Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx in 1939, the son of Jewish immigrants from Belarus, and had no formal training in design. Working as a tie salesman in the mid-1960s, he persuaded the Beau Brummell neckwear company to let him make his own: wide, handmade ties in rich fabrics, far from the narrow styles of the day. In 1967 he sold them under the label Polo, a name chosen for its associations with an old-money, sporting way of life, and Bloomingdale's soon took them.

A full menswear line followed in 1968, and in 1971 he introduced tailored shirts for women with the polo-player emblem on the cuff, as well as opening a shop in Bloomingdale's and, in 1972, his first freestanding store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. That year he launched a short-sleeved cotton mesh polo shirt in 24 colours, with the small embroidered player on the chest. It became the company's best-known product and one of the most copied garments in the world.

Lauren's genius lay less in the single garment than in the world he built around it. Drawing on Ivy League campuses, English country houses, the American West and the films of his youth, he sold a complete vision of aspirational American life. He dressed the men of the 1974 film The Great Gatsby, and Diane Keaton wore his clothes in Annie Hall. In 1986 he opened his flagship in the Rhinelander Mansion on Madison Avenue, furnished like a private house, an idea that changed how luxury stores were designed. Home furnishings, fragrance, Purple Label tailoring from 1994, Double RL workwear and children's clothes all followed.

Ralph Lauren listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1997. Its sponsorships, including Wimbledon and, since 2008, the outfits for the United States Olympic team, made the polo player a fixture of national occasions. The company also opened restaurants, including RL in Chicago and the Polo Bar in New York in 2015.

In 2015 Lauren stepped down as chief executive, handing the role to Stefan Larsson, who left in 2017. Patrice Louvet, a former Procter & Gamble executive, has led the company since 2017, refocusing it on its core brands and full-price sales. Lauren, now in his eighties, remains executive chairman and chief creative officer, and the label still presents its collections in New York, where the company began with a box of ties.