You know, we talk a lot on this show about disruptors.
And usually that word, it makes you think of
Silicon Valley, right? Guys in hoodies, lines
of code that change how we hail a taxi or order
a pizza. But today, I want to talk about a disruptor
who did it with a silk tie. Yeah. A guy who looked
at the American class system, which was, I mean...
pretty rigidly defined in the mid -20th century
and said, I'm going to hack this. It really is
a hack, isn't it? It's a social hack. Exactly.
We are looking at a man who essentially invented
an entire aesthetic. And I don't just mean a
style of shirt. I mean the whole world. All world.
A world of manicured lawns, roaring fireplaces,
vintage convertibles, and this very specific,
very golden version of the American dream. It's
a world that feels old, you know, like it's been
there since the Mayflower. But the reality. and
this is what we are here to unpack, is that it
wasn't inherited. It was built. It was manufactured
from scratch by one man in his lifetime. It's
a masterclass in storytelling, branding, and
pure, unadulterated business grit. We are diving
deep today into the life and the massive business
empire of Ralph Lauren. And the timing is, well...
It's perfect. As we look at the landscape here
in May 2025, Ralph Lauren is 86 years old. 86.
He is sitting on a net worth estimated at 11
.9 billion U .S. dollars. And just a few months
ago, in January 2025. He became the first fashion
designer to ever receive the Presidential Medal
of Freedom. Which, just to pause there, is a
massive deal. That is the nation's highest civilian
honor. Right. When you look at the list of recipients,
it is usually statesmen, scientists, civil rights
activists. For a fashion designer to break into
that tier, it says something profound about his
impact. He didn't just dress America. He helped
define how America sees itself. He sort of curated
the national image. And that is the hook for
me. Because if you look at the glossy ads, you
see this image of old money, of aristocracy.
But the man behind it, he started out working
from a single drawer in the Empire State Building.
Not an office. Not an office, a drawer. And he
was delivering the goods himself. It is the ultimate
contrast. And that is our mission for this deep
dive. We are going to unpack the business of
this dream. We aren't just looking at the polo
shirts or the color palettes. We are looking
at how a kid from the Bronx built a lifestyle
empire. how he revolutionized retail architecture,
how he amassed one of the most valuable car collections
on the planet, literally worth hundreds of millions,
and how he stepped in to save the actual Star
Spangled Banner. I love that story about the
flag. It feels like the perfect metaphor for
his life. But we have to start at the beginning.
Yeah. Because before he was Ralph Lauren, the
global icon, he was a kid named Ralph Lischitz.
That's right. Born October 14, 1939, the Bronx,
New York. His parents, Frida and Frank. were
Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Pinsk, Belarus.
And just to set the scene, because context is
everything here. Right. This wasn't the country
club life he would later depict in his ads. Not
at all. This was the Bronx in the 40s and 50s.
His dad wasn't playing polo. He was an artist
and a house painter. Ralph was the youngest of
four siblings. It was a very grounded immigrant
upbringing. And that immigrant experience is
crucial. If you don't understand that, you don't
understand the brand. You have this intense desire
to assimilate, to become American, whatever that...
meant at the time. For that generation of Jewish
immigrants in New York, there was a palpable
pressure to fit in to smooth out the edges of
the old country. And for Ralph, that desire manifested
in a very specific and frankly, a very painful
way around the age of 16. The name change. Now,
this is often the first thing people bring up
about him. Sometimes cynically they say, oh,
he changed his name to sound fancy. Yeah, that's
the common take. But the source material paints
a much, much darker picture. It does. Look, we
have to be real about this. His last name was
Lipschitz. Right. He's a teenager in an American
high school in the 1950s. The name contains a
literal obscenity in English. He wasn't changing
his name because he had a grand vision of a fashion
label yet. He was changing it because he was
getting hammered. Bullying. Relentless bullying.
The notes were explicit about this. And he wasn't
even the first in his family to make the change.
Oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah, his older brother,
Jerry, had already changed his surname to Lauren.
Why? Because he had been bullied while serving
in the U .S. Air Force. Wow. Think about that.
You are serving your country, wearing the uniform,
and you are still a target because of your name.
So when Ralph and his brother, George, decided
to change their name from Lifshitz to Lauren
at age 16... It wasn't an aesthetic choice. It
was a survival tactic. Exactly. It was a protective
measure. But here is the fascinating psychological
pivot. By changing his name, he essentially learned
the first lesson of branding. What's that? The
label on the package changes how people treat
the contents. Whether that package is a boy from
the Bronx or a necktie, the name dictates the
value perception. He rebranded himself before
he ever branded a product. That is a brilliant
insight. He realized he could edit his own story.
