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Ralph Lauren On His Home Collection And Living The American Dream

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Ralph Lauren has always been ahead of his time. For close to five decades, he has successfully steered his startup into a global multibillion-dollar lifestyle empire embodying the iconography of America, which today comprises apparel, homeware, accessories and fragrances and operates over 300 stores worldwide. Recognized as one of the world’s greatest business leaders, the New York-based American fashion designer, entrepreneur and philanthropist draws inspiration from New England’s rusticity, the West’s natural beauty, Hollywood’s glamor, the spirit of safari and the grandeur of an English estate for his impressive portfolio of premium lifestyle brands. Gifted with the Midas touch, everything he works on turns into gold, and his products are all about creating a dream he’d want for himself and that his customers would want for themselves. According to Forbes’ list of billionaires, the 75-year-old self-made man is currently worth $7.7 billion.

More than 30 years ago, Lauren became the first fashion designer to present an all-encompassing home collection presented in a lifestyle setting. He recalls what had prompted him to launch Ralph Lauren Home back in 1983, “Everything I do comes from my life. When Ricky [his wife] and I were creating our first home, we couldn’t find the things we were dreaming of, not just the colors and textures, but the quality of things like pure cotton sheets. That’s when I decided to create my home collection. I knew I wanted it to be as complete a statement for the home as the one I was making in apparel. I connected it to the same lifestyle themes that inspired those collections: a rustic cabin in the mountains, a charming New England house, a shingled cottage by the sea or a glamorous penthouse in the city.”

Reflecting heritage, tradition and timeless elegance, iconic Ralph Lauren Home collections – like Point Dume, a contemporary interpretation of Lauren’s love of the seaside, Desert Modern, a kind of rugged luxury inspired by the beauty of the Western frontier, Apartment No. One, which reflects an aristocratic English lifestyle, and Brook Street, which combines Savile Row haberdashery, Hollywoodian romance and whimsical details – are accompanied by an assortment of lighting, floor coverings, furniture and decorative accessories, ranging from 19th-century industrial lamps to graphic Art Deco rugs. Lauren shares some of the lessons he has learned from his experiences of designing across different categories of objects, “My design process is always the same. I style a bed the way a woman dresses – in layers, the mix of pattern and texture speaks to an individual style. I write through my clothes. I am always inspired by the heroine or hero of my movie; whether it’s what she or he wears, where they live, the dress or the jacket, the furniture and the art on the walls are all part of the story. I create a world around them – the clothes, the watches, the furniture. It’s a world beyond fashion.”

In the Ralph Lauren company headquarters on Madison Avenue in New York City – filled with artworks, books and memorabilia that inspire the designer – may be found iconic pieces from the Ralph Lauren Home Collection: the City Modern cocktail table, the Highbridge desk in clear tempered glass and stainless steel with sawhorse legs and leather-clad RL-CF1 lounge chairs with carbon-fiber arms and legs. “The essence of good design in everything I do is about quality and craftsmanship, and a commitment to creating things that are never out of style, that have a timeless look and feel,” Lauren says. “I am inspired by the places I travel to, the people I meet and often my own personal collections. My car collection has inspired everything from watches to chairs. The carbon fiber of my RL-CF1 chair was inspired by the carbon fiber from one of my McLarens [a F1 race car]. The luxurious leather interiors of my Gullwing inspired a channeled leather headboard.”

An avid car collector, Lauren reportedly paid $1.4 million for a LaFerrari, a hybrid supercar that can go from zero to 120mph in seven seconds. “Every car I’ve ever collected – antique or modern – inspired me in some very unique and personal way,” he notes. “Automobiles are an expression of the person who drives them. They say as much about you as your clothes do. For me, they are like art pieces crafted for not only speed, but style and beauty. There is an experience that is unique to each car, an expression in their design that often inspires a watch, a chair or even a running shoe. Their innate craftsmanship and design, driven by a quest for functionality, is a constant inspiration.” His collection of over 70 rare automobiles (including a 1929 Bentley Blower, 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza, 1938 Bugatti 57SC Atlantic, 1950 Jaguar XK120 Roadster, 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe, 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO and 1996 McLaren F1 LM) is so well known that it has been displayed in museum exhibits like Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

