Ralph Lauren

Mirroring in real life the aspirational image his brand so vividly promotes, Ralph Lauren’s story is the story of the American Dream. A tale of ambition and self-invention, its hero has often been compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby—a character, not coincidentally, that Lauren clothed for the 1974 movie The Great Gatsby.

His design signatures are more instantly and automatically recognizable than those of almost any other designer working today: classic, tailored, dashing, tweed-to-lamé looks that remind us of English aristocrats or New England blue bloods weekending in the country. Influenced by the style Lauren himself aspired to, his motifs are one part Western cowboy, one part lord and lady of the manor, and one part Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey. When asked about his earliest inspirations, Lauren consistently cites films he saw as a kid, and stars like Gary Cooper and Cary Grant.

Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz in 1939 in the Bronx, New York, to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Belarus. He has described himself as a scrappy kid who reached a height of only 5 feet 6 inches but played basketball anyway, who wanted to be an actor but worried he didn’t have the looks. In his teens, he changed his last name to the more nouveau American–sounding Lauren.

After dropping out of college, he made his start in the menswear business. From the beginning, his collections have been based on good, wearable, high-quality basics that everyone needs to keep stocked in their closet: smartly cut blazers, cashmere crewnecks, leather jackets, and oxford shirts.

His reach into womenswear began when he started making clothes for his wife, Ricky, for whom he wanted to adapt a men’s jacket and shirt. That led to a collection of shirts for women . . . and, after a few decades, a multibillion-dollar brand that is synonymous, for millions of customers who want to buy in, with the tailored taste of old-money Americans.