Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) is an American, publicly traded holding company headquartered in New York City. The company, through its subsidiaries, designs, markets and sells men's, women's and children's apparel, accessories, fragrances and home furnishings to customers worldwide.
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Ralph Lauren Corporation began with the 1967 founding of the Polo Ralph Lauren company by American designer Ralph Lauren. The origins of the RL Corporation began with men's ties, Polo Ralph Lauren in 1967. Born in 1939 as Ralph Lifshitz (he later changed his name to Ralph Lauren) in The Bronx, New York.
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Ralph Lauren
He received a US$50,000 loan to realize his vision for men's ties. By 1969, he had a boutique store within the Manhattan department store Bloomingdale's. Around that same time, he released a line of suits for women that were tailored in a classic men's style; and this was when the first Polo emblem was seen. The logo was on the cuff of the women's suit. In 1971, Polo Ralph Lauren launched its first women's collection of apparel and the first standalone store was opened in Beverly Hills, California. 4
The Polo Sport line was introduced in 1993. In 1997, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange. By now, the company was structured to operate as an umbrella for its brands and other ventures and would be named the Ralph Lauren Corporation by the early-21st century. It was originally named Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, but in subsequent years the Polo in the name was dropped to reflect the company's presence in other concepts beyond the Polo line. The original Polo line remained as the flagship brand of the company. 5
Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren Corporation also manages several other brands, including Ralph Lauren Black Label, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Ralph Lauren Blue Label, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Club Monaco, and Chaps.
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By 2007, Ralph Lauren had over 35 boutiques in the United States and other international locations in London, Milan, Tokyo, and Moscow. Also in that year, Ralph Lauren Corporation acquired the NBC share of RL Media and the web 7
Ralph Lauren site was relaunched as ralphlauren.com. By then, company revenue reached US$4.2 billion.[5] In 2010, a Ralph Lauren store opened in Paris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Lauren_ Corporation
What began 40 years ago with a collection of ties has grown into an entire world, redefining American style. Ralph Lauren has always stood for providing quality products, creating worlds and inviting people to take part in our dream. We were the innovators of lifestyle advertisements that tell a story and the first to create stores that encourage customers to participate in that lifestyle. 8
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Ralph Lauren
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RalphLauren.com takes this participation to a new level as a rich and exciting interactive destination. When you’re transported into the world of Ralph Lauren online, you can shop for great products for yourself and your home, learn about adventure, style and culture in RL Magazine and on RL TV, find one-of-a-kind vintage pieces and exquisite gifts and much, much more. Back when all this started, I felt sure that there were no boundaries. I’m even more sure of that today.
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Ralph Lauren Lauren expands. "What I think is cool is the expression of yourself. That’s what’s cool. Take you, if you’d walked in today wearing some 'outfit' then you wouldn’t look like you. But your dark coat, your scarf around your neck, your shirt – you look like a writer. You look like you. You’re classical but you’re cool. And you’re in the fashion business too. Your clothes are your statement about who you are. And I’m sure you thought it, right?"
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He’s also illustrating the idiosyncrasy that makes Lauren so appealing to millions of people who don’t give two hoots about the cult of fashion. Where other designers try to impose an aesthetic on the wearer, Lauren indulges his fantasies, observes his audience then provides them with the tools to share the fantasy. "What I do is make movies with my clothes. Movies via fashion."
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Ralph Lauren
Lauren has met many of his heroes down the years, and proudly escorts me to the en suite bathroom of his office where some of his most cherished trophies are hung: signed pictures from Frank Sinatra (complimenting Lauren on his "smashing" Polo ties), Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck and his all-time masculine idol, Cary Grant. Infinitely more respectfully, however, his picture with the Princess sits in a prime spot behind his desk. 14
In 1971, the year after being named America’s best menswear designer, Lauren produced his first collection of women’s clothes, a selection of mannish shirts in whose cuffs debuted the Polo-player logo that has since been embroidered on to tens of millions of garments. The Polo polo shirt, prepwear staple par excellence, was released in 1972. That filmic sensibility was requited by Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola when Lauren’s clothes made Diane Keaton look adorable in Annie Hall (1977), and Robert Redford devastatingly dashing in The Great Gatsby (1974). Lauren’s first store, which opened in 1971, was in Beverly Hills, and his designs for those films – and particularly for Keaton – helped define an easy tailored 1970s feminine look that is still influential today.
