The jacket was part of the 1993 Cold Wave snowboard collection and ended up, in major thanks to Raekwon, becoming one of RL’s most coveted releases of all time. Cold polo dress shirts Wave originals are so rare that today they go for thousands on eBay. Re-issued in 2018 to much fanfare, the Ralphabet would be nothing without this grail collection.
His wide, colorful ties were the opposite of the narrow dark neckties common at the time; they sold well and started a new trend. Lauren started his own company and the next year launched a line of men’s clothing, Polo, offering styles that were a mix of English and American styles and that expressed an image of class. Lauren’s menswear was a success, and in 1971 he introduced his women’s line. As the years went by he continued to branch out into children’s clothes, colognes, footwear, home products, and other merchandise. Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer known for his popular Polo line and other lines of clothing, accessories and home decor. Founded in 1967 and initially offering a line of men’s ties, the company grew quickly in a short time and had its own boutique within department store Bloomingdale’s by 1969, and its own stand-alone store in Beverly Hills by 1971.
Ralph Lauren Corporation designs, markets, and distributes lifestyle products in North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. The company’s restaurant concepts include The Polo Bar in New York City; RL Restaurant in Chicago; Ralph’s in Paris; and Ralph’s Coffee concept. Ralph Lauren Corporation sells its products to department stores, specialty stores, and golf and pro shops, as well as directly to consumers through its retail stores, concession-based shop-within-shops, and its digital commerce sites.
In 1992 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of American Fashion Designers and a tribute for twenty-five years of impact on American style from the Woolmark Awards. The Council of Fashion Designers later elected him Designer of the Year in 1996. The youngest of four children, Ralph Lifshitz was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 14, 1939. While attending DeWitt Clinton High School in New York, he worked part-time for New York department stores, saving his money to buy clothes.
Lauren will stay on as executive chairman and chief creative officer. Spanning the range from casual sportswear to formal wear, the company’s clothing and fragrances reflect a classic American style, and often impart a rugged, outdoorsy image. Many garments and fragrances incorporate a logo with a pony, with or without a polo player astride. Originally conceived as a women’s wear spinoff of the preppy, all-American Ralph Lauren brand, Lauren Ralph Lauren’s popularity has grown to include stylish menswear, big & tall, preppy styles for children, handbags, shoes and accessories. Explore our collection of Lauren Ralph Lauren clothing for work, special occasions and casual wear clothes for the entire family.
Ralph Lauren Polo partnered with L’oreal to introduce fragrances, beginning with iconic men’s scent Polo and classic women’s fragrance Lauren in 1978. The next two scents in the line, Chaps for Men and Tuxedo for Women, both introduced in 1979, also became beloved classics. Lauren designed costumes for the films The Great Gatsby and Annie Hall that influenced the way millions dressed. Lauren is also paterfamilias of a unit that is part and parcel of his legacy. His wife Ricky and his three children, Andrew, David, and Dylan, have long appeared in his advertising, and David, 48, is now chief innovation officer and vice chairman of the Ralph Lauren Corporation. At the 50th anniversary fashion show in Central Park, amid such luminaries as Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton, all the Laurens stood up when he took his bows, as they do at every one of his shows.