All language subtitles for Very.Ralph.2019.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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any of us would be

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without that stage.

MAN 2: Music provided an avenue
out of the legacy of slavery.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

Will the Apollo continue to be
a space of black expression?

Or will it be a shrine
to the past?

The Apollo has always
represented truth.

TA-NEHISI COATES:
They made us into a race,

but we made ourselves
into a people.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

Audrey Hepburn:
Dearest Ralph,

As a designer,

you conjure up

all things I most care about.

The country.

Misty mornings.

Summer afternoons.

Great open spaces.

Horses.

Corn fields.

Vegetable gardens.

Fireplaces.

And Jack Russell terriers.

Your story is not
about friends.

Or fleeting moments.

But about values,
and things that last.

You've not only created
a total concept of fashion,
and style,

but by your consistency,
and integrity,

protected it.

Always reminding us

of the best things in life.

And if you say something is
"very Ralph Lauren ,"

you're immediately understood.

(upbeat orchestral music plays)

Ralph Lauren:
Everything in this room

is a mix of everything
that I love.

So they're gifts of friends,

they're gifts from people
in the company.

They all mean something.

And they're not just things.

I'm inspired by everything
that I see.

You know, I love old things.

I love cowboy boots,
I love details.

I love cars.

They're sort of
the beginnings of a concept.

Somehow it all ends up
in my clothes.

We ought to work on something
that's a little lighter.

This is authentic,
but maybe we need to do

a feminine version of that.

I never thought I was in
the fashion business.

If someone said,
"Are you a fashion designer?"

No, I hate fashion.

Buffy Birrittella:
I think anti-fashion
was always something

that Ralph was inspired by.

So it really comes out of,

just a gut that Ralph has.

This amazing instinct.

Mary Randolph Carter:
Ralph always says, "I never
went to fashion school."

He doesn't do
his own sketches.

Not all designers do,
but many of them do.

These are great.
I love these.

I think he was freed.

I think it was an amazing thing

that he didn't have
that training.

Ralph:
I didn't have the training
to cut the garment,

or do some of the things
that designers do.

But I had the eye.

And I don't know where
it came from.

When I was growing up,
I didn't even know
what a designer was.

But my father was an artist.

The color

somehow comes from
my father.

My father was a painter.

He made paintings

and murals in offices,

and churches and synagogues.

I'd watch him up
on scaffolds painting,

and I'd say,
"Wow, it's amazing."

But I didn't have his talent.

But somehow, I was given
something else.

The artistry came
in another way.

(jazzy music playing)

Ralph had this special thing

that rose to the surface.

He had such a great creativity
and imagination.

So I always felt
a little special about,
you know, who I was.

Was I Eddie Fisher?
(laughs) Or was I...

whoever the star was
at the moment.

When I was a kid,
I'd go into a dance,

and the girls,

somehow I could feel
that they liked me.

And I couldn't figure out
what it was,

whether I was really handsome,

or it was my imagination.

But I enjoyed

if someone said I was cute.

Jerry Lauren:
He had a natural affinity

for finding things

and putting himself together,

uh, that made him special.

Like, "Where'd you--
Where'd you find that,
Ralph?"

Maybe he'd find a local store

that had an old army jacket,
and he'd wear that.

But maybe he'd grab a jacket

and then, and was stylish.

And, and it was like, boom.

Everybody looked around
and said, "That's great.
That's cool."

He just had style.

Calvin Klein:
I saw Ralph when
I was a teenager.

We both grew up
in the Bronx.

I remember seeing him

because he dressed in a way

that was so different
from everyone else.

And I thought, "How cool,"
you know,

"that he has the courage
to walk around like that."

He had a very personal look.

Ralph:
When I was 14,

my friend took me
up to his house.

And then he opened
his father's closet.

I saw all these shoes

with shoe trees in them.

And I said,
"Wow, look at that."

I went home and looked at
my closet.

It was shoes piled up,

hardly can find one shoe
after the other shoe.

I lived in a small little room

with my two older brothers.

I had the cot,

and I realized that
I can't wait to
get out of here,

so I can have my own drawers
and my own things.

I grew up in a very humble way.

My parents were European.

Came to this country
when they were
16 and 17 years old.

And they took care of us,
and, and loved us.

I always had a nice home life
with my parents,

and my brothers and sister.

But you are always aspiring.

You set your dreams.

You're looking out
at the world a little bit.

Learning that life
could be better.

I could see that
there was something

that he was creating,

that I think later on,

uh, he would use
in his design rooms.

The vision was the same.

He had this idea
about lifestyle,

buying into

you can live this way
through his clothes.

(indistinct chattering)

I just walk straight there.

-Okay.
-Thank you.

Here's your--
Oh, you want to see,
Ralph?

Ralph:
You know, when models
walk into my office,

they're 18 years old.

No sophistication.

-Michel Botbol:
Where are you from?
-I'm from Germany.

Ralph:
All of sudden they become
something else.

-Isabella, where are you from?
-Brazil.

Take a walk.

Ralph:
The star of your movie.

-Hi.
-Birrittella:
The light went out.

Birrittella:
Interesting, but I can't
use this.

(indistinct chattering)

-I think she's good.
-Yeah.

-All right. Okay.
-She's good.

Ralph:
I like very natural women.

Not too much makeup.

She just wears
a pair of jeans
and a T-shirt.

Not the girl with
all the fashion
and the designer clothes.

And I love long hair.

Hair blowing in the wind,
convertible--

That's what my vision is,
what my wife looks like.

Andrew Lauren:
My mother is his muse.

She has a great sense
of personal style.

Uh, and simplicity.

Dylan Lauren:
She's beautiful,
and she's very natural.

My dad does not like
any makeup on me or her.

He wants very natural beauty.

She really just is
so down to earth.

My mom is sort of
a tomboy jock

and elegant woman.

David Lauren:
My mom walks into a room

and she just looks natural,
and dress is flowing,

and he says,
"Wow. You look beautiful,"
he'll say.

And then he'll go
into the office and say,

"You should have seen
how Ricky walked in.
What she did."

The way she was dressed,
that's what I'm trying to

capture a little bit
of that spirit.

His different characters
come to life,

but they all have pieces
of my mom in them.

(train rumbling)

Ralph:
I grew up passing Ricky's door

in the Bronx.

But we'd never met.

When I met Ricky,
she was 19 and a half
years old.

There was an honesty

and an integrity to her,
and a sweetness,

and by accident, she happened
to have been beautiful.

