Ralph Lauren worked his way up from the Bronx to the fashion Olympus “garment by garment” – and always sold the American dream. Now the designer is 85 and in top form.
Whether First Lady Jill Biden or the USA Olympic participants – Ralph Lauren has dressed them all. Biden also sat in the front row of the US designer’s fashion show in the Hamptons outside New York in September, surrounded by stars such as Naomi Watts, Jude Law and Usher. This Monday (October 14th) Lauren turns 85 years old – and is currently in top form. “I thought fashion had become boring,” the fashion designer told the New York Times. “But I had more to share.”
It all started with an accessory. “At first I wanted to express my personality,” Lauren once said in an interview. He designed ties – and presented them to the New York luxury department store Bloomingdale’s. “They said they liked them, but they wanted to narrow them down and put their own label on them and I said I can’t do that. Six months later they came to me and said, ‘You can have your own shelf and your own label.’ .””
“I am the product”
After that he made shirts – and it went on and on. “It wasn’t about fashion, it was about what I wanted. And suddenly I realized that I was building my own world and telling stories about the things I love.” Lauren sells clothes, but also an image of herself. “The reason it works – and it still works – is because I am who I am. I am the product. If you like my style, like it you my clothes.”
This approach made him an influential and wealthy designer – with a global fashion empire, several villas in New York State and Jamaica, among other places, and a collection of valuable vintage cars. “This is mine and it’s something I built. I’m proud because I built it with integrity and style, but you don’t feel everything you think you might feel. I’ve always worked hard and “I never rested on my laurels.”
“I was very lucky”
Lauren was born in 1939 as the youngest of four children in an immigrant family in the New York Bronx. The film fan changed his actual last name Lifshitz to Lauren because it sounded better – after the actress Lauren Bacall. As a child, Lauren wore hand-me-downs from his older siblings, but combined them in unusual ways. “As a kid in the Bronx, I used to see him and think, ‘Who is this person? Who dresses like that?” recalls Lauren’s colleague Calvin Klein, who – born three years later and just a few street corners away – also became one of the most famous designers in the USA.
“My mother and father wanted me to be a doctor, a lawyer or something safe, a teacher or something like that,” Lauren once told CBS. “I was very lucky. I could have been the bouncer, or anyone. I think about that all the time.”
His ties were wider than everyone else’s
But Lauren didn’t become just anyone. He studied a bit of economics, left college, joined the army for two years and then took his first jobs in the fashion industry. He soon went his own way – self-confident and uncompromising from the start. His ties were wider, more expressive and more expensive than any other, and he named his brand Polo after the equestrian sport. “Polo represents a lifestyle. The people who play polo were international and very elegant.”
To this day, the polo player is Lauren’s trademark and is emblazoned on shirts and polo shirts around the world – although Lauren never played polo herself. “But I wish I had. My clothes are about atmosphere and style. It’s about creating a dream that I would want for myself.”
It’s all about the colors of the US flag: red, white, blue
The main theme of Lauren’s fashion always remained the same: America. Everything revolves around the colors of the US flag red, white and blue, everything revolves around freedom, independence and the pursuit of individual happiness. Lauren is the most American of designers. “Ralph gave American design a very special approach and dignity,” the actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) once said. “He gave us the romance of the West, the glamor of Hollywood, the adventure of a safari, the purity of New England, the simplicity of a modern beach house, the richness of a chic estate – only better than we imagined.”
Many stars wear Ralph Lauren – and Ralph Lauren is the star of his own company. Advertising posters often feature himself, his wife Ricky, to whom he has been married for more than 50 years, and their three sons. “I’m the star. I’m not embarrassed. You come to Ralph Lauren to buy Ralph Lauren.” And Lauren loves being a star. “I like it when I get recognized when I come to Paris and people turn around and recognize me. I get good seats in the cinema and the theater.”
“I didn’t have a master plan and I honestly didn’t plan it that way. It was instinct, gut feeling, love, passion and honesty,” said the designer, who has led the company named after him for more than half a century and also on his 85th birthday has withdrawal plans. “It happened garment by garment.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
