Word: ralph
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...right. Polo Ralph Lauren remains perhaps the strongest combination of business and brand in all fashiondom. Lauren, born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx, conceived a vision of Waspy splendor and preppie elegance and then had the all-American gumption to go out and live that dream and project it in sepia tones around the world. He once sold his wares store to store in a bomber jacket and jeans, and leveraged a line of wide neckties into a wider life-style empire with annual revenues of $1.47 billion and profits of $120 million. Until this year, Polo/RL sported growth rates...
...intersection of Seventh Avenue and Wall Street has been the scene of some ugly collisions. Fashion companies--and Lauren has been an exception--tend to have lousy managers. The list of fashion victims includes Donna Karan, Liz Claiborne, Guess?, Mossimo and Nautica. The only hot fashion stock is, ironically, Ralph-licate designer Tommy Hilfiger, which is projecting earnings growth of 58% this year, taking the stock...
...Canadian-based retailer that sold $90 million of designer-style (did somebody say Prada knock-off?) wear last year and has clout with the coveted youth market. And with only 13 stores in the U.S., Club Monaco has room to expand. Fashion insiders see Club Monaco as eventually becoming Ralph's stylish answer to the Gap and Banana Republic. What the purchase was not, Lauren insists, "is a mass-market answer to feed a starving stock...
Lauren has always had the ability to move with his mostly boomer customers, and that skill is now getting a crucial test. When sportswear exploded, he created Polo Sport. Designer jeans? Ralph was big. When value was king, he offered the lower-priced Chaps line. His recent custom-made Purple Label commands some $2,500 for a man's suit. (Now there's something Wall Streeters should warm to.) "My job is to feel the changing times," he says...
This kudzu-like spreading of the brand, however, does carry some risk of diluting the Ralphness of it all. For yesterday's would-be Wasp, the Ralph Lauren brand signified something very clear. What is today's consumer to make of a brand comprising everything from silverware to biking gear? "His clothes are losing their historic reference points," says David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group, a retail consultant. "He's not building a myth anymore...