Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren launched his namesake corporation in 1967 in New York with a line of men’s neckties, then named his first full menswear collection Polo in 1968. The proposition was narrow at first and clear in shape. Lauren’s ties were wider and more colorful than other ties on the market and they soon found a niche, first in small menswear stores and later in the fashionable Bloomingdale’s department store.

The early descriptor that stuck came from trade paper DNR, where editor Buffy Birrittella began codifying what she called “the Lauren Look,” describing his white linen belted-back suit as “a look straight off Gatsby’s lawn.” That phrase, more than any campaign, fixed how the brand was read by the press in its first decade.

Menswear is the spine of the house, not a side category. From the 1968 expansion into shirts, sport coats, slacks, and suits, the design language pulled from British country dress, Ivy League tailoring, and American sportswear in roughly equal measure.

The work draws heavily on the aesthetics of the British aristocracy, country life and traditional craftsmanship, and the brand consistently incorporates English country style, including cricket sweaters, equestrian themes and collaborations with traditional British mills.

The 1972 cotton mesh Polo shirt, the oxford-cloth Easy Suit, tweed jackets, and tartan tailoring became the recurring vocabulary. Culturally, the label sat next to Brooks Brothers in reference points and alongside Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger in the American designer cohort that defined the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1974, Lauren outfitted the male cast of the film The Great Gatsby in costumes from his Polo line, a 1920s-style series of men’s suits and sweaters, and designed a pink suit for Robert Redford’s Jay Gatsby. Industry recognition followed quickly, and over time he collected the CFDA awards for Lifetime Achievement in 1991, Womenswear Designer of the Year in 1995, and Menswear Designer of the Year in 1996 and 2007, along with its Fashion Legend Award in 2007.

The company scaled through licensing, retail, and category expansion. It entered the European market and went international in 1981 with the opening of the first freestanding store for an American designer on New Bond Street in London, and in 1986 Ralph Lauren opened his first flagship in the Rhinelander mansion on Madison Avenue and 72nd Street in New York.

Sub-labels followed, including Polo Sport in 1992, Ralph Lauren Purple Label in 1995, and Lauren Ralph Lauren in 1996. Leadership has shifted at the top of the corporation while Lauren himself stayed in the creative seat. Stefan Larsson was named CEO in 2015 and Lauren stayed on as executive chairman and chief creative officer, Larsson left the role effective May 2017 due to differences with Lauren, and Patrice Louvet was named President and CEO that same month.

Today, the brand sits across a wide price ladder, from the Polo line in department stores to Purple Label tailoring and the runway Collection. Its customer base runs from preppy-leaning students and Wall Street commuters to the hip-hop and streetwear collectors who absorbed the label in the 1990s.

The most visible of those collectors were the Lo Lifes, a Brooklyn subculture that took its name from “Polo” and dressed in the brand from head to toe. Active in the 80s and 90s, the group revolved around Polo Ralph Lauren as both wardrobe and identity. That double readership, country club and corner store, is the position the house still occupies.