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“IF YOU SAY SOMETHING is ‘very Ralph Lauren,’ you’re immediately understood.” So remarked Audrey Hepburn at the CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony back in 1992. At the time, Ralph Lauren’s 25-year-old eponymous fashion label–cum–lifestyle brand had already made its mark as perhaps the definitive American fashion label. In the 25 years since Hepburn made those remarks, Lauren’s empire has only expanded, and his position as the arbiter of American taste and style has only become more absolute. This fall, to mark the occasion of his 50 fascinating years at the helm of a design juggernaut that spans men’s, women’s, and children’s fashion as well as home décor, Lauren has expanded upon the intimate view, first published in 2007, of his professional passions and processes in a luxurious book titled, simply, Ralph Lauren (Rizzoli). The founding of Lauren’s company 50 years ago as a maker of ties could be likened to its prep-school period of life: casual, carefree, colAbove: The cover of the expanded 50th-anniversary edition of the book Ralph Lauren (Rizzoli), by Ralph Lauren. Visit rizzoliusa.com or ralphlauren.com for more. Opposite page: Ubah Hassan photographed in Los Angeles, California, for a Ralph Lauren fashion campaign in 2009. OCTOBER 2017 129