Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. I hope you are all having a wonderful day and are looking forward to the weekend ahead. Today I am back with another post all about an amazing fashion designer. However, todays post is also talking through the documentary I watched on Ralph Lauren. I hope you enjoy...
Ralph Lauren is one of the most successful men in the world, especially in the fashion industry. He made billions simply by creating what the public wanted. He said, "Every time I design clothes I make it a movie". He is such a perfectionist when it comes to his brand and everything he designs has to be perfect, right down to the finest details. His style is so timeless and classic that it has (and will) be loved by many generations even when the trends change. With the high quality and perfect details, Ralph Lauren is the most famous 'one man' brand in the world!
Early Years...
Born in 1939 to two Jewish working class immigrants, Ralph didn't have the childhood you would have imaged. Ralph Lauren grew up in New York under the name of Ralph Lifshitz but later changed his name due to the bullying he go from it. Ralph's childhood friend, Warren Helstein, told the producers that him and Ralph would always watch movies together in the 50s and became obsessed with the clothing the stars wore. This was where Ralph's love for fashion started to grow. In his teenage years Ralph worked as a salesman while taking business classed in the evening but he never actually got a degree from it.
In 1964, after being in the army for a short while, Ralph met the women of his dreams in the doctors surgery. She was the receptionist there and they instantly feel in love and seen after they got married. Ralph married a women called Ricky Loew at the age of 26. Soon after his marriage, Ralph got a job as a salesman for Brooks Brothers. He was invited to all the upper class events and this was where his idea first sparked. He wanted to create his own business inspired by the upper class and their classy events and occasion wear. This was the start of the brand, Polo Ralph Lauren.
The start of the Ralph Lauren brand...
Ralph started off his brand by creating a few tie designs. However, to make his stand out he create the opposite to the norm at the time. Instead of creating plain thin ties he designed colourful wide ties. This is what caught the eyes of the public. As he didn't have any money or contacts to start up a business on his own, he took his designs to Bloomingdales instead. They were so impressed by his designs they wanted to sell them in their store but refused to have Ralph Lauren's name and logo on it. As Ralph was determined to built his own brand he didn't want to give them credit so declined the offer. Shortly after declining the offer Bloomingdale got back in contact and agreed to sell Ralph's designs with his name on them. This was where his brand and name started to grew.
Soon after, other retailers such as Paul Stuart and Meiman Marcus wanted to sell Raplh's designs as well. Within a year he had sold around $0.5 million worth of ties. After his great success selling the ties, Bloomingdales gave him his own boutique inside their store. This was the first time this had ever happened at this point in time with any designer. From then his brand grew rapidly and his success in the business grew bigger. 3 years on he was lucky enough to win the 1970 Coty Award (Oscar equivalent of the fashion industry).
In 1971 Ralph's bank balance was exceptional (nothing like when he as growing up). It was then that he invested in his first luxury car purchase...a Mercedes Convertible. Although he could only just afford it, he used it as a way to inspire him to grow his business even more and increase his bank balance too. However, shortly after this his business wasn't doing too well and he had to invest $100,000 from his own savings into the business to keep it running smoothly. Knowing that he couldn't keep the business going on his own he soon hired a business partner, Richard Strong, to help run the business. Strong invested in 10% of the business for $6,000.
Building up his image...
Shortly after having a hard time with expenses the Ralph Lauren brand was back in business. It was featured in the Great Gatsby and the sales flew up. Ralph also modelled his own clothing for magazines and adverts which made him the true face of the brand. After seeing his clothes in the Great Gatsby Ralph decided to create his first womenswear collection inspired by the women in the show. With his brand back on the demanding market he decided it was time to invest in his own flagship store as well. After spending $30 million, the first Ralph Lauren flagship store opened in an old New York mansion. It was then that he learnt to be a retailer, learning many new skills. By 1986 his brand was worth $160 million.
Illness...
Not long after this Ralph was at one of his womenswear collection shows. At the end of the night when he was called up onto the stage he was trying to hold back his tears. It was soon discovered that he had in fact been diagnosed with a brain tumour. It was one of the best times for his career but the worst time in terms of health. However, fortunately after surgery he was given the all clear but told he had a long recovery ahead of him. During his recovery he was having a stroll in Central Park and spotted a couple of runners. He then got the idea to bring out a sportswear collection. Not long after this he was back working harder than he ever had before. His fitness wear collection was the next to launch and soon after he brought out the top selling perfume. However, he soon blew all his expenses and was running out of money to keep his brand going. Something had to change.
The Investors…
As the Ralph Lauren brand was quickly becoming bankrupt Ralph had to do something to keep his brand going. He sold 28% of the brand to Goldman for $135 million. This was something Ralph didn't want to do and was worried how his costumers would react. At the start he kept it a secret and started to open up new stores with the money he received. By 1997 he was the top designer and his consumers spent almost $5 billion a year on his product. However, in June 1997 he went public about his investors and the sales started to drop as people didn't like the fact his business now had a co buyer. This made his sales drop from $38 - $16 million. Soon after people got use to the idea and the sales started to increase again. This allowed Ralph to open new stores around the world such as: Milan, Tokyo and Moscow.
In 2012 the Ralph Lauren brand was attacked for the USA Olympic outfits. Ralph was asked to design the outfits for the USA team for the summer 2012 Olympic games. However, consumers soon realised that the American based brand had not made the outfits in the USA but instead in China. This caused huge complains on the brand but Ralph assured his customers that he was truly sorry and it wouldn't happen again. Now in 2018 Ralph has over 60 luxury vintage cars, many houses and owns a 30 acre ranch in Colorado. He is also one of the wealthiest men in the world and is said to be worth $7.5 billion.
So that is all I have for you today about Ralph Lauren and his brand. If you are interested in learning more about him then I would recommend watching the documentary on YouTube. If you want to learn about other fashion designer then make sure you head back to my blog every Friday for more posts like this. If you are interested in seeing outfit styling inspiration from me too then make sure you head back to my bog every Wednesday for those. I hope you enjoyed this post and I will see you back here again soon...
Emma Victoria
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