"I went to my boss, and I said, 'Look, I'd like to design these ties because I think they could be new.' He said, 'The world isn't ready for Ralph Lauren.' I never forgot that because...I thought that was a compliment. - Ralph Lauren
Early Life
Ralph Rueben Lifshitz was born on October 14, 1939 in Bronx, New York. His parents were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants, Frieda and Frank Lifshitz. His father is an artist and earns by means of house painting. Ralph was the third of four siblings.
From a very early age, Ralph was very much interested in men dressing and used to maintain his dresses trendy. While studying in a day school, he used to do a after school job in New York department stores and used that money to buy expensive and modern suits for himself. He did his schooling in Manhattan Talmudical Academy and eventually graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1957. At the age of 16, Ralph and one of his brother changed their last name to Lauren after having been teased by their classmates at school. He studied in Baruch college at City University of New York. He served in the US army from 1962 to 1964. After this he married Ricky Low Beer. They have three children, Andrew, Dylan and David.
Path to Success
He left army to work for Brooks Brothers as a salesman. In 1967, Lauren was hired by Beau Brummel as a Tie designer. While working for Brummel, Lauren began designing his own men's neckties under the brand label "Polo". He sold them at large department stores, including Bloomingdale's.
Thus, he started his own business in 1967 and it was a success. He took a loan of $30,000 and started his own line of menswear, Polo, which was a blend of English and American styles with pure class. In 1971, he started his first women's line. In the same year he opened his first retail store in Beverly Hills, California. This count of stores increased to as much as 116 Polo-Ralph Lauren stores and 1,300 boutiques. He slowly expanded his business into children's clothes, colognes, footwear, home products etc.
In 1973, Lauren designed clothes for film 'The Great Gatsby' and in 1978 for film Annie Hall, which further increased his popularity as well as his brand sales. 1995 is the year in which he went into two new ventures i.e, blue jeans and mass production of women's clothing categories. In year 2000, the companies official website 'Polo.com' was launched which provided online access to all Ralph Lauren products. Among his three sons, only David is involved in the family business. The other two have pursued their own interests. Ralph Lauren donated several millions for charity especially for fight against cancer. His story is the best example that, anyone with firm determination can achieve anything in life.