He said, "If I asked you,
would you go out with me?"

And I said, "I don't know.
Ask and we'll see."

But he thought I was being
very clever and coy.
I wasn't.

I was innocent,
and I said what I felt.

Ralph:
I was 24 years old.

And I was not looking
to get married.

But we fell in love,
and it was like,

after about the fourth date,
I thought,

this is the girl
I'm gonna marry.

Ricky Lauren:
We were children.

We were living there
in the Bronx.

I was... We were still kids.
(laughs)

We had a small apartment
with a Pullman kitchen.

A kitchen that's in
the same room as
the living room.

We had nothing.

We slept on the floor
on a mattress, and--
(laughs)

And that was the beginning.

We had a train
above our heads.
The El.

It was like a movie.

When we'd hear the noise,

I think it was
Barefoot in the Park

when the train went by
and the whole room...

It's sort of the young,
married couple,

and I remember
we had a phone and...

The phone was a
turquoise Princess.

And I never, ever thought
I'd have a tur-- a Princ--

turquoise Princess phone
in my house.

But we loved the phone
'cause it was so modern.

Ricky Lauren:
And we'd go down
to Greenwich Village,

and there was a store
that sold furs.

And they were patchwork furs,
very often.

And we'd go searching around
for interesting things

that we could decorate
the house with.

We had a bulletin board.

And on the bulletin board,
we would tack dream pictures.

Things we loved.

Like he would put
a Morgan sports car.

Or a beautiful place.

Anything that we'd loved
at the time.

His father was an artist,

and he was able to do
faux bois, which is fake wood.

He painted it.

So the walls of
the living room
were wood.

But not really wood.
(laughs)

They were painted.

Ralph:
And we painted all
the little trim in the house,

and they were wrought-iron.
We made 'em like gold.

Ricky Lauren:
We stayed up all
night long gilding.

It was ridiculous.
With those fur rugs,

and everything else
that we had accumulated.

We didn't have very much,
but we were happy with
what we had.

This is nice on Vlada.

Ralph:
You like that?
You want a bag?

Kind of a very cool bag?

Botbol:
The one with the studs
was cool.

Botbol: Ralph,
doesn't have to be exact
with the ponytail,

-but there's something chic--
-But when you see her,

when you see her hair up...

-...you want it more dramatic.
-Woman: Needs to be more umph.

Ralph:
Yeah. Yeah, let me see that.

That looks beautiful.

The bag looks a little rugged.

You know, I didn't know
what my story was gonna be.

I didn't say, "I'm gonna be
this great fashion designer."

Or whatever you want to call it.

But even as a young man,
I had a story

Birrittella:
He always had a sense about

what he wanted to look like,

how he wanted
his clothes to look.

When he was a tie salesman,

he and Ricky had just
gotten married.

And he went to
a custom tailor, and...

just told him what he wanted.

No training whatsoever.

And he designed his wardrobe
with this tailor.

The Daily News Record,

which was the menswear
daily newspaper,

did a story on Ralph
back in 1964

on his personal style.

This is three years before
he started his business.

He was just this
dashing man about town

who, because he couldn't find

exactly what
he wanted in the stores,

was having his clothes
custom-made

while he was, uh,
a salesman.

Ralph:
I just knew what I wanted.

I had this passion
to get something

and no one was doing it.

So I'm saying,
"I wanna buy a tie.

I wanna wear
the white tie."

Then I would
go to a tie-maker

and have them
make ties for me.

Why I wanted the white tie,

maybe I saw it in old movies
and they looked great.

Maybe it was on Fred Astaire,
and I liked the look.

♪ It's just like ♪

♪ Looking for a raindrop
in the ocean ♪

Ralph: And I'd say,
"I want it, I want that."

♪ Searching for a dew drop
in the dew ♪

Ralph:
But I didn't know
where to buy it.

♪ Still I've gotta find you ♪

Ralph:
Um, I saw 'em in the movies,

but I didn't see 'em
in the stores.

♪ I'm gonna count ♪

♪ The folks that we'll meet ♪

♪ Look at each face... ♪

Ralph:
I had ideas about newness.

And so I started out
making these ties.

And I made them unusual.

My ties were handmade.

They were special.

My mom would sit there
with a cousin of hers.

And they'd sew the labels
into the neck wear.

And my dad helped Ralph
make swatch cards.

And, uh, it was kind of like
everybody pitching in.

The office, really,
was the tiniest little thing

in the Empire State Building.

And all he had was a drawer.
And in the drawer,

he had the samples
of the ties and the fabrics.

Ralph:
I called the brand "Polo"

because I always loved sports.

And, you know, I--
I thought, well,
"I couldn't call it baseball,

or basketball," I said,

and "Polo" sounded
sort of sporty.

It sounds like a master plan.
It wasn't a master plan.

Not thinking about any of it,

I said, "This is what
I want to do.
I like these ties.

"I'm gonna make 'em wider.
I'm gonna bring 'em
over to the store.

I think they're
gonna like it."

I brought it over
to Bloomingdale's.

'Cause Bloomindale's
was the entree
into every store.

'Cause every store
at that time

was shopping Bloomingdale's
to see what was new.

Who the new resource is,
what's happening.

And I brought the ties
to Bloomingdale's.

The buyer looked
at the tie and said,
"Ralph, it's too wide.

"And would you make it
a little narrower?

"And would you take
your label off?

We want to have
our store brand."

When our tie buyer

asked him to take
the Ralph Lauren
label off the ties,

he simply closed up
his sample case
and walked away.

Ralph:
I don't know what gave me
the guts to say no.

Not selling to a major store

that was gonna give you
all that exposure,

because I want 'em to be
the way I designed it, and...

this is the brand,
and this is the name.

Jerry Lauren:
Right then and there,

that was gonna be
his first opportunity

to really do some business,
or whatever,

and he walked away.

"Forget about it.

"You don't have
to buy my stuff.

I'm not gonna give you
your label."

Ricky Lauren:
When he told me,

it got me kind of nervous.

But I wrote him a letter,

and on--
in the letter, I said,

"I'm not going to be
in your way.

"I'm going to wish for you
the wings to fly.

"And I'll be there with you.

Whatever you do,
I'm there for you."

Ralph:
I loved what she wrote.

It was very deep-felt.

Ricky's parents
came from Vienna.

They left when Hitler came.

She grew up hearing
what they lived through.

And so, she wanted stability.