And he wasn't alone in that environment, was
he, in the Bronx at that time? Not at all. He
attended the Manhattan Talmudical Academy and
then DeWitt Clinton High School, graduating in
1957. And if you look at his cohort, it's actually
staggering. He was part of this incredible generation
of... design leaders raised in the Jewish community
in the Bronx. Like who? You had Calvin Klein.
You had Robert Denning. What was in the water
in the Bronx back then? It's the outsider's perspective.
That's what I think it is. When you are on the
outside looking in at the good life, at the WASPy
culture, the Ivy League world, you observe it
more. continually than the people actually living
it. You study it. You study it. You deconstruct
it. Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, they were analyzing
American style with a forensic eye because they
wanted to be part of it. So he graduates high
school, goes to Baruch College to study business.
Briefly. Right. Very briefly. He drops out after
two years. And then he joins the army. From 1962
to 1964. I think this period is often overlooked
in the biographies. But for a young man in that
era, military service was another layer of that
Americanization process. It puts you in a uniform.
It creates a sense of belonging to the national
identity. It's the ultimate equalizer. So he
comes out of the army and this is where the hustle
really begins. And I want to spend some time
here because people think Ralph Lauren and they
think instant success. But he didn't jump straight
into designing couture. No way. He went into
the trenches of sales. And this is the best training
ground for any entrepreneur. He worked as a sales
assistant at Brooks Brothers. Then he became
a salesman for a necktie company called Rivets.
Okay. This is critical. He learned the floor.
He learned what people bought. He learned the
tactile reality of the business. He wasn't in
a design studio sketching fantasy dresses. He
was seeing what guys were actually willing to
pull their wallets out for. But he wasn't satisfied
just selling other people's stuff. And he certainly
wasn't satisfied with the style of the time.
No. And here's the spark. He is 28 years old.
He is working for a tie manufacturer called Bo
Brummel. Now, in 1967, what did a tie look like?
Skinny, right? Very narrow. Skinny. It was dark.
It was conservative. It was, frankly... Boring.
It was the Mad Men era uniform, but the tail
end of it where it had lost its soul. And Ralph
wanted to do something different. Radical, actually.
He wanted to make ties wide. He wanted opulent
fabrics. He wanted them to look like something
an English duke would wear on a hunting trip.
Right. He convinces the company president, Beau
Brummel, to let him start his own line. In 1967,
the Ralph Lauren Corporation launches. And it
starts with just ties. It ties. This leads us
to that famous drawer story I mentioned in the
intro. And I want you to paint the picture for
us because this is the definition of starting
lean. It's a great image. 1968, he launches his
first full menswear line, which he names Polo.
But he doesn't have a glitzy headquarters. He
doesn't have a receptionist. He is working out
of a single drawer in his showroom in the Empire
State Building. Single drawer? I mean, imagine
that. You are in one of the most famous buildings
in the world, a symbol of American power, but
your entire business footprint fits in a piece
of furniture. And he wasn't sitting back waiting
for orders. The source material notes that he
made deliveries to stores himself. Wow. That
is the grit behind the glamour. He is hauling
doxes of ties and shirts through the streets
of New York, probably sweating through his suit,
dealing with loading docks and inventory managers.
And there's a story about Bloomingdale's here
that I think defines his business character.
The source material touches on his breakthrough
there. But the context is that he initially faced
rejection. He did. And this is the business of
the American dream lesson right here. When he
first pitched his wide ties to Bloomingdale's,
they said yes. OK, so they liked them. They liked
them, but with a condition. They said, we'll
take them, but you have to make them narrower
and you have to take your name off the label.
We want to put the Bloomingdale's house brand
on them. That's a standard retailer move. We
own the customer. You're just the manufacturer.
Exactly. And most young entrepreneurs, desperate
for cash, working out of a drawer, would have
said, yes, absolutely. Where do I sign? Of course.
It's Bloomingdale's. It's the Holy Grail. Yeah.
But Ralph. What'd he do? He walked away. He said
no. He closed the sample case and walked out
of the biggest account in the city. He refused
to compromise the product integrity or his brand
identity. Six months later, Bloomingdale's came
back to him and said, OK, fine, we'll do it your
way. That takes nerves of steel. It really does.
