Ralph Lauren has always been ahead of his time. For close to five decades, he has successfully steered his startup into a global multibillion-dollar lifestyle empire embodying the iconography of America, which today comprises apparel, homeware, accessories and fragrances and operates over 300 stores worldwide. Recognized as one of the world’s greatest business leaders, the New York-based American fashion designer, entrepreneur and philanthropist draws inspiration from New England’s rusticity, the West’s natural beauty, Hollywood’s glamor, the spirit of safari and the grandeur of an English estate for his impressive portfolio of premium lifestyle brands. Gifted with the Midas touch, everything he works on turns into gold, and his products are all about creating a dream he’d want for himself and that his customers would want for themselves. According to Forbes’ list of billionaires, the 75-year-old self-made man is currently worth $7.7 billion.
The Downtown Modern collection for urban environments mixes leather, wood and steel (Photo courtesy of Ralph Lauren Home)
More than 30 years ago, Lauren became the first fashion designer to present an all-encompassing home collection presented in a lifestyle setting. He recalls what had prompted him to launch Ralph Lauren Home back in 1983, “Everything I do comes from my life. When Ricky [his wife] and I were creating our first home, we couldn’t find the things we were dreaming of, not just the colors and textures, but the quality of things like pure cotton sheets. That’s when I decided to create my home collection. I knew I wanted it to be as complete a statement for the home as the one I was making in apparel. I connected it to the same lifestyle themes that inspired those collections: a rustic cabin in the mountains, a charming New England house, a shingled cottage by the sea or a glamorous penthouse in the city.”
Reflecting heritage, tradition and timeless elegance, iconic Ralph Lauren Home collections – like Point Dume, a contemporary interpretation of Lauren’s love of the seaside, Desert Modern, a kind of rugged luxury inspired by the beauty of the Western frontier, Apartment No. One, which reflects an aristocratic English lifestyle, and Brook Street, which combines Savile Row haberdashery, Hollywoodian romance and whimsical details – are accompanied by an assortment of lighting, floor coverings, furniture and decorative accessories, ranging from 19th-century industrial lamps to graphic Art Deco rugs. Lauren shares some of the lessons he has learned from his experiences of designing across different categories of objects, “My design process is always the same. I style a bed the way a woman dresses – in layers, the mix of pattern and texture speaks to an individual style. I write through my clothes. I am always inspired by the heroine or hero of my movie; whether it’s what she or he wears, where they live, the dress or the jacket, the furniture and the art on the walls are all part of the story. I create a world around them – the clothes, the watches, the furniture. It’s a world beyond fashion.”
The Point Dume collection is all about seaside living and features rich woods, clean lines and crisp shades of white (Photo courtesy of Ralph Lauren Home)
In the Ralph Lauren company headquarters on Madison Avenue in New York City – filled with artworks, books and memorabilia that inspire the designer – may be found iconic pieces from the Ralph Lauren Home Collection: the City Modern cocktail table, the Highbridge desk in clear tempered glass and stainless steel with sawhorse legs and leather-clad RL-CF1 lounge chairs with carbon-fiber arms and legs. “The essence of good design in everything I do is about quality and craftsmanship, and a commitment to creating things that are never out of style, that have a timeless look and feel,” Lauren says. “I am inspired by the places I travel to, the people I meet and often my own personal collections. My car collection has inspired everything from watches to chairs. The carbon fiber of my RL-CF1 chair was inspired by the carbon fiber from one of my McLarens [a F1 race car]. The luxurious leather interiors of my Gullwing inspired a channeled leather headboard.”
An avid car collector, Lauren reportedly paid $1.4 million for a LaFerrari, a hybrid supercar that can go from zero to 120mph in seven seconds. “Every car I’ve ever collected – antique or modern – inspired me in some very unique and personal way,” he notes. “Automobiles are an expression of the person who drives them. They say as much about you as your clothes do. For me, they are like art pieces crafted for not only speed, but style and beauty. There is an experience that is unique to each car, an expression in their design that often inspires a watch, a chair or even a running shoe. Their innate craftsmanship and design, driven by a quest for functionality, is a constant inspiration.” His collection of over 70 rare automobiles (including a 1929 Bentley Blower, 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza, 1938 Bugatti 57SC Atlantic, 1950 Jaguar XK120 Roadster, 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe, 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO and 1996 McLaren F1 LM) is so well known that it has been displayed in museum exhibits like Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
Clivedon carved chair (Photo courtesy of Ralph Lauren Home)
His is a true rags-to-riches story. The son of Russian immigrants, Lauren was born in 1939 in the Bronx, New York, and worked part-time in the rag trade at Alexander’s from age 16. He studied business at Baruch College, then enlisted in the US Army before graduating. After two years, he left to work in the fashion industry before establishing his own company working out of a drawer in the Empire State Building, turning rags into ties that he sold to shops around New York, incorporating his visions about life and style to capture the American dream using color, fabric and design. He launched his label Polo Ralph Lauren with a $50,000 loan in 1967 and took it public in 1997.
Rue Royale side table (Photo courtesy of Ralph Lauren Home)
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Ralph Lauren Talks About Living The American Dream