50 Things You Didn't Know About Ralph Lauren

Image via Complex Original

Lifschitz was born in the South Bronx on October 14, 1939.  

via

Frank Lifschitz and Fraydl Kotlar were originally from Belarus (then Pinsk, Poland).

via

At age 16, Ralph's brother Jerry changed their last name from Lifshitz to Lauren. One of their other brothers, Lenny, retained the Lifshitz name for years. 

via

Shortly after college, Lauren was drafted and enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and  went to basic training in Fort Dix. The military heavily influenced his collections. Lauren says: “When I was growing up, officers in uniform were very impressive to me. They were doing a job; they were protecting our country; they were heroes. When you wear an old military jacket there’s some sort of connection to those qualities—to being strong, to being tough, to being a warrior.” 

via

He got his start as a salesperson at the Madison Avenue store when he was 24 with no formal fashion experience.

via

Lauren would go from store to store selling them. He says the ties really stood out in the market: "The ties, as simple as they were, looked very different from other ties. They were wide and unusual."

via

Ralph Lauren's first ties he designed—wide, European-style neckwear initially rejected by his employer—was inspired by the ones he saw actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. wearing. Source: Wikipedia

Lauren secured a $50,000 loan in 1968 to start his brand. He would later buy the "Polo" name from Hilton. 

via

They also wanted them a quarter inch narrower. Lauren declined.  Bloomingdale's called back six months later and wanted to fill the racks with ties branded with his name. 

via

The line developed into four lifestyle groups: collection, classics, country, and active and featured Lauren's signature tailoring, but with a feminine twist.  

via

In 1974, Ralph Lauren's natty suits and dapper duds starred on the silver screen in The Great Gatsby, and leading man Robert Redford absolutely killed it in the looks. Source: Ralph Lauren

Some of Ralph Lauren's clothes were featured in Woody Allen's iconic Annie Hall film. According to a New York magazine article from 1993, the character of Alvy Singer wore a few of his jackets, while Diane Keaton's titular character had one tuxedo jacket from the label. Source: Wikipedia

Before Ralph Lauren made the polo shirt a wardrobe staple for men and women, it was the favored uniform of polo players because its short, turned-over collar stayed down during play. It was actually in honor of the polo lifestyle that the brand’s original logo was created. The shirts debuted in a single fit. 

 via

It was actually invented by tennis player Rene Lacoste, in 1926.  He decided that the stiff tennis attire was too cumbersome and uncomfortable, so he designed a white, short-sleeved, loosely-knit piqué cotton (he called the cotton weave jersey petit piqué) shirt with an unstarched, flat, protruding collar, a buttoned placket, and a longer shirt-tail in back than in front, which he first wore at the 1926 U.S. Open championship.

via

Even though he had just won a Coty Award and his Polo shirt had just dropped and was hugely successful, he had trouble managing the finances and logistics of a fashion business. Lauren then invested $100,000 of his own savings into the company and recruited Peter Strom from his post at Norman Hilton to become his business partner. Lauren then owned 90% of the company, while Strom owned 10%.

via

The book provides a history of the region and its creative communities while offering glimpses into the Laurens’ private world and serving up an extensive selection of the family’s best-loved recipes. 

via

In 1987, Ralph Lauren had was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. He had it removed in April of that year. Source: LA Times

Along with late Washington Post Company president Katharine Graham, Ralph Lauren founded the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research in Washington, D.C. as a tribute to former Washington Post fashion editor Nina Hyde. Source: Georgetown University

After being completed in 1898, the lease bounced around until 1983, when Lauren purchased it and performed a 18 month renovation. From 1967 until the early 1980s, a nearby church used the top two floors for their offices.

via

Yep, http://www.ralphlaurencarcollection.com is a legit thing. It's a part of the site that gives you a peek into Lauren's massive car collection, and you can take a closer look at some of the serious horsepower in his stable.

