Anybody who has ever swung at a golf ball and missed might be inclined to believe that what they’re doing wrong is maybe not wearing enough Ralph Lauren. As integral to golf as the putting green is to the game, Ralph Lauren’s Golf line features enough golf gear options to outfit a pebble beach. The riding jackets, the jodhpurs, the saddle-shaped ralph lauren t shirt bag, the stirrup-shaped watch collections, the Gia Carangi ad, the embroidered crests and wool training vests. The story goes that Ralph and his wife Ricky (an original horse-girl muse?) were shopping in a riding store one day. Ralph bought Ricky an authentic boy’s tweed hacking jacket, and whenever she’d wear it, women would compliment.
The Montauk place is both elegant and comfortable at the same time—comfortable in part because it is not so elegant as to be intimidating. The wood-paneled room overlooking the ocean has a large fireplace, a sisal rug, a couple of Eileen Gray glass tables, a sprawling white sofa, and a mirror that reflects the view of the surf. A big coffee table in the center has piles of art and architecture books, an old copy of a magazine with David on the cover, and the catalog for an upcoming auction of vintage automobiles in Pebble Beach.
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.
Polo expanded rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s, opening boutiques across the United States and abroad. In 1986, Lauren opened his company’s flagship store in New York’s Rhinelander Mansion on Madison Avenue, which has since become flanked by several other Lauren stores. With Goldman Sachs having purchased more than a quarter of the company in the mid-1990s, Polo Ralph Lauren went public on June 11, 1997, trading under the symbol RL. As of October 2015, the success of Polo polo dress shirts has earned Lauren a personal fortune estimated at more than $6 billion, ranking Lauren among the 200 richest people in the world. In 1967, while working for Beau Brummell, Lauren began designing his own men’s neckties with a wider cut, branding them under the name “Polo” and selling them at large department stores, including Bloomingdale’s. Lauren was able to more fully develop his business with a $30,000 loan, eventually expanding his designs to a full menswear line.
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.