Ralph Lauren and its American Dream

The history of Ralph Lauren

Photo source: Vogue

“American Dream”, “Polo”, “Preppy style”, when you see these words at first sight, which brand can they remind you? For almost everyone, the answer is absolutely Ralph Lauren Group, which was founded by Ralph Lauren in 1968. Today, it is one of the 10 top luxury brands in the world and it had top online marketshare in the apparel luxury market in 2016.

Source: PMX Agency’s 2016 Trend Report.

Ralph Lauren was born in 1939 to an ordinary Jewish immigrant family and began his apparel career by selling ties to fellow students while in high school during the early 1950s. Started with the tie designing, Ralph Lauren got his first success with the support of tie manufacturer Beau Brummell and this wide tie collection was Ralph Lauren’s first work named after Polo. Polo ties are all about Italian colorful patterns, and are twice as wide and, of course, twice as expensive as a standard tie. As soon as they came on the market, they flew into hundreds of homes like dandelions blown by the wind. And in the early 1970s, the full collection of menswear named Polo was launched and quickly expanded in America, followed by a womenswear collection, which were all inspired by Ivy League college preppy looks. And Ralph Lauren's women's clothing truly conforms to the American spirit - a sense of wear that does not change due to the trend, but a timeless and personal style.

The label "United States" was shown to the greatest extent in Ralph Lauren's advertising.

Ralph Lauren has nowadays 17 fashion brands and 493 directly operated stores in the world, among which the most famous brand is still Polo Ralph Lauren, the image of “Polo” has led the classic American lifestyle fashion for 50 years around the world, even today is not outdated. Ralph Lauren chose polo as his apparel theme not only because of his love for this sport but also because it immediately reminds people of a leisurely life. What he wants to express is the apparel that is close to life and involves American history and culture, in which consumers can find the pursuit of quality, fine living and prestige. In addition to the polo, the British and American upper-class social life in the early 40 years of twentieth century, the wild west, the old movies, the baseball players of the 1930s, and the old rich are the sources of his design inspiration. It should be said that Ralph Lauren contributed a lot in terms of citing the plain Shek style to the field of fashion design.

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yifei Huang

Sources: <Ralph Lauren – A Brand Capturing The American Spirit> by Martin Roll, July 2018. <https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/strategy/ralph-lauren-a-brand-capturing-the-american-spirit/>