Ralph Lauren

His father painted houses and murals and had come out of Pinsk. His mother was Frieda Cutler. He was the youngest of four in the Bronx. At 16 he and his brother George legally changed the family name from Lifshitz to Lauren after being bullied at school, following their oldest brother Jerry, who had done it after the same treatment in the Air Force. He went to the Manhattan Talmudical Academy, then DeWitt Clinton, class of 1957, took business classes at Baruch and left after two years. Two years in the Army. Then a sales job at Brooks Brothers, then selling neckties for Rivetz, then Beau Brummell, where at 28 he talked the president into letting him cut a line of his own.

He started with ties in 1967. Polo followed the next year, run out of one drawer in an Empire State Building showroom, with deliveries he made himself. Within a year Bloomingdale's had a Polo shop inside the store. In 1971 he put the polo player on the cuff of a woman's tailored shirt and opened a store on Rodeo Drive, the first freestanding shop any American designer had. The mesh polo shirt arrived the next year in 17 colors. He dressed the men of The Great Gatsby in 1974, including Robert Redford's pink suit, and Diane Keaton through Annie Hall in 1977. In March 1978 he launched a women's fragrance and a men's two weeks apart, which no designer had done. The Rhinelander mansion opened as his flagship in 1986, and the company went public on June 12, 1997.

What he sells is an England that was never quite there, assembled by a boy from the Bronx who changed his surname to get clear of his own. He has been plain about the appeal: he liked England because it was not fashion, because it was timeless, because things there were meant to improve with age. In April 1987 surgeons removed a benign brain tumor from his head and he recovered fully. Michael Gross's unauthorized 2003 biography reported a long affair in the early 1990s with a model from the Safari campaign, and reported that Lauren pushed to keep the details out of the authorized versions. He owns roughly 100 cars now valued near 600 million dollars, and two of them, a 1938 Bugatti and a 1930 Mercedes, have taken Best of Show at Pebble Beach.

He gave up the chief executive job in September 2015 and kept the titles that matter to him, executive chairman and chief creative officer. Forbes put him at 15.2 billion dollars in June 2026. France made him a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 2010 and Britain an honorary knight in 2017. On January 4, 2025 he became the first fashion designer awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In November 2025, at 86, he took the CFDA womenswear designer award. He put 10 million dollars into conserving the Star-Spangled Banner in 1998. The verdict on the clothes is a matter of taste. The verdict on the method is not, because every brand now sells the story first.

Ralph Lauren's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• Polo company
  The menswear line, run out of one drawer in an Empire State Building showroom 1968
• The Rodeo Drive store company
  The first freestanding store any American designer had opened 1971
• The Great Gatsby wardrobe film
  The male cast, including the pink suit made for Robert Redford 1974
• Lauren and Polo fragrances other
  A women's and a men's scent launched two weeks apart at Bloomingdale's 1978
• The Rhinelander mansion flagship building
  The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House on Madison Avenue, restored as a store 1986
• Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention company
  In Harlem, with Memorial Sloan-Kettering and North General Hospital 2003

• c. 1955 aged ~16 Changes his surname from Lifshitz to Lauren at 16 His brother George did it with him. Their eldest brother Jerry had gone first.
• 1962 aged ~23 Enters the U.S. Army for two years
• December 20, 1964 aged 25 Marries Ricky Loew-Beer, six months after meeting her in a doctor's office
• 1967 aged ~28 Founds the Ralph Lauren Corporation with a line of neckties He was 28 and working for the tie manufacturer Beau Brummell.
• 1971 aged ~32 Opens on Rodeo Drive and puts the polo player on a woman's cuff
• 1986 aged ~47 Opens the Rhinelander mansion flagship on Madison Avenue
• April 1987 aged 47 Has a benign brain tumor removed He made a full recovery.
• June 12, 1997 aged 57 The company lists on the New York Stock Exchange
• January 4, 2025 aged 85 Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom The first fashion designer to receive it.

• F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896–1940
  Novelist who captured the Jazz Age in The Great Gatsby, the defining novel of the American Dream. wrote the world he dressed
• Levi Strauss 1829–1902
  Immigrant entrepreneur whose company helped turn blue jeans into an enduring American product and symbol. earlier American clothing brand
• Estée Lauder 1908–2004
  Cosmetics pioneer who built one of the world's largest beauty companies from her kitchen. New York brand builder before him
• Vera Wang b. 1949
  Fashion designer who revolutionized the bridal industry and built a global luxury brand. later American designer
• Martha Stewart b. 1941
  Lifestyle entrepreneur who built a media and merchandising empire around domestic arts. took the lifestyle-brand method further