She was saying,
"I believe in you.

And I think
you're gonna do it."

And I did it.

Bloomingdale's
came back to me.

-Narrator: The Polo tie,
by Ralph Lauren.
-(hooves clopping)

-All linen,
in 10 smashing colors.
-(thwacks)

$12.50 at Bloomindale's,
the Father's Day store.

When you have
a four-inch tie,

instead of three-inch
or two-and-a-half inch,

it changes the way
someone looks.

When you had a wide tie,

the next step is you
need different shirts
and different collars.

Now you had new ties,
new shirts,

and you need new suits.

That was the era of the '60s,

the time when
the whole men's business

really was going
through change.

Ralph:
And I found a whole
world of, of ideas.

The timing was interesting.

The world was changing.

Fashion was happening for men.

Birrittella:
It was the early '60s

when men wore a uniform.

There was just very, very
prescribed ways of dressing.

Joel Schumacher:
It was the '60s Mad Men era.

Men's clothes

were very-- still very,
very conservative.

Ralph:
I knew how to do the ties.

But I didn't stop from there.
I just kept going.

What am I gonna wear
with the ties?

Am I gonna make a shirt?
Gonna make a suit?

I found the suit maker.
I met the shirt maker.
All of a sudden,

they're buying the ties.
They're loving the ties.
"What else you make, Ralph?"

"I have shirts."

Birrittella:
He was doing very
flamboyant shirtings.

And these wide lapel suits.

And, uh, so, it was news.

And I was a journalist,
so of course,
I wrote about him,

because it was fantastic.

He had done this linen
belted back suit.

No one was doing wrinkled,
unconstructed suits.

You can picture
guys in the '30s,

and I immediately
thought of Gatsby.

Bridget Foley:
He started with, you know,

the kind of clothes
that he wanted to wear.

The characters
he would like to be.

He wanted to tell stories.

And that was completely new

and revolutionary
in the men's arena.

He basically created
the menswear industry

as a designer reality.

Ralph:
When I was starting out,

uh, the designer name

was not, uh,
appealing to men.

They were used to buying
in certain companies,

certain brand stores.

But they were not--
Designers were for the women.

And the tailor
was for the man.

(indistinct chattering)

Ralph:
As long as it has
the folds in it, Jerry.

Jerry Lauren:
Yeah. I know, I know.

Schumacher:
What Ralph did was took
some of the great classics,

and made them relevant.

He made them better.

Better fabrics, better fit.

And Ralph's taste...

Bob, if you wanna
take off your hat
when you're taking it off,

take off your hat.

Schumacher:
He has a very critical eye.

And Buffy Birrittella

was so attuned to him

that she knew exactly
what he wanted.

(indistinct chatter)

Birrittella:
The attention to detail,

whether it's a shirt
or a shoulder on a jacket,

those were things that,

you know, he trained
my eye on very,
very early on.

For chairman of the board,
I don't know.

Birrittella:
So, when you go out there,

take your time.

Walk back and forth
across the T,

and up and down.

One of the things
he was trying to do
was to meld

the custom tailoring
of English Savile Row,

with an American sensibility.

But it was the spirit
of the clothes,

not just the technical
details of the clothes,

that made me see clothes
in a whole other way.

I knew
I had to work for him.

Ralph:
Buffy was my right arm.

She understood the clothes.
I showed her a jacket;
she got it.

Her eye was good.

Birrittella:
He's very competitive.

Very sure of himself.

He had a real sense
about who he was,

and what he wanted to do.

Some would characterize it
as cockiness,

but I saw it more
as confidence.

He just had a real belief

and passion

about what he was doing.

Ralph came to me and said,
"I need a shop."

And in his typical calm,
understated way, he said,

"Marvin,
if I don't have a shop,

uh, I can't sell
to you anymore."

Um, we gave him a shop.

And really planned one
in the middle of our main floor.

I mean, going into
Bloomingdale's,

I mean, owning a store,

within a store,

I said, "How did Ralph

"get on the first floor
of Bloomingdale's

where all the bags
and the makeup
and the jewelry was?"

But no.
Ralph was right there.

He had front stage.
Always had.

Ralph had the whole picture.

Ralph:
Bloomingdale's, Marvin Traub,
particularly,

was a believer.

I became their guy.

And they said,
"Keep going, Ralph.
We want more."

But it grew too fast.

And I didn't have the right
bankers at the time.

Schumacher:
There was a certain point,

in the very early days,

where Ralph almost lost
the whole business.

Birrittella:
In the early '70s,

before we started licensing,

the company had overextended
at the bank.

The money going out
was far extending

the money coming in.

We couldn't even, I believe,
make our payroll .

Ralph:
I just remember, like,

one of the guys said,
"Ralph, you're
out of business."

I remember I was so scared.

I was sweating,
but it was cold.

What I was worried about?
Telling my father.

I thought, the one person,

I had this vision of
telling my father
I went out of business.

I got up in the morning;
it was raining.

And I don't know why,

but I put on a white jacket
and white pants.

I hardly ever
wear a white suit.

And I was
walking in the rain.

And I said to myself,

"I'm gonna make it back.
I'm not gonna let this happen."

I went to my partner,
Larry Lockman,

and said, "We have
to advance credit to
the Ralph Lauren company,

"so they can buy
piece goods

in order to ship
to Bloomingdale's."

Something we hadn't done
for other people.

Ralph:
I saved a little money.

I put everything I had
back into the company.

And I, I made it back.

I had a voice.
I had a showcase.

I can do this.

Designer as a store,

not just a designer
as a tie or a shirt.

A designer as a,
as a, as a business.

Ralph:
You think you have
to convince me?

Or, I feel like--

-Man: No--
-I'm sitting here, I'm like--

he's gonna be
hard to convince.

-What's, what's strange
about this?
-Man: No. Just--

The only thing strange,
we should have been there

-two years ago, five years ago.
-Man: Right.

Tina Brown:
One of the biggest flaws
in so many fashion people

is that they're brilliant,
they're clever, they have
beautiful ideas,

but they really don't have
any business sense.

He clearly has an extraordinary
business acumen, as well.

Jerry Lauren:
Ralph knew exactly
what he was doing.

He had a sixth sense

to know what
the world needs.

-I don't think so.
-Ralph: I'm in the business
of fashion.

It sounds like
a frivolous thing,
and it's not important.

But I think it's important
that people express
who they are.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Anna Wintour:
Fashion has to be desirable,
and...

give somebody some kind of
emotional reaction to it.

