Polo currently produces clothing for men, women and children and has hundreds of internationally placed stores, including factory stores that produce the majority of his sales domestically. The company launched its website and online shop in 2000 as polo.com by RL Media . In 2007, Ralph Lauren Corporation acquired the NBC share of RL Media and the web site polo dress shirts was relaunched as ralphlauren.com. In 2008, Ralph Lauren Corporation launched a brand called American Living, exclusively for JCPenney. It was the largest cross-category brand launch in the history of Ralph Lauren and JCPenney. On September 29, 2015, it was announced that Stefan Larsson would replace the company’s founder, Ralph Lauren, as CEO in November.
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 polo dress shirts 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.
Famed for its unique blend of preppy Americana with European tailoring, Ralph Lauren offers men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, shoes and bags that epitomize refined sophistication. With an array of diffusion lines and iconic products under its belt, namely its polo shirts, Ralph Lauren has come to represent modern luxury while taking its cues from timeless heritage aesthetics. In 1989 Lauren co-founded the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington D.C.
Ralph Lauren partnered with L’Oreal in 1978 to release two debut fragrances, his and hers simultaneously, launched at Bloomingdale’s. “Polo” was woody, vigorous, and masculine where “Lauren” was soft, floral, feminine. This event would inaugurate decades of smash-hit scents for men and women , and an enormous slew of magazine advertisements torn out and pasted on teenage walls worldwide. From Ralph Lauren Blue, Polo Sport, Ralph for Women, Ralph Lauren’s fragrance campaigns, with their perfectly of-the-moment casting and youthful sex appeal set the tone for his and hers aesthetic aspirations. Perhaps advertising campaigns are just as closely linked to memory as scent.
(The events began on September 7 with a blockbuster fashion show and black tie dinner at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.) At 78 he was a bit unsure of his pitching arm, and while he had no illusions that he would be confused with C.C. Polo is hardly as all-American as Ralph Lauren would have you believe. In fact, the horseback croquet is one of the oldest equestrian sports in the world, and was first played in Persia sometime around the 6th century. In its early days, Polo was more of a military drilling exercise than it was a sport, invented with the intention of training cavalrymen, before it was taken up by nobility. Polo did a world tour of influence before gaining popularity in England, from which it was then brought to America. So really, the U.S. was one of the last countries to jump on the Polo trend bandwagon.
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.
The brand became a staple of the preppy style popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Discover the collection of Lauren by Ralph Lauren for women for a preppy American cool style. Choose from a range of structured blazers, straight leg jeans, knitted jumpers and floral print tops. Keep it classic with a blue and white striped shirt paired with tailored trousers or explore an array of dresses from mini to maxi including wrap dresses, shift dresses and evening dresses.
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.
In 1977, Diane Keaton and Woody Allen wore Lauren’s clothes throughout their Oscar-winning film, Annie Hall. Lauren attended day school followed by the Manhattan Talmudical Academy, before eventually graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1957. He went to Baruch College, at the City University of New York where he studied business, although he dropped out after two years.