And it paid off. By 1969, Bloomingdale's didn't
just buy the ties. They gave him a shop -and
-shop boutique. And I want to dig into that term,
shop -and -shop, because it sounds like retail
jargon, but it was actually a revolution. It
was a total paradigm shift. Before this, if you
were a designer selling to a department store,
your shirts went on the shirt rack next to 10
other brands. Your pants went on the pants rack.
You were a commodity. Right. Ralph realized that
his product wasn't just a shirt. It was a vibe.
It was a context. If you put his wide, expensive
tie next to a cheap, skinny tie, it looks out
of place. But if you put it next to a mahogany
shelf, a leather chair, and a picture of a cricket
match, suddenly it makes sense. So he demanded
his own real estate inside the store. He demanded
control. He controlled the lighting, the fixtures,
the wood paneling. He created a hermetically
sealed environment within Bloomingdale's where,
for five minutes, you weren't in a department
store in New York. You were in Ralph's world.
Wow. This shifted the power dynamic from the
retailer to the designer forever. And once he
proved that worked, he took the next logical
step. In 1971, he opens a store on Rodeo Drive
in Beverly Hills. Which was the first freestanding
store for an American designer. Think about that.
Before this, American designers were wholesalers.
They sold to stores. They didn't have stores.
Ralph Lauren changed the retail model. He said,
no, I need my own temple. And speaking of temples
and symbols, we have to talk about the logo,
the polo player. It is arguably one of the most
recognizable symbols in global commerce today.
Oh, for sure. It's up there with the Nike swoosh
or the golden arches. It is. But here is the
aha moment from our research. The first time
that emblem appeared. It wasn't on a men's polo
shirt. Wait, really? I assumed it started on
the chest of the men's mesh shirt. No. It was
1971. He introduced a line of tailored shirts
for women, menswear -inspired shirts for women.
And that is where the polo player emblem made
its debut, right there on the cuff of the women's
shirt. That is fascinating. So the symbol of
masculine sport actually debuted in womenswear.
It did. And the famous mesh... Polo shirt. Yeah.
The one that is in everyone's closet. That came
a year later in 1972. The signature cotton mesh
polo shirt. Okay. And this is where his marketing
genius really went into overdrive. He didn't
just put out a shirt. He launched it with a campaign
that had a tagline. Every team has its color.
Polo has 17. Every team has its color. That is
so clever. It implies you are part of a team
just by wearing it. Exactly. It implies belonging.
It's tribalism. I wasn't selling a garment. He
was selling membership. It cemented the shirt
as the emblem of the preppy look. It democratized
the country club aesthetic. You didn't need a
membership to the club. You just needed the $20
shirt. And then Hollywood came calling. And this
really supercharged the brand's visibility. It
took it from fashion to culture. The 1970s were
the decade where Ralph Lauren became the costume
designer for the American imagination. First,
you have The Great Gatsby in 1974. The Robert
Redford movie, which makes total sense. It makes
perfect sense. Ralph Lauren outfitted the male
cast, and specifically, he designed a pink suit
for Robert Redford's Jay Gatsby. The pink suit,
of course. Now, let's pause and look at the meta
-narrative here. Jay Gatsby is a character who
reinvented himself, who changed his name, who
built a luxurious world to cover up humble beginnings
to win over the girl and the society. It is almost
autobiographical. Ralph Lauren is Jay Gatsby.
The parallels are impossible to ignore. A poor
boy who changes his name and builds a castle.
That's the story. And by dressing Redford in
that movie, Lauren wasn't just doing a job. He
was solidifying the visual language of his own
brand. He was saying, this 1920s grandeur, this
belongs to me now. And then a totally different
vibe, but equally influential. Annie Hall in
1977. Yes. Diane Keaton and Woody Allen wearing
Lauren's clothes. But specifically Diane Keaton.
That look, the menswear inspired womenswear,
the ties, the vests, the baggy trousers, the
fedora. Iconic. That became iconic. It influenced
an entire generation of how women dressed. And
it was all Ralph. He showed that women could
look powerful and sexy in men's clothes. So he
conquers menswear, he conquers womenswear, he
conquers Hollywood. What is left to conquer the
invisible? Fragrance. And again, he breaks the
mold here. In 1978, he launches his fragrances.
But he doesn't just do a women's perfume and
wait to see if it sells. What does he do? He
launches a men's cologne and a women's perfume
simultaneously. Polo for men in the green bottle
and Lauren for women in the red cube. Correct.