And, and Ralph sees that,
and understands that,

and he, he gives them the,
the, the whole package.

(applauding)

Birrittella:
He always looked at clothes
in a cinematic way.

How they
created a character.

What they said.

What images
they conjured up.

What moods.

Thinking about the man

as a character
in his own movie.

Anytime I've ever
tried to find
a tweed jacket,

or a hacking jacket,
or a specific type
of trench coat,

you know, like,
Rick's trench coat
from Casablanca ,

or his white dinner jacket,
double-breasted dinner jacket,

it doesn't exist anywhere.

And then you'll walk into
a Ralph Lauren boutique,

and you're like,
"Oh, my God,
he's made it."

These are Ralph Lauren pants,
and, you know,

he has the kind of
things I like.

Tweed jackets,
and those kind of shirts,

and corduroy trousers.

But, um, he doesn't dress me.

I'm dressing myself
since I was 48.

I've always thought of him
as more than just
a fashion designer.

Or a business man.
I thought of him as
a cultural force.

That he changed,
uh, the way that we all looked

and how we should dress
and how we wanted to.

Mr. Lauren is with us
this morning

to talk about what's coming up
in men's clothing,

about his own attitude
toward design,

and what we can expect to pay
in the weeks ahead.

I came from a rural,
working-class background,

but I was ambitious,
and I didn't want to wear
the same suits my father wore.

My father had one suit.

And, you know,
he wore it for everything.

But even the best-dressed
guys in town

were all in old men's suits,

and I didn't want to do that.

But there were no
other choices for us.

And then suddenly,
there was this guy
Ralph Lauren.

Ralph:
There's an attitude
about clothes today

that is much more relaxed,

and unfashionable fashion.

And my role,

in terms of what
I've believed in
and what I wear,

is that I don't really
want to look like
a fashion plate...

I remember talking
to certain people.

They'd say, "Ralph, I'd love
to wear what you're wearing,
but I can't.

"I, I, I don't know.

"It's not me.
I'm-- I like the jeans,

and I like the cowboy boots
and the tweed jacket."

Now every guy I know
has tweeds, and jeans,

and cowboy boots.

I think Western clothes
are as traditional
as a tweed jacket.

And I love things
that are not fashion.

I love things that have
a sense of, of aging.

Have a background
of lifestyle behind it.

What I feel I've given
is a certain romantic

fantasy to the clothes.

Wei Koh: He finds
beauty in every aspect
of American culture,

whether it be Native American,
whether it be cowboy.

Whether it's, the, you know,
Ivy League culture.

And he finds
the sort of nobility,
in each of those.

And he created
the best possible versions,

the idealized versions
of the clothing.

Ralph Lauren democratized

the whole idea
of what was stylish.

And that's the story
of America.

He was the first one to say,

"No, you know, I think
the guy that is the G.I.,

"or the guy
that is the cowboy,

"or the guy that's
the working man,

he could be just as cool
as an aristocrat."

Woody Allen:
The key to his success

is an instinctive
understanding

that his taste spoke
for millions and millions
of people.

It wasn't trying to
figure out what they like.

It was what he liked.

And he was betting

that what he liked,
they would like.

And he was very, very right.

Judith Thurman:
You think Ralph Lauren Polo.

That's what you think: Polo.

The most exclusive,
kingly sport that there is.

That requires you
to own horses,

to know how to ride them.

Ralph Lauren Polo.

Uh, it wouldn't be
Ralph Lifshitz Polo.

That wouldn't work.

Jerry Lauren:
A lot of people thought that
Ralph had changed his name

'cause he wanted it
to be more WASP-y.

Absolutely not true.

Aha!

I am the person

who created the name change.

Throughout life,

having a name
L-i-f-s-h-i-t-z,

Lifshitz, okay,

was a tough thing
to live with.

Ralph and I both went to

the Rabbi Israel
Salanter Yeshiva,

and Yeshiva-- even,
even though the names
were Goldberg,

and Silverberg,
and Silverstein, and--

and Cohen, and--

Lifshitz, they still,
somebody's,
"Oh, hi, Shitzy."

There was never a moment

when I want to
escape my origins,

but, I said, "Lenny and Ralph.

"I want to tell you something.

"I would like for us
to change our names.

"If you guys would
like to do it,

I'm ready to do it.
I don't need this shit
anymore." (laughs)

Richard Cohen:
When I read that that always
the reference to his name,

I didn't think there
was a smidgen of
antisemitism there.

It was like, who was this
little Jew to tell us how
to dress us?

And I wrote a column
to defend Ralph Lauren.

He was coming on, you know.
He was becoming
bigger and bigger.

And they always pointed out
that he was from the Bronx

and his name was Lifshitz.
It's a real name.

"Aha." Elbow jab.

"Aha, I see.
He's just a Lifshitz."

And I resented it.
'Cause I said,

"No. This isn't something bad.
This is good."

And I likened Ralph

to the Hollywood moguls
of the '30s and the '40s.

L.B. Mayer, who was the head
of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.

Sam Goldwyn, another one.

The Warner brothers,
all but one, were born
overseas.

You can go through
the list and say,
"They were all immigrants."

These guys had an idea
in their head.

They were really good
when it came to
feeling the pulse

of the American people.

Come this way, sir.

Cohen:
And that's the eye
of the outsider.

That's what Ralph has.

I thought Ralph Lauren,
like these guys,

created a look.

He was telling people,

this is the great
American look.

And how do I know it?
Because first he saw it
in the movies.

All you need is frame now,
and you'd be a masterpiece.

Andrew Lauren:
My dad is a product
of the movies.

He grew up wanting
to be like the stars
on the silver screen

He loved the style,

the... he had heroes.

And I think those heroes
inspired him.

He wanted to be bigger
and better than where
he came from.

I think he has aspirations
to not only dress the part,

but be the man,

and move past
his upbringing,

and become somebody special.

Ralph:
Movies had a great
impact on me,

because they opened a window

to a world that I didn't
grow up with.

Thurman:
The idealization of the WASP-y
American dream

is a Hollywood notion,

is a Jewish notion,

is a fashion business notion
in America.

And Ralph Lauren's work
is very much about class.

About aspiration.

Like Hollywood,

he sold America on a version
of the American dream.

(big band music plays)

Ralph:
I was always inspired
by '30s or '40s movies.

Movies made somewhere
around the Depression.

