Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer born in The Bronx on October 14, 1939.
Lauren attended several schools in New York, including DeWitt Clinton High School, Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, and Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy. He went on to study at Baruch College, the Zicklin School of Business, and the City University of New York, completing an education that unfolded across multiple institutions in the New York area.
Over the course of his career, Lauren received a number of significant honors in recognition of his work as a fashion designer. The Coty Award came among the earlier acknowledgments of his standing in the field. He later received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal, a distinction associated with the Smithsonian Institution. On the international stage, he was named an Officer of the Legion of Honour, one of France's most prominent civil honors. At home in the United States, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian award.
Lauren's work as a fashion designer has been recognized by institutions on more than one continent, from the Coty Award early in his career to the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honour in later years. A citizen of the United States who grew up in the Bronx, his public identity has remained anchored throughout in his role as a fashion designer — a thread that runs from his New York upbringing through a career marked by recognition both domestically and abroad.
Quotes by Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren's insights on:
I want my clothes, my stores, everything I design to have that feeling of being natural and easy. And that takes effort, but you try not to have it show.
I know it's not enjoying my success to do this, but when I see too many Polo shirts, I say to myself, 'That's the end of that.'
On one level, there's an aspirational quality to having a Polo player. On another level, it's just a great shirt with lots of colors.
When I was growing up, officers in uniform were very impressive to me. They were doing a job. They were protecting our country; they were heroes. When you wear an old military jacket, there's some sort of connection to those qualities - to being strong, to being tough, to being a warrior.
I'm a big fan of Woody Allen. I used to love the fact that he wrote his own screenplay and acted in the movie.
I loved Cary Grant. I got to know him and Audrey Hepburn. Here were these people I always liked and admired, and they were coming to my house.
I never said to myself, 'I'm going to be the greatest.' I just wanted to do my own thing.