He woke up in an old Bugatti. Lauren owns one of two existing Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantics in the world—only four were ever produced. His was made in 1938 and is powered by a straight 8-cylinder engine with twin overhead camshafts and a compressor. It can reach 200 kph. Because the body is aluminum alloy, it couldn't be shaped and soldered, so Jean Bugatti built the thing by hand. In 2013, it won the Concorso d'Eleganze Villa d'Este. Source: Jalopnik

The line is meant to be the type of stuff Ralph would wear at the ranch. The two "Rs" reference Ralph and his wife Ricky.

via

Dylan always had a love for candy, ever since seeing Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory at her 5th birthday party. She eventually cultivated her love of art and candy at Duke University, where she studied art history and spent her junior year abroad in London and Rome—tasting and discovering new candies, and collecting artful wrappers and packaging from her travels. She opened her flagship store in New York City in 2001.

via

Working at Ralph Lauren is a rite of passage for many designers who go on to become successes themselves. Former employees include Simon Spurr, John Varvatos, Vera Wang, Todd Snyder, Tory Burch, Tim Coppens (who designed RLX), Thom Browne (a former creative director of Club Monaco) and Michael Bastian.

via

No wonder J. Crew's menswear has been killing it. Frank Muytjens, J. Crew's head of men's design, spent eight years working at Ralph Lauren before making the move to J. Crew. Working at Ralph Lauren helped foster the Dutch-born Muytjens' love for Americana, workwear, and menswear classics, which now shines through J. Crew's killer men's offerings. Source: MR PORTER

Tyson Beckford, male model extraordinaire and the masculine equivalent of the females dudes thirst after in music videos (see: Toni Braxton's “Unbreak My Heart”), got his biggest break in 1994, when he secured a Polo Ralph Lauren campaign, He was the face of Polo Sport. Source: Arogundade

The magazine belonged to the U.S. Polo Association. The ruling was reversed upon repeal in 2001, but the magazine had to include a small disclaimer, stating that it was "not affiliated with Polo Ralph Lauren."

via

Ralph Lauren Corporation purchased the Canadian-based retailer for $52.5 million in 1999.

via

According to Ralph's niece, Jenny Lauren, the iconic last name is pronounced "as the girls' first name [laur-un] and not the same as Italian actress Sophia Loren [lo-wren]."

Source: Wikipedia

Inspired by New York's Metropolitan Club, this RL flagship is pretty huge. Designed by the legendary John Williamson, the sprawling store is a luxurious testament to the Ralph Lauren lifestyle, the type of mega-mansion his customers wish they could live in. Back in his blogging days, Virgil Abloh gushed about the lemon-garlic butter shrimp and wild rice. Source: Ralph Lauren

Located adjacent to the world's largest Polo store, it was the first Ralph Lauren restaurant in the U.S., followed by the short-lived Rugby Café in Washington, D.C. and the recently opened Polo Bar in New York City. There is another RL Restaurant in Paris.

via

On August 29, 2004, MTV filmed Kanye West stepping into the Chicago Ralph Lauren store to get a seersucker suit tailored for an episode of their Diary series. He also cops some other stuff too. Source: YouTube

This chart, originally from Jean-Noël Kapferer’s ‘The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands’, has just about every single Ralph Lauren subline on it. Two notable omissions caught by the legendary writer Gary Warnett? Polo Jeans and RRL. Source: Gwarizm

In Season 5, she leaves her job as a Buyer and Personal Shopper at Bloomingdale's for an executive position at Ralph Lauren. The designer plays himself on the episode "The One With Ross' Teeth." He had two cameo appearances, both of which took place in an elevator.

via

Lauren was tapped to redesign the uniforms for ballboys, line judges, court judges, etc. The Wimbledon logo was also redesigned for this purpose. 

via

Since 2005, Ralph Lauren has partnered with sports associations like the USTA, and outfitted Wimbledon in 2006. The “Big Pony” logo sprang up around this time as a way to make the Polo branding much more visible. “The Big Pony has been associated with the product collections tied to our successful sporting partnerships such as Olympics, U.S. Open and Wimbledon,” said a Ralph Lauren spokesperson to The Wall Street Journal in 2012, when they sponsored the Olympic Team Uniforms. Source: WSJ