They always reminded me
of happy,

make-believe glamour.

Those movies have always
made me feel good.

Thurman:
Could go to the movies
for 10 cents,

and watch a comedy
set in a penthouse,

in which the ladies
were wearing bias-cut
charmeuse evening gowns,

and the men were in impeccable
white tie or tuxedos,

and everybody was smoking
and drinking martinis.

(big band music plays)

Paul Goldberger:
This fantasy of the glamour
of a beautiful penthouse,

and an elegant party,

is one part of
the Ralph Lauren fantasy.

In the Ralph Lauren
version of that,

it's only the elegance
and the beauty.

Nobody's drunk.

Nobody's throwing
a martini glass
and smashing it.

Ralph Lauren has
always understood

that people want the world
to be comfortable.

They don't really want
the world to be full of edge,

and harshness and bitterness.

They want the world
to be right.

The brand is there
to make you smile.

And to make you feel like,
you're, you're dressing
the part.

Ralph Lauren
is not interested
in stirring the pot.

He's not interested
in the nitty-gritty.

Ken Burns:
In another era,
he would have been

one of the great producers
in Hollywood.

He would have been able
to conjure those dreams

that this kid
from the Bronx saw

at the movie houses,
and wanted to fully engage in.

With Ralph, the proscenium
has disappeared,

and he thinks
it is possible

to walk through
into the screen.

And be fully in those worlds,

just as he was.

Schumacher:
He has built his own world

from a very young age.

And in that world,

the romance,

the allure,

the dream,

is alive.

So it's not a dream anymore.

It's a dream manifested.

(soft acoustic guitar
music plays)

Ralph:
I always wanted a beach house.

You know, and had no money.

So Ricky and I would just
walk around the beach and say,

"If you could have
any way you'd want to live,

how would you want to live?"

This is such a beautiful spot.

I have a very hectic life.

And, you know,
when I get away,

I need to get away where,

where I have a simplicity
of life.

-Oh.
-Slide.

Baby. Yeah.

Ralph:
And I do feel that
my family comes first.

Ricky Lauren:
My birthday money from
when I was a little girl

went to starting our family.

And I was an only child.

So having three children
was a big deal for me.

I was so happy.

And it was my job
to be the mother.

To be there to support Ralph,

as he went forward
with his dreams.

And it was important
for us all to be
part of his dreams.

Living the dreams together.

Ralph:
My children were always
part of everything.

We weren't very social
because I never had time.

I wanted to be
with my family.

So on weekends,
where everyone's going
to everyone's houses,

I remember saying
to a friend of mine, I said,

"You know, I'd love to be
with you, but it's summer.

I'm gonna be with my family."

I remember walking
with Ricky one day,

and in East Hampton

they have parties on
the weekends, and...

and all of a sudden
we were not invited
to anything.

I'd see these people,

you know, cars parked
in front of all these--

cars going to parties,
and going to dinner parties.

"I guess they
forgot about us, Ricky."

You know, we, we, uh...

Sometimes you
want to be invited,

but you don't necessarily
want to go.

But when they stop
inviting you, then,

then there's a problem.

Wintour:
Ralph, he totally believes
in the importance of family.

It's rare to see him
out and about.

So, Ralph, in a way,
is quite isolated.

And he has a very
close-knit group

with whom
he feels comfortable,

and can be himself.

His family and people
that have been with him
for years.

I think he feels most at home
and most secure

in these amazing environments
that he's created for himself.

And maybe remaining
in that cocoon

has kept his vision strong.

Remember, the layering
looks good, too.

How many--
Do we have any more
of those dresses?

Do we have any more
dresses in this?

Do we have more dresses?

After I had success,
it built on more success.

We need more of this.
Do we have more?

And I started to believe
I can do things.

We need more evening.

And it kept coming.

But I didn't think I would
ever do women's clothes.

No, lose the color here.

I wanna see how this
could look a little sexier.

A little more evening.

-Because it looks
a little young.
-Mm-hmm.

Ralph:
Like, I love the way
we look here.

Menswear is easier for me,

'cause I'm a man.
I can say,
"I want those pants."

But when I'm doing
women's clothes,

I feel like I've stretched.

-Yeah, I need these
more sophisticated.
-...these, these pants.

-Employee 1: Okay.
-Employee 2: Yep.
Yep, that's cool.

Let's see it
without your hat.

I think you can fix this up,

but the white skirt
bothers me a little bit.

Employee 3:
Right. It's fresher,
right, definitely.

-Dynamite.
-Right. Okay.

Donna Karan:
He knows the fabric.

He knows the silhouette.

-She looks sophisticated.
That's what I like.
-Yes. Okay.

Karan:
He knows what he wants to say.

They look a little
too overpowered.

He's shown it all
by the people who are
gonna bring it in.

And he'll go, that,
that, that, that.

Ralph:
That's beautiful.
Could be day or night.

-Employee: Yeah, agreed.
-Ralph: Depends on
what we don't have.

-The red could be good.
-Yes.

Ralph:
This is very sophisticated.
We need... let me see that.

That's good.
Let me see that.

Brown:
One of the great
delights of Ralph

is just this sense that
his woman can be

in an absolutely drop-dead,
incredible, simple black dress.

(indistinct chattering)

Brown:
And at the same time,

astride a horse wearing
a beautiful silk T-shirt,

and a pair of well-cut jeans.

I just think that
he loves women
in a way that...

other fashion designers, really,
that I can think of, just don't.

He understands women.
He respects women.

Birrittella:
Maybe she doesn't need
the matching belt,

-or the jacket.
-Employee: Right. Yeah.

Brown:
He celebrates women.

That's good.
That's perfect.

That's a great mix.

-Ralph: That's good.
-(employees chattering)

Birrittella:
Women's wear really started

because Ricky and I
were saying,

"Gosh, those are--
Those are great men's clothes.

Make 'em smaller,
because we wanna
wear 'em."

Ralph:
When Ricky first
would go shopping,

and she'd go into
a boys' store that had

hacking jackets, and so,
I'd put the jacket on Ricky.

I'd say, "Oh, that--
that looks great.

I want that.
That's what I wanna do."

Ricky Lauren:
He said, "Well,
I think my muse

"would look wonderful
if she wore slacks
that were pleated.

"And put her hands
in her pockets.

"And, um, you know,

had a great
man-tailored jacket."

Or a beautiful silk shirt
with a bow.

Or even a necktie.

