Word: designer
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...worth of ties in his 1967 start-up year, when his entire business fit into one large drawer in a rented space in the Empire State Building. At least one powerful department store, Bloomingdale's, tried to persuade Lauren to make his radical ties narrower. But his novel design became such an instantaneous rage that Bloomingdale's gave in. Before long, retailers were ordering 100 dozen of the young designer's creations at a time...
...1970s. It started after he began displaying his engaging smile in advertisements in 1974, when Saks Fifth Avenue asked him to appear in a print ad for the store's Polo boutique. Lauren, 5 ft. 5 or so, projected considerable well-tanned sex appeal. In the same year he designed the male wardrobe for the opulent remake of The Great Gatsby, which starred Robert Redford. In 1977 Lauren's creations attracted a further celebrity following when Diane Keaton adopted them in a layered, tomboyish look for Woody Allen's Annie Hall. Lauren's label began to proliferate rapidly, appearing...
Lauren constantly scours his surroundings for design ideas. His taste is eclectic, though not unpredictable: he is chronically hooked on classics. "I love jeans, cowboy boots, tweed jackets, pin-stripe suits, old race cars, Porsches, Indian blankets and baskets," he says. Lauren once chased down a Colorado cowboy whose battered jeep he wanted to buy on the spot. Observes WWD Editor McCarthy: "Everything he sees or does comes back to his work. He is totally consumed...
...capital-intensive garment- making process, along with many of the subsequent losses caused by any product flops. Since the manufacturer assumes more of the risks under licensing arrangements, Lauren gets a smaller share of any resulting profits. But the licensing arrangements give him greater freedom to concentrate on design and marketing...
Nowadays the company's licensees bring to Polo/Ralph Lauren an expertise in making a particular generic item, to which Lauren adds his design, packaging and promotional ideas. His 38 manufacturers produce virtually everything but Lauren's top-of-the-line Polo menswear. The largest licensee is Cosmair, for fragrances, followed by Bidermann Industries, for womenswear. Lauren retains a final say, which he zealously exercises, over the end products. Recalls Clothing Executive George Ackerman, whose company, Warnaco, makes some of Lauren's moderately priced Chaps menswear: "A few years ago we did a safari jacket with copper snaps. Ralph loved...