How A Poor Bronx Boy Created Ralph Lauren
The Ralph Lauren story is the ultimate rags-to-riches fashion designer tale. Born Ralph Lifshitz in 1939 to poor Jewish immigrant parents in the Bronx, he changed his name at 16 to escape schoolyard bullying, wrote “millionaire” in his high school yearbook as a life goal, and built a $20 billion luxury brand from a single drawer in the Empire State Building. This American dream entrepreneur didn’t attend fashion school, didn’t have wealthy backers, and didn’t even know how to manufacture a tie when he launched Polo in 1967—yet he sold over $500,000 worth of his wide, colorful neckties in just [See More…]