He was seeing me,

and making things for me
the way he thought
I would look good.

And he certainly knew how
to do the men's tailoring
for women.

Birrittella:
The first things we did

for women
when I first started

were shirts,
but they were made
in the men's factory.

He had an image
in his mind's eye

of what the collar should be.

And the stitches per inch,

and what kind of buttons
it should be,

and what the width
of the placket should be.

The tailor would go back
and make something

and come back and show Ralph,
and then we'd fix it,

and tweak it some more,
and back and forth,
and back and forth.

The attention to
every single detail
on the shirt

took an entire day,

to fit and perfect
one shirt.

At the beginning,

Ralph would have
the fashion show

in his office,
which was a living room
with a fireplace.

And we'd have folding chairs.

And Ralph would stand
in front of the fireplace;

he would talk about
the clothes.

So it was very informal.

And he had Persian rugs,

and velvet sofas.

And the showrooms were
what would have been
bedrooms.

Didn't look like
anybody else's showroom,

because it was
somebody's apartment.

He just loved the idea
of this homey place.

Ralph:
First small show,
I did in my offices.

And I had never been
to a fashion show.

After that show, I said,

I called my staff in,
which was two people,
I think.

And I said,
"I just want you to know
that this is it.

I wanna quit the women's.
I want to leave on top."

I had a good show,
and I don't think I could
go anywhere else.

How am I gonna do skirts?
I don't know anything about
skirts and dresses.

I didn't have enough training.

But I found seamstresses
and sewers,

and, on 7th Avenue,

and had the sketch,

the looks of the girls

and what I thought
they should look like.

And then we made the clothes
based on that.

Wintour:
Back in the '70s and '80s,

he defined how
the American woman
was changing.

How a modern woman
was emerging.

And what her needs were,
and what her life was.

He saw their liberation.
He saw their freedom.

Jessica Chastain:
Whenever you have a designer
putting a woman in a tuxedo,

you're going against
the idea of,

and the stereotype,

of what a woman
is supposed to be,

and what is she
supposed to look like.

Kristin Clotilde Holby:
He just had this vision
of the Ralph Lauren woman.

Fresh, American, natural,

um, different than
what had been
going on before.

I'd been modeling
for French designers.

Everything was like
a caricature.

Purple-fuchsia lipstick,

lacquer on the eyes,

lacquer on the hair.

And Ralph said,
"Wash her face.

"Brush her hair.

No makeup."

And I remember thinking
at the time,

"Oh, my God.
This is something new."

I was so stunned,
because for the first time,

it was a picture of me.

A picture of a woman.

It wasn't a picture of
somebody's beauty ideal.

Brown:
I think if Ralph
has one regret,

it'll be that he was not
a movie director.

I could see just how
cinematic his mind is.

When he talks about
an ad campaign,

it's not about just, you know,
trying to sell his clothes.

He understands,

almost more than
anyone I've met,

the, the potency
of the American dream.

(soft orchestral music plays)

Andrew Lauren:
He had a very big
story to tell.

How better to do it

than to have the
New York Times
magazine come out

and you've got
a 17-page spread

of beautiful people.

Beautiful life,
beautiful lifestyle.

Something that is
aspirational but attainable.

He was the first to do it.

Brown:
And when the ads came in,

it was like an event.

People wanted to see
that campaign.

It was as much of a,
uh, a thing in the culture,

as, um, you know,
the release of
a new book or film.

Goldberger:
As Polo Ralph Lauren
began to become

a national presence,

those ads
created an image

that was incredibly powerful.

Deeply alluring...

...and different from
what other people
were doing.

Mary Randolph Carter:
If you look at the early ads,
we would go off and shoot

for sometimes
two weeks at a time.

And we would pack up
all these suitcases.

Men's clothes,
then the women's clothes,

and the children's clothes.

And the home collections.

And we'd create,
you know, that world.

(indistinct chattering,
laughing on screen)

Birrittella:
We cast our movies.

Most of them were not models.

One of the men
was an architect,

and was the husband
of the fashion editor

of Mademoiselle
magazine.

And Ralph thought
he had great style.

He had this mustache.

We had, you know,
sisters of somebody,

and children of,
of these people.

Ralph would find some.
Bruce would find some.

Buffy would grab something
from her-- like a piece
of jewelry that,

that she really loved,
and Ralph would give us
things from his closet.

It wasn't the normal
way of working in
the fashion business

where it was storyboarded.

Birrittella:
One of the things that
drew Ralph to Bruce Weber,

Bruce's pictures
were very evocative,

and very real,
and very anti-fashion.

Ralph:
Usually you have an agency
that comes in.

They research,
and they give you a look.

I didn't need
the agency for that.

I knew exactly who I was
and what I wanted to say.

And I knew what I wanted
for advertising.

I needed to tell a story.

Tim Easton:
When I was on the set,

they would give me,
uh, all these stories.

Tim, this is your house.

Um, you just, uh,
inherited it from your uncle.

But you're trying
not to let the other
family members know yet.

And then Isabelle's
your wife.

Dress you up in
these beautiful clothes.

By the time
he started shooting,

I mean, you really
believe this.

Ralph:
I pick the girls.
I pick the guys.

I gave them the background.

Birrittella:
It's not even
about the clothes.

It really creates
a cinematic vision

of a life.

Wintour:
In working with Bruce,

who is such an American
photographer,

and so much adores
the American way of life,

and family, and children,
and dogs,

and horses.

Together, they created
this Ralph Lauren myth

that exists today.

Foley:
If Ralph is called out
for anything,

and called out
is a big phrase,

because it's very
hard to argue with
the man's success,

it is for the constancy

of his aspirational
point of view,

and his optimistic
point of view.

Thurman:
He's a patriot.

So he channels all these
dreams about America,

uncritically, into his work.

And everybody is overjoyed
to see them,

because they want
to believe that, too.

Americans are very attached
to our Utopian notions.

Randolph Carter:
We'd done some pictures of
just this pristine white barn.

And it was a misty morning.

And he said, "That's my ad."

It just said
"Ralph Lauren Country."

There were no models.
There was nothing.

And I just remember
Bruce Weber said,

"That's one of the bravest
things I think

Ralph ever did
in advertising."

You wanted to step
into that picture,

and you wanted to
live in that world,

and you wanted to live
in that barn.

Brown:
I think people have sometimes

sort of dismissed Ralph
as a marketer,

because his
advertising campaigns

were so extraordinarily
visionary.

