Everything about Ralph Lauren totally explained
:
For the company, see Polo Ralph Lauren.
Ralph Lauren (born
Ralph Lifshitz on
October 14,
1939) is an
American fashion designer and business executive. He is most notable for his
Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.
Life
Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Rueben Lifshitz in the south of
New York City borough of
The Bronx to
Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from
Belarus: Fraydl (Kotlar) and Frank Lifshitz, a house painter.
From a young age, he started working after school to earn money to buy suits. The four-year younger
Calvin Klein, lived in the same Bronx neighborhood, but it isn't known if they ever met while living there.
Lauren attended the Salanter Academy Jewish Day School followed by MTA (now known as the
Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy), before eventually graduating from
DeWitt Clinton High School in 1957. In MTA Lauren was known by his classmates for selling ties to his fellow students. In his Clinton yearbook he stated under his picture that he wanted to be a
millionaire. Other notables who attended this school include
Burt Lancaster,
Robert Klein, and
Stan Lee. At age 16, Ralph's brother Jerry changed their last name from Lifshitz to Lauren (his brother Lenny retained the name Lifshitz for many years).
He went to the Baruch College (of the
City University of New York) where he studied business, although he dropped out after two years. From 1962 to 1964, he served in the
United States Army. After his discharge, in 1968, he married Ricky Low-Beer. He didn't attend fashion school, but worked for
Brooks Brothers as a salesman. In 1967, with the financial backing of Norman Hilton, Lauren opened a necktie store where he also sold ties of his own design, under the label "Polo". He later purchased the name from Hilton. Lauren's fashion empire has since grown into a billion-dollar business.
In 1984 he transformed the
Rhinelander Mansion, former home of the photographer
Edgar de Evia and
Robert Denning, into the flagship store for Polo Ralph Lauren. This same year de Evia photographed the cover feature story for
House & Garden on the Lauren home
Round Hill in
Jamaica, which had formerly been the home of
Babe and
Bill Paley.
In the middle of the 1990s,
Polo Ralph Lauren became a public company, traded on the
New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RL.
Ralph and his wife, Ricky, have two sons and a daughter:
Andrew Lauren (b.
1969 in
New York City,
New York), David Lauren (b.
1971), and
Dylan Lauren (b. May
1974 in
New York City,
New York. David is an executive at Polo Ralph Lauren and Dylan owns and operates an upscale candy store,
Dylan's Candy Bar, at 59th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan. Ricky appeared on the television show
Martha on December 10th 2006 and stated that her son Andrew is in the "movie business".
In 2003, Lauren's nephew
Greg Lauren announced his
engagement to actress
Elizabeth Berkley. Lauren designed and created outfits for the entire wedding party (including Berkley's wedding dress) to wear. Berkley wore a silk sheath dress with pearled spaghetti straps while Lauren wore a white tuxedo jacket and a black bow tie.
Lauren is the subject of several biographies (written by Jeffrey Trachtenberg,
Michael Gross and Colin MacDowell).
Lauren is also well-known as a collector of classic automobiles. His cars have won best in show at the prestigious
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance multiple times. His collection was recently displayed at the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
By 2007
Ralph Lauren had over 35 boutiques in United States. There were 23 locations that carried Ralph Lauren Purple Label, including
Atlanta,
Beverly Hills,
Boston,
Charlotte,
Chevy Chase,
Chicago,
Costa Mesa,
Dallas Denver,
Honolulu,
Houston,
Las Vegas,
Manhasset,
New York,
Palm Beach,
Palo Alto,
Philadelphia,
Phoenix,
San Diego,
San Francisco,
Short Hills,
Troy,
Orlando Florida and
Washington DC.
Other uses
In the
NBC television sitcom
Friends,
Rachel worked for Ralph Lauren's corporate office in the final two seasons, and the climax of the final episode involved Rachel deciding whether to take a job in
Paris or stay at Ralph Lauren in
New York. Ralph Lauren played himself twice during the show.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ralph Lauren'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://ralph_lauren.totallyexplained.com">Ralph Lauren Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
