last squeak.
In addition, Ralph Lauren is the generally recognized king of evening fashion. His elegant, without excessive luxury evening dresses are deservedly popular around the world. And since Gwyneth Paltrow appeared at the Oscars in a bright pink evening dress from Ralph Lauren, his evening outfits have been a fantastic success.
It would be an understatement of Ralph Lauren’s success not to mention that in addition to clothes, Polo Fashion produces many household items: bedding, furniture, wallpaper, decorative textiles and even dishes. Now in the main boutique of the brand on Madison Avenue you can find even cashmere sweaters for dogs.
His fortune is estimated at $1 billion. Instead of sharing a room with his brothers, today he owns a ranch in Colorado, houses in Jamaica and Long Island, an estate in Bedford, New York, and an apartment in Manhattan, on Fifth Avenue. He also collects old cars. In his garage there was a place and Bentley 1929, Alfa Romeo 1937, Bugatti 1938, and Ferrari 1962.
Now he is more busy than ever: he runs a huge company, oversees 300 stores and a whole “family” of lines: Purple Label, Blue Label, Lauren, Chaps, RRL, Polo Jeans Co., RLX and Ralph Lauren Home among others. When he manages to find time to relax, he escapes to his villa in Jamaica or to the 17,000-acre ranch near Telluride. Nearby is a famous ski center, but because of the damage once in an ankle accident, Ralph does not ski. He prefers purebred cars or horseback riding.
Ralph is a family man. Over the weekend, he can be found with his wife Ricky (whom he has been married to for over 40 years) and three adult children at their Bedford estate. It was never the rule of the Loren family to wear only Ralph Lauren clothes. “But if someone wears someone else’s, I immediately wonder, ‘Why did you buy that?’” Ralph admits. His daughter Dylan is 32. “She’s thin and slim and can wear anything,” Lauren says. Dylan is also an entrepreneur: she opened a pastry supermarket just across the street from Bloomingdale’s, where her father once founded the city’s first menswear boutique. His 35-year-old son David is in charge of Ralph Lauren’s internet business. Polo.com is the largest retail outlet in Loren’s empire; with an assortment of several thousand titles, it has no competition. Ralph’s eldest son, Andrew, 37, recently produced Noah Baumbach’s Squid and the Whale.
This year, the empire of Ralph Lauren, estimated at ten billion dollars, celebrates its fortieth anniversary. The founder himself proudly emphasizes that he started from scratch. There was a man who lent me $50,000 to start a business. But nobody handed me a ready-made fashion empire, says Ralph, alluding to those who inherited prestigious brand names. Ralph didn't even study to be a fashion designer. But he quickly realized that you can always hire those who can sew and cut. “I don’t know what they do, but they don’t know what I do,” says Ralph. He ponders each step, filtering through a mass of sketches to find a key theme, a blockbuster, an image that expresses the theme of the season but has no expiration date.
Quotes:
I like to look for perfection in detail. It doesn’t have to be very expensive. I just have to see that this detail was noticed and appreciated.
I do things the way I thought, without having time to add “rightness” to them.