Burns:
You are not just buying
an article of clothing.

You've joined a narrative.

And that's very different
than what fashion is.

Andre Leon Talley:
The ads had a language
of elegance.

And a timeless,
classic quality.

It was a lifestyle
that spoke to me

as a young, aspiring
black man in the South.

It's a classic statement
about style.

Ralph Lauren also
broke the codes

when he had Tyson Beckford

in those beautiful
fitted suits.

Tyson Beckford:
You opened the magazine
of GQ and you saw that.

It was just like, "Oh, my God.
What this this? Who is this?"

Even I said, "Who is this?"
You know?

Bethann Hardison:
This young man comes along,

and I guess it was just in,
in Ralph's eye.

Tyson had something
that was street,
yet elegant.

And he was dark,

and very handsome.

Beckford:
It was the big thing
in the black community

for someone of my color,

and my mixed race

to be in something like that.

No one had done that before
on that level.

Here is a black man
in a $3,000, $4,000 suit,

in a GQ magazine.

Wall Street guys
were lookin' at this,

and, you know, uh,

CEOs, businessmen,
were looking like,
"This suit is nice.

This is really nice.
I need to go get this."

Wintour:
Ralph, he has always, always,

at a time when it was not
so socially acceptable,

championed diversity.

He was one of the first
to use African-Americans

in a very meaningful way
in his advertising campaigns,

and in his runway shows.

It wasn't a token person.

You know,
"Let's just check that box."

He would use them in
remarkably strong images.

And they would become
the face of Ralph Lauren.

And not many other people
were doing it at the time

that Ralph stood up
and did it.

It was a big deal.

It was a big deal to have
two people of color be in

a nationwide,

or worldwide ad campaign.

Goldberger:
When you can create
a point of intersection

between enough popularity

to make a very large
and successful business,

and enough creativity

to make it feel interesting,

then, then you're
kind of onto something.

(upbeat orchestral music plays)

Birrittella:
Ralph has been inspired
by so many things

that he hasn't been
confined to one look.

Ralph:
I'm taking things
from different worlds.

And there are certain things
that I love.

Military.

Safari.

Western.

English riding.

They're all romantic stories.

When I'm working
on the collection,

I'm thinking of characters
and people,

and movies and books, and...

They're all part
of what goes in
and then comes out.

And things that
I never knew I had,

things that I never knew
I carried with me,

are revealed
as I start to work.

My childhood,

growing up and my dreams
of future, and...

everything I've experienced,
everything that I've seen.

The creative process to him
is, is like breathing.

There's walls full of clothes
and sketches.

The inspiration
can come from anywhere.

From an old book,
from a painting
he might have seen.

Something in a magazine
that sparked his imagination.

Ralph:
The movie Aviator
was coming out.

And I said,
"That's what I want to do."

And I just started to work
on my next season's collection.

I had to take that and build
a whole world around it.

Talley:
If he's got The Aviator mood,

he's in a room
and there's Amelia Earhart,

and there might even be
Katharine Hepburn.

So you had done
all the research

of The Aviator looks.

All of that, it's all
in the mood boards.

These are rooms--
They are mood rooms.

David Lauren:
He's gathering information,

and it's very
kind of free form.

And the characters,
they're coming to him
as he's working.

It's like an artist
who keeps adding a layer,

keeps adding a new color.

Ralph:
It's like building
a statue out of clay.

It's like you take these
pieces of clay,

and you throw it on
and then you start
to mold it.

Randolph Carter:
Everything is about a story.

It's never about a blouse,
or a pair of pants.

Birrittella:
He's from the same hometown
as Antonio Banderas.

Randolph Carter:
He had a vision of the Riviera .

Gerald and Sara Murphy,

Picasso,

the whole expat American thing
back in the '30s.

Ralph:
Hemingway had an effect.

It's just something
that spurred you on.

So sometimes that's
a whole collection,

sometimes it's a little
piece of something.

Randolph Carter:
It just takes
one spark like that.

A picture, a little
raggy piece of denim,
and he's off.

Birrittella:
It's never a literal thing.

It gives you a sense about
the color, the texture.

The mood of the clothes.

Ralph:
It's about wearability.

It's about understatement.

I believe in timelessness

that doesn't go out
with the trend,

that doesn't go out with age.

Goldberger:
What he does is take things
from the world,

and embrace and synthesize
influences.

He is not somebody who created

an entirely original way
of seeing and doing things.

Ralph Lauren is not
where you turn
for the cutting edge.

That, he leaves
to other people.

You do not need to
have an intellectual
view of fashion

to like Ralph Lauren's work.

It, it's, it--
you viscerally respond to it.

Ralph:
Not everything works.

When you've gotta
pull from your toes,

through your throat
to get this thing happen.

You sort of have to have
an editor's eye and say,

"I don't think this is good.
Put it away."

I always get nervous
when you go on vacation.

-Where am I going? Back--
-After, after you've signed off
on everything and then--

Maybe Buffy'll get a phone call.
"You know, I'm rethinking."

Birrittella:
We started one collection.

We were halfway through it.

Bought sample yardage,

we had walls full of clothes,
and sketches,

and Ralph came back
from, from the holidays,

and said, "It's wrong."

Ralph:
And said, "Wait a minute.

I can make it
more sophisticated,

because I don't want
to look like yesterday.

The next meeting,
everything came off the walls.

And he said,
"I think I want
to do something...

"cleaner, sleeker,
more contemporary.

I think I want to do
something beautiful
with gray flannel."

We went and we, we,
ordered all... (laughs)

all new piece goods.

Cream, cream cashmere,
light gray cashmere.

Beautiful mauves and pinks.

And it was a scramble.

But we believe
in his instincts.

And everyone gets on board.

Brown:
He has created a team.

He sets a template.
He has a DNA.

Everybody understands,
absolutely, what Ralph
really wants.

He's had many of
the same people
working for him for years.

I don't do anything alone.
I work with a team of people.

My company's like a repertory.

It's like a family.

They're good,
and they understand.

It's a team
that's been developed

with my message.

You can't do this alone.

The contrast here.

-Randolph Carter:
Yeah, the contrast.
-I think that's, that's--

Randolph Carter:
One of the things that
Ralph has always loved

is contradiction.

There's an amazing picture
of Naomi Campbell,

wearing like this slinky,

beautiful, gold,
glistening dress.

And Ralph throws
a safari jacket

over her shoulders.

