Title

FIT Oral History: Ralph Lauren

Contributor Names

Lauren, Ralph

Finger, Mildred (Interviewer)

Date

1990-09-05

1990-09-25

Date Digitized

2018

Description

DATE INTERVIEWED: September 5 and 25, 1990

SUMMARY: Mildred Finger interviews Ralph Lauren about his start in the fashion business and how his career grew, and about his family.

BIOGRAPHY: Ralph Lauren was born in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish immigrants, Frieda (Cutler) and Frank Lifshitz, and is the youngest of four siblings—two brothers and one sister. His work in the fashion industry started in high school at a job working with menswear at Alexander's, followed by Allied Stores at age 19 as an assistant buyer. He then worked at Brooks Brothers followed by spending six months in the army reserves during the Korean War, around 1962. Upon returning to the US, he worked for Weiner's Gloves, and in 1967 moved on to work as a salesman at a tie company called Rivetz. Lauren soon became inspired to create his own line of ties, and convinced the company Beau Brummell to hire him as a designer. He named his first line he made for Beau Brummell, "Polo," which was inspired by images of polo players from the 1930s. Working out of a single "drawer" from a showroom in the Empire State Building, Lauren made deliveries to stores himself. In 1971, Norman Hilton provided Lauren with financial backing to start his own company and expand into more product. His company "Polo-Ralph Lauren" was thus launched, making him one of the the first menswear designers who created a cohesive collection. The first full women's collection was launched the following year. 1971 also marked the opening of Ralph Lauren's store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, the first freestanding store for an American designer. Lauren has been married to Ricky Ann Low-Beer since 1964, and together with her, they have three children, Andrew, David, and Dylan. David Lauren became the Executive Vice President of Global Advertising, Marketing, and Communications at Ralph Lauren Corporation.

Type

Sound

Interviews

Oral histories

Subject

Lauren, Ralph

Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, N.Y.). Special Collections and College Archives

Clothing trade

Fashion design

Fashion designers

Related Materials

Finding Aid

Rights

In Copyright

This video was produced by the Fashion Institute of Technology ("FIT") and is the property of FIT. FIT expressly prohibits the copying, displaying, or uploading to a website of any portion of this video, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws, without express written permission from FIT. This video has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for content in this video and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].

Identifier

FIT Repository ID: aod_000597

SPARC reference code: US.NNFIT.SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.1.4