His is a true rags-to-riches story. The son of Russian immigrants, Lauren was born in 1939 in the Bronx, New York, and worked part-time in the rag trade at Alexander’s from age 16. He studied business at Baruch College, then enlisted in the US Army before graduating. After two years, he left to work in the fashion industry before establishing his own company working out of a drawer in the Empire State Building, turning rags into ties that he sold to shops around New York, incorporating his visions about life and style to capture the American dream using color, fabric and design. He launched his label Polo Ralph Lauren with a $50,000 loan in 1967 and took it public in 1997.

Lauren describes how he developed his own personal sense of style, “I’ve always believed that personal style is about having a sense of who you are and what you believe in, and that can develop into self-confidence. I think I had that from an early age, going to army-navy surplus stores to search for safari jackets and military clothes. They were made for real life and work, and that’s what I’ve always loved. Once you have self-confidence, you can wear whatever you want and project something personal about who you are and how you feel. Dressing, then, can become an adventure. You dress for the role you want to play on a particular day.”

Awarded the Key to the City of New York by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his outstanding civic contributions and the French Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, Lauren is the only recipient of all four of the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s highest honors: top womenswear and menswear designer, retailer of the year and lifetime achievement. He has also been conferred the CFDA’s first-ever American Fashion Legend Award and its Humanitarian Leadership Award. After having a brain tumor removed nearly three decades years ago, the committed philanthropist has supported cancer charities and initiatives for the past 25 years: he helped establish the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research at Georgetown University Medical Center and is synonymous with the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign, and the Ralph Lauren Corporation, together with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and North General Hospital, founded the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention in Harlem.

Now Lauren has announced the funding of an entire breast cancer wing at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London – the biggest cancer facility in Europe – and pledged to restore and modernize the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, one of Paris’ most famous art institutions. So what legacy does Lauren hope to leave behind in the world of fashion and design for the generations to come?He replies, “There is a way of living that has a certain grace and beauty. It’s not a constant race for what’s next, but an appreciation for what has come before. There is a depth and quality of experience that is lived and felt, knowing what is really meaningful. This is the quality of life that I believe in.”

Highlights of the Ralph Lauren Home Collection

1)    Rue Royale Side Table – It features bamboo-inspired brass legs and a Nero Marquina marble top

2)    Carthage Table Lamp – Resembling an antique infantry helmet perhaps used during the Punic Wars, it has a solid brass domed lampshade and spindle base

3)    Westbury Table Lamp – In solid brass with a polished nickel finish, the base is shaped like a classic stirrup, referencing equestrianism

4)    Duke Dining Table – The large, imposing table in rosewood and polished nickel with twin pedestal base brings us back to 1930’s America

5)    Clivedon Carved Chair – The Georgian-style armchair made of ebonized walnut showcases foliate carved arms, cabriole legs and scrolled feet

6)    Brook Street Club Chair – The comfy Art Deco-influenced lounger in mahogany comes upholstered in light grey Austyn cashmere wool

Ralph Lauren Black Safari Flying Tourbillon Watch

In 1984, Ralph Lauren introduced his first safari collection to the fashion world, and now his romantic and utilitarian vision of the safari appears in the high-end, rugged yet refined Black Safari Flying Tourbillon, which feels at home both out in the savannah and in the city. “When I started out as a designer, I dreamed of going to Africa, to safari,” says Lauren. “Safari is the dream of adventure. It’s about living the life you want and pushing yourself beyond your limitations. It’s the dream of experiencing the wild and seeing the farthest reaches of the world.” The timepiece combines a sporty silhouette and gunmetal finish with the elegance and technicality of a flying tourbillon complication. It showcases a 45-mm shot-blasted black stainless steel case, mat black dial edged with brown elm burl wood echoing the dashboard of Lauren’s prized Bugatti, large Roman numerals, luminescent black hands and black alligator strap, and is equipped with the self-winding Caliber RL167 with micro-rotor, 40-hour power reserve and water-resistance to 50m visible through the sapphire crystal caseback.