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Ralph Lauren So, outside looking in, just as Ralph Lauren once stared at those blue suede shoes, he would seem to inhabit a landscape entirely unclouded by misfortune. Multiple landscapes, in fact. "I live those different lives, and am fortunate enough to have different homes. You wear different clothes in each environment, and live in a different way. Jamaica has the sun, and the beach, and is very colonial. My ranch out west is very cowboy, and that’s another dimension in my life. And the house on the beach in Montauk is very rustic."
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Lauren’s assistant curls her neck around the door and says his two o’clock is here – the day’s schedule is a packed one. "You know," he says as we drift towards the exit, "I built my company, and it still has my message. I’m here every day. So when you see the clothes come out you know they are Ralph Lauren…I try to stay tuned so that I don’t become yesterday’s news. You have to move and keep your mind open."
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Ralph Lauren
Still, after nearly 50 years in the saddle, doesn’t it all get a bit much? "It does takes its toll," Lauren concedes. "I used to be 6ft 3." 18
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Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren: I started 47 years ago. I started with ties and then I went to womenswear, and when I went to womenswear, I said, “I’m not going to call it ‘Polo’ because that’s very mens-y. It should be the designer, and it should be the name.” So, that’s how I started it. [But now] I said, “You know, I can really do Polo for women because there are lots of things that young women love in the men’s line.” They want this shirt, they want that jacket, they want the sweater, and it seems at the time it looked a little mens-y, but when you put it in the fashion show, it looks really cool. So, that was my sensibility. I said, “I’m going to do Polo and really do it …” But I’ll do it the way I think it should be done today, which is much more sexy, downtown.
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RL: I have always done what I love myself. My philosophy was that I never had focus groups. I did what I wear, and when I went looking for things and I couldn’t get them, I’d said, “There’s something I’m looking for and I know it’s right.” 21
Ralph Lauren
The Polo for women I know is right. Polo for men has proven it’s right. You’ve got to constantly work on these brands. You can’t just say, “This is it.” But I think I paid my dues. But even at that, it’s important to keep it updated; keep it young; keep it tuned in. And in these brands, Double RL is something I love. Double RL to me is about vintage. It’s about the “old-world” kind of style. It’s very hip. You’d see that Ernest Hemingway could wear it. It has a class and a sort of integrity to it, so Double RL is very strong.
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Polo, Ralph Lauren, those are all brands that are within the company that slowly but surely are somewhat separating so that they’re going to work together as their own voice. We do that to a degree, but not as much, so that’s the direction I’m going in. But it’s about style, and it’s about an understated taste that’s cool. RL: You like to think that no one can do and be as strong as you are. But I have a lot of great people that have grown up in this company that are very talented. I’m the founder and the designer, so it’s my choices. I don’t know if I’m going to find someone like myself, or if it will be a different kind of person to lead. Generally, the designer is not the founder of the company. He might be the one who makes the statement, but he’s not running the company. Me, I worry about all of it. So maybe it’ll be split up. You need good teams. You need good talent. And I have good talent in the company. They’re really good. They get it and 23
Ralph Lauren they know what to do. If I were sick, I’d feel the company goes on. I try to give them everything I have in me to understand what I’m doing and why I’m doing it, and some do and some don’t. But I feel like everyone is replaceable, and if it’s not Ralph Lauren doing that, it’ll be someone else doing it, and if we figure out it’s another way of doing it and the guy is a total business guy and he hires a designer, that’s the way it will be.
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Forty-seven years ago, someone lent me $50,000 to make ties, and they said, “Let’s do more things,� and it turned into something great.
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