The original “Polo Bear” was a stuffed Steiff bear given to Ralph Lauren as a birthday gift. It was dressed up in a RL Western-style outfit. Lauren loved it so much it became a company tradition to dress the bear up in a different outfit each year. Soon, the bears were actually sold in stores before making their foray into clothing. The Polo Bear sweater debuted in 1991. Source: Trivia Happy

All Ricky Bags are made by hand in Italy from 50 separate pieces of leather and nine different pieces of hardware, requiring two expert artisans 10–12 hours to make one bag.

via

Dipset affiliate Vado loved Ralph Lauren's Rugby line so much he literally named his son Rugby, and also has a song called “Rugby Down.” In 2013, after the preppy-infused subline shuttered, he told XXL: “He know that with Rugby, it’s mostly Blacks wearing it—that’s why he’s shutting it down.” Vado also said that with the line closing, he was going to partner with a brand like Striver's Row or Akoo to make the kind of clothes that carried on Rugby's street prep appeal. Source: XXL

In 2011, Ralph Lauren announced it was officially dropping Polo from its brand name. The idea was to further distinguish itself from the polo shirt, which has become a generic menswear staple. Word on the street is that the dropped “Polo” was last seen hanging with Jay Z's former hyphen.

That's enough money to buy pretty much every Ralph Lauren grail piece in the world. Source: Wikipedia

Looking smart is one thing, but smart clothes are an entirely different matter. Recently Ralph Lauren has made its foray into the wearable tech market with PoloTech, a smart shirt that works with an iPhone app to deliver workout data in real time. Source: Polo Ralph Lauren

David works at his father's company, where he's the Senior Vice President of Advertising, Marketing and Corporate Communications. In 2011, he married Lauren Bush, daughter of businessman Neil Bush, which makes her granddaughter of President George H.W. Bush and niece of President George W. Bush. Source: Wikipedia

Rugby is the Lauren family's dog who was rescued when they found him near the family ranch in Colorado. Since then he's been all over the place, traveling with them to the Hamptons, Montauk, and beyond. He was featured in a spread in Harper's Bazaar with Ralph Lauren, a lifetime dog lover. Source: Ralph Lauren

Designer Greg Lauren, known for his rustic, patchwork take on menswear, is also an accomplished artist. He's the son of Ralph Lauren's brother Jerry. In addition to painting nudes (pause) that command up to $15,000 and having sold work to celebrities like Demi Moore and Ben Stiller, Greg Lauren has also done covers for DC Comics' Hellblazer series. He's also married to Elizabeth Berkeley, aka Jessie Spano. Source: Wikipedia

From 2007-2012, American Living, an exclusive lower-priced Ralph Lauren line without any visible RL branding, was sold at J.C. Penney. It was discontinued in 2012 as J.C. Penney focused more on even cheaper clothes. Source: Racked

It ain't Ralph, tho! Because of the strength of the Polo Ralph Lauren brand, a federal judge ruled in 2011 that the U.S. Polo Association—the literal organization pertaining to the sport of polo—cannot use the word “polo” or the image of a horse-and-rider to market its fragrance.

Ironically, an independent South African company trademarked the Polo name and logo in South Africa, which gives them the rights to use it even though it is not affiliated with the Ralph Lauren company.

Source: Racked

In 2007, Ralph Lauren was among several companies sued by Levi's, accused of copying the company's trademark arcuates on the back pockets of their jeans. The case was later dismissed. Source: CNN

Ralph Lauren has nabbed fashion's EGOT, managing to win the Council of Fashion Designers of America's four top awards in his career—the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Womenswear Designer of the Year Award, the Menswear Designer of the Year Award and the Retailer of the Year Award. He also won the CFDA's first-ever “Most Popular American Designer” award in 2009, an award the public voted for, and the CFDA's first “American Fashion Legend” award in 2007. Source: CNN