Evolution of Polo Ralph Lauren
The Evolution of Polo Ralph Lauren Polo Ralph Lauren has become one of the most renounced clothing companies of the 20th and 21st century. The creator of Polo is a man named Ralph Lifschitz who was born on October 14, 1939 in New York, New York (Ralph Lauren). He was born to Fraydl Kotlar and Frank Lifshitz who were Ashkenazi Jewish from Belarus. In 1955, when Ralph was 16, he and his brother changed their last name to Lauren because they were made fun constantly for having a Jewish last name but his brother Lenny kept the last name (Ralph Lauren). At the age of 18 Ralph worked for various fashion stores such as: Bloomingdale’s, Brooks Brothers, and the Rivetz of Boston neckwear company as a salesman for all of the stores (Vogue). While he worked at all these jobs Ralph studied at the City College of New York for business. Three years later in 1960, Lauren was drafted in to the military and he joined the U.S. Army Reserves and he started basic training at Fort Dix (Vogue). Lauren once said “When I was growing up, officers in uniform were very impressive to me… When you wear an old military jacket there’s some sort of connection to those qualities, the way the uniforms were made really inspired me for some of my designs that I made later on.” (Vogue). Four year later, in 1964 Ralph marries Ricky Low-Beer. Since Ralph had been around clothes so much-to be more correct neckties- he created his first line of neckties in 1967 but instead of using his name Ralph Lauren, he uses the alias Polo (Vogue). In 1968 Polo menswear launched and it featured English-cut suits, pleated pants, and Fair Isle sweaters (Vogue). Ralph told Vogue “none of the magazines even wrote about my new line, or came to my show”. The president of Bloomingdale-Marvin Traub-took notice of his new line and gave Ralph his own in-store boutique at the age of 29, it opened in 1969. The boutique was very successful and helped position Bloomingdale and Ralph as the new faces of menswear. In 1970
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