And the source material points out that this
was the first time a designer had ever introduced
two fragrances at once. It reinforced this idea
that Ralph Lauren wasn't just a brand for him
or for her. It was a world for us. It was a complete
lifestyle. You could look like him and now you
could smell like him. And that world just kept
getting bigger and more physical. We talked about
the Rodeo Drive store, but in the 80s, he really
leveled up with the Rhinelander Mansion. 1986,
Madison Avenue and 72nd Street. This wasn't just
a store innovation. He bought this old, incredible
mansion. And working with a young design consultant
named Naomi Leff, he didn't modernize it. He
went back in time. He recreated the building's
original opulence mahogany staircases, velvet
drapes, oil paintings. It is an incredible space.
If you have ever walked in there, it doesn't
feel like a retail store. It feels like you are
trespassing in someone's private, very wealthy
home. And that was the point. He was awarded
Retailer of the Year by the CFDA in 1986 specifically
for this, for transforming the cinematic feel
of his clothing into a physical environment.
He understood that retail is theater. It's pure
theater. When you buy a shirt there, you aren't
just buying cotton. You are buying a souvenir
from the play. He also took this show on the
road, international expansion. Huge. 1981, he
opens on New Bond Street in London, the first
freestanding store for an American designer in
the West End. Right. And think about the audacity
of that. He is taking this American vision. which
is heavily borrowed from the British gentry,
and he is selling it back to the British. That
is a great point. He's selling the British look
to the British, but with an American twist. And
it worked because he sold them the fantasy version
of themselves. Yeah. The version with better
teeth and better lighting. And then he moved
into hospitality because if you wear the clothes,
you need a place to be seen in them. Exactly.
RL Restaurant in Chicago opened in 1999, then
Ralph's in Paris in 2010, and the Polo Bar in
New York in 2015. The Polo Bar is notoriously
hard to get a reservation at, even today. And
that's by design. It creates that exclusivity.
It completes the circle. You dress in Ralph Lauren,
you eat at Ralph Lauren, you live in Ralph Lauren.
And purely on a business level, the company grew
into a behemoth. It did. They went public on
the New York Stock Exchange on June 12, 1997.
and the brand diversification was relentless.
So what did it look like? You had Polo Sport
in 1992, tapping into the activewear market before
it was cool. Purple Label in 1995, which was
his answer to Italian luxury, the ultra high
-end stuff. Ralph Lauren in 1996 for the department
store market. And they were early to the internet
too, right? Surprisingly so. They launched Polo
.com in 2000. Originally, it was a joint venture
with NBC called RL Media. which is an interesting
little historical footnote. Barrel Media. Yeah,
he understood that media and commerce were merging.
Later, in 2007, Ralph Lauren acquired the NBC
share and relaunched it as RalphLauren .com.
And we can't skip the massive JCPenney deal.
This one always fascinated me because it seems
like a risk to the luxury image. American Living,
launched in 2008. This was a massive cross -category
launch exclusively for JCPenney. And yes, it
was a risk. This is the Mastige strategy, mass
prestige. He showed that while he had the purple
label for the elite, he never lost sight of the
mass market. He wanted everyone to have a piece
of the dream. He understood that you can sell
a $5 ,000 suit and a $50 towel as long as the
story connecting them remains consistent. Fast
forward to 2018, the 50th anniversary. A spectacle.
Yeah. Held at Bethesda Terrace in Central Park.
The guest list was a who's who of American culture.
Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Kanye West, Robert
De Niro. It was a coronation, really. Wow. It
was the culture bowing down to the creator. Okay,
so we have established the empire. We see the
stores, the ads, the billions. But let's look
at the man living inside it. We know he came
from humble beginnings, but what about his personal
life? How does the man himself navigate this
world he built? Well, in an industry known for
volatility and short -lived relationships, consistency
is the key word here. He married Ricky -Ann Loebier
on December 20th, 1964. They have been married
for over 60 years. That is where in general,
but in the fashion world, that is basically a
statistical anomaly. It is. And the meet cute
story is charmingly normal. They met in a doctor's
office. That's doctor's office. Yeah. She was
working as a receptionist. And on alternate days,
she was teaching dance. And Ricky isn't just
in the background. She is an author. She is his
muse. The Ricky bag is one of their most famous
products. Absolutely. She wrote The Hamptons,
Food, Family and History. They have three children,
Andrew, David and Dylan. Dylan Lauren, the candy
mogul. That's right. Dylan's candy bar. Yeah.
She took her father's retail genius and applied
it to sugar. And David Lauren is heavily involved
in the company, leading the innovation and marketing.
Right. And there is a fascinating political connection
there, too. In 2011. David married Lauren Bush.
The niece of President George W. Bush. Yes. So
pause on that for a second. You have the son
of the Bronx immigrant fashion designer marrying
the niece of a president and granddaughter of
another president. It's incredible. It is the
quintessential American merging of families.
It's the final step of that assimilation journey
we talked about at the beginning. The Lifshitz
family and the Bush family are now one tree.
Despite all the success, it hasn't been entirely
smooth sailing. In the late 80s, there was a
significant health scare that I think shaped
his perspective on legacy. April 1987, Ralph
Lauren underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor.
Wow, that stops you in your tracks. It was benign,
and he made a full recovery. But for a man building
an empire, that has to be a moment of reckoning.
When you face your own mortality, you stop thinking
about next season's collection and start thinking
about what you leave behind. It humanizes him.
He isn't invincible. And while the marriage has
been long and stable, the source material does
mention some controversy in the 90s. We should
address that because it speaks to how the brand
manages its image. Yes, we have to be thorough.
In the early 1990s, there were reports of an
extramarital affair with a model named Kim Nye,
who was actually featured in the Safari Fragrance
campaign. And how did Loren handle that? Well,
reports say he sought to remove these details
from biographies. He wanted to protect the image,
both his personal image and the brand's image.
Because remember, the brand is family values.
Right. The brand is the happy couple on the lawn.
A scandal like that threatens the core narrative.
But these things tend to come out, and it was
documented in unauthorized biographies later
on, like Genuine Authentic by Michael Gross.
It reminds us that behind the polished ad campaigns,
these are real people with real complications.
Exactly. But let's talk about where he spends
his time and his money, because his real estate
portfolio is just as curated as his stores. Oh,
I have seen photos of the ranch. It looks like
a John Wayne movie set. The Double RL Ranch in
Ridgeway, Colorado. 17 ,000 acres. 17 ,000. It
is a working cattle ranch, but it is also the
physical embodiment of his Western aesthetic.
He didn't just buy a house in the mountains.
He bought the mountains. And then he has a 17
,000 square foot manor. in Bedford, New York.
But for me, and I know for a lot of our listeners
who are into design and engineering, the real
jaw -dropper is the cars. The car collection.
This isn't just a rich guy buying Ferraris. This
is a curated archive of industrial design. We
are talking about 100 automobiles. And these
aren't just nice cars. These are museum pieces.
Quite literally. His collection has been displayed
at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. When a museum asks
to borrow your garage contents, you know you're
on another level. Let's list a few of the crown
jewels mentioned in the source, because the names
alone sound expensive. I want you to describe
them for us. Okay, buckle up. First, the 1938
Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic. That is the black
one with the riveted spine running down the middle,
right? It looks like something Batman would drive
if Batman lived in 1938 Paris. That is the one.
It won Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1990.
There are only a couple of them in the world.
It is considered one of the most valuable cars
in existence. Estimates often float around $40
million or more. $40 million for one car. It's
Art Deco Speed. What else? A 1930 Mercedes -Benz
SSK Count Trasi, also a Pebble Beach winner.
This car is a beast. It's black, sinister, incredibly
long hood. It looks like a villain's car in the
best way possible. Then a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO,
the holy grail of Ferraris. And he has modern
stuff, too. Oh, yes. Three 1996 McLaren F1s.
And note that he has three. Three of them. The
McLaren F1 was the fastest car in the world for
a long time. He has an ultra -rare LM model and
a Lamborghini Rivington Roadster. And in 2017,
he actually used the cars as the backdrop for
a fashion show, right? He did. New York Fashion
Week. What? He held the show in his garage in
Bedford. And the context here is wild. The collection
surrounding the runway was valued at $600 million.
$600 million just sitting in the garage while
models walk by. But again, look at it through
the lens of the brand. These cars represent speed,
style, beauty, engineering. They are the ultimate
accessories to the lifestyle he sells. He is
saying, my clothes belong next to this Bugatti.
It elevates the clothing by association. Now,
we have talked about what he has accumulated.
Let's talk about what he is giving back. Because
his philanthropy is significant, particularly
in one specific area. Cancer research. This is
a major pillar of his legacy, and it started
with a personal connection. In 1989, he co -founded
the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research
at Georgetown. Okay. Nina Hyde was a fashion
correspondent and a close friend of his. When
she got sick, he didn't just send flowers. He
started a center. And that led to the Pink Pony
campaign. Right. Launched in 2000. You've probably
seen the shirts. The polo player is pink. The
Pink Pony campaign is about reducing disparities
in cancer care. It focuses on awareness, prevention,
and treatment, especially in underserved communities.
He also did a lot of work right in New York City.
In Harlem. In 2003, he established the Ralph
Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention.
It was a collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering
and North General Hospital. This was about bringing
world -class care to a neighborhood that was
historically underserved. And internationally,
too. Yes. He partnered with the Royal Marsden
in Europe to fund a breast cancer research facility.
And the source mentions this was inspired by
his friendship with Princess Diana. I didn't
know they were friends. They were. She presented
him with the Nina Hyde Center's first humanitarian
award in 1996. So there was a genuine connection
there. It fits the brand perfectly, royalty and
philanthropy. Now, earlier you teased the...
story about the Star Spangled Banner, this is
one of my favorite facts about him because it
circles back to that patriotism we talked about.
It is a great story of patriotism meeting preservation.
In 1998, Ralph Lauren contributed $10 million
to the Save America's Treasures campaign. And
what was that money for? It was specifically
to preserve the original 1813 flag. The actual
physical tattered flag that flew over Fort McHenry
and inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national
anthem. That is incredible. The literal star
-spangled banner. It was deteriorating. It was
falling apart. It needed massive, expensive conservation
work to save it for future generations. And Ralph
Lauren stepped up to fit the bill. There is something
so poetic about that. The son of immigrants who
changed his name to sound American ends up being
the one to save the most potent symbol of America.
It's the ultimate thank you to the country that
allowed him to invent himself. He's preserving
the symbol of the dream. He also helped out the
French, right? He did. In 2013, he committed
to restoring the École des Beaux -Arts in Paris.
So he is preserving culture on both sides of
the Atlantic. He sees himself as a custodian
of Western civilization's aesthetics. And the
world has certainly recognized him for all of
this. The list of awards in the source material
is exhausting. It is a mile long. Cody Awards
in the 70s. The CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award
in 1992. Presented by Audrey Hepburn, no less.
That is some serious star power. Audrey Hepburn
is the ultimate seal of approval for elegance.
He was made an honorary knight commander of the
Order of the British Empire, a KBE, in 2017.
Prince Charles presented that to him. So he's
Sir Ralph. So he is technically an honorary knight.
Honorary Sir Ralph. Honorary Sir Ralph. I like
it. And then, as we mentioned at the very top,
the pinnacle. January 4th, 2025. The Presidential
Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden. The
first fashion designer to ever receive it. It
really cements his place in history. Not just
fashion history, but American history. It acknowledges
that what he built wasn't just a clothing company.
It was a contribution to the national identity.
So let's try to synthesize all of this. We have
gone from the Bronx to Buckingham Palace, from
a drawer in the Empire State Building to the
White House. It is an extraordinary journey.
And it is worth noting that while he is still
very much the face and soul of the brand, he
has transitioned his role. He stepped down as
CEO in 2015, handing the reins to Stefan Larson
initially, though that was a rocky transition.
But he remains the executive chairman and chief
creative officer. He's the guardian. He is still
the guardian of the dream. So what does this
all mean? When we look at the legacy of Ralph
Lauren, what is the big takeaway? You know, it
brings me back to that idea of self -invention.
Ralph Lauren didn't just sell clothes. He sold
a dream of American aristocracy to the world.
And the irony, or perhaps the beauty, is that
he started with nothing. He wasn't born into
the polo playing class. He created the class.
In a way, yes. In a world where fashion trends
change weekly, where things are in one day and
out the next, how did a brand built on 1920s
nostalgia and English gentry aesthetics manage
to stay relevant for over 50 years? That is the
question. Perhaps the most American thing about
Ralph Lauren isn't the polo shirt or the flag
sweaters or the denim. It is the self -invention
of the man himself. He looked in the mirror.
didn't see Ralph Lipschitz, and decided to become
someone else. And he did it so convincingly with
such commitment to detail and quality that the
whole world believed him. And eventually, the
world didn't just believe him. They gave him
a knighthood and the Medal of Freedom for it.
That is a powerful thought to leave us with.
The ultimate American invention was Ralph Lauren
himself. Indeed. Thank you all for joining us
on this deep dive. We will catch you on the next
one.