Foley:
All high-end designers
are trying to deal with,

how do you adapt luxury
to the increasingly
casual lifestyle?

But Ralph sort of forged
a lifestyle concept

before it was thing.
He did a lot of things
before they were things.

And that's one of them.

Ralph's whole immersion
into performance wear

and athletic wear
was a huge thing.

And it really grew
out of his belief in

the lifestyle concept.

Now we have so many people
are jumping to do yoga pants.

Ralph Lauren got into it
a long time ago.

He saw that it
wasn't antithetical

to who he is as a designer
or of his message.

This isn't a change.

It's an expansion.
It's an evolution.

An extension of casual.

Koh:
And it's funny today

that all the young guys
are talking about wearing,

you know, track pants,
with like, suit jackets.

And they're like,
"This is what's happening
right now.

"It's all about adaptability,

"and about expressing
the relationship

with the urban environment."
I'm like, "Guys.

Ralph Lauren was doing that
35 years ago." You know?

Wintour:
If you look back
at his history,

you see so much of what
designers are thinking about
today.

Taking these
very simple items,

that you see kids
wearing on the street,

whether it's a jogging pant
or a parka or a T-shirt.

And making them fashion.

And Ralph was the first
to do that.

And to understand that.

And in a way,
to see how street style,

it would become
the world's uniform.

Ralph:
I had the timing.

Timing when the mood is there.

Who are you?
What's happening
in the world?

But you have to have
a strong vision,

and staying power.

Klein:
For every good designer,

the clothes are an extension
of the person.

It has to come from within him.

And it clearly does.

And his idea was,

it wasn't just
a collection of clothes.

It was this complete lifestyle.

And it was all consistent

with this dream that he has.

Karan:
He really put
the world together.

Children, furniture,
men's, women's.

The pillows, the sheets,
the blankets.

The duffel bag.

Margaret Russell:
Ralph Lauren was the very
first fashion designer

to design a full
home collection.

Martha Stewart:
He took lifestyle
and made it...

haute style.
He made-- He just made,

took simple,
everyday beautiful things,

and made everybody covet them.

You can buy a whole
Ralph Lauren room.

Every single thing.
The hardware.

I've bought some
of his hardware.
It was just fabulous.

Givhan:
You can just sort of live
this Ralph Lauren life.

And it's now become
the standard

in the industry.
I mean, I don't know

any brand that aspires
to just be a clothing brand.

Everybody aspires to be
a lifestyle brand.

I think Ralph Lauren
legitimately

offers up a lifestyle.

I think of a lot of
other brands basically

just offer up a lot of stuff.

And this, this window
right here is not gonna
go up to the...

ceiling. It's gonna
have like an area...

Everything that I have done

has been from my vision
of what I would like.

What do I like for my kids?
What do I like for my wife?

What do I like for my house?

It was no one telling me,
"This is new.

There was no one saying,
"Do it." I did it.

Andrew Lauren:
All of sudden, he's like,
"I gotta do homework."

"'Cause I gotta, I gotta
put stuff in my house.

I need napkins."

Every place is a set.

It's my parents' movie.

The house in Bedford,
it's an estate.

It feels like
you're in England.

And then they found
a beautiful place in Colorado.

The beach house in Montauk.

And an apartment in New York.

And then, Jamaica.

Ralph:
The beach, western, English.

They conjure up houses.

They conjure up furniture.

I've taken cowboy boots,

and I made them into chairs

on my ranch.

David Lauren:
These homes,
they're fuel for him.

In these homes,
he finds inspiration.

Dylan Lauren:
My dad can dream up

these lifestyles,

and create an aesthetic
in his surroundings.

It's, it's an emotional thing.

If I come out West
and I have a dream about

what these cabins
are gonna look like.

Well, if I'm gonna
make a cabin,

I want it to have
a squeaky door.

Randolph Carter:
He feels like things
get better with age.

So he brings things
from the past into the future.

You could open
a cupboard and find

an amazing
stereo system inside.

But the old paint's
still there.

He's timeless.

But he's definitely

living in the now.

With Ralph Lauren,

while the mythology
does indeed

kind of meld into the reality,

it's because the mythology
comes from the reality.

Most of us will never be
on a thousand-acre
Colorado ranch.

But you can
experience all of it

through Ralph Lauren.

(upbeat orchestral music plays)

Look at those trees.

Sheila Metzner:
Just looking at his life,
and his work,

they're one.

It's completely

autobiographical.

He's completely
sharing his interests,

and his life,

and it's positive.

Does art imitate life?

Or does life imitate art?

With Ralph,
there's no separation.

(indistinct chattering)

Ralph:
I'm that guy in the movie.

And my wife is the girl
in the movie.

It starts out with a fantasy.
A dream.

And it ends up
as part of your life.

When you're out West,
you think about the trees
and the colors,

architecture, and the plains.

They're inspiring to me.

David Lauren:
When he's in Colorado,

and he's coming down from
a long year of hard work,

he gets out there,
and he just sits down,

and he looks at the mountains.

He has a quietness about him.

but it's almost because
he's absorbing everything

and he's listening a lot.

You know, my dad's like
a real, down-to-earth
family guy.

-Okay.
-All right, so here's
the question...

You know, when we're together,
we're watching movies,

we're, you know, hanging out,
having hamburgers and hotdogs.

-David Lauren:
No, this is fun.
-Whoo!

Andrew Lauren:
We have a very
tight-knit family

that stayed together
and played together.

Dylan Lauren:
Nice shot!

-He's sizing up the competition.
-David Lauren:
My dad is loose and easy.

And he's funny.

He puts on a pair
of sunglasses,

he gets in a car,
and a character
starts to emerge.

(Frank Sinatra singing
"I've Got the World
on a String")

♪ I've got the world
on a string ♪

♪ Sittin' on a rainbow ♪

Andrew Lauren:
And, you know,
he'll be dressed

according to the car,
and the color.

And the look,
and the lifestyle.

♪ What a world ♪

♪ What a life, I'm in love ♪

Andrew Lauren:
We'd go for a long drive
and then we'd come home.

And he would squeeze
the orange juice.

My mom would make
the pancakes.

And then, uh,
we'd put on Sinatra.

He'd start singing
with a wooden spoon.

♪ Can't you see I'm in love ♪

Andrew Lauren:
You know, for a few seconds,
you think,

"Ol' Blue Eyes" is in the room.

♪ As long as
I hold the string ♪

Dylan Lauren:
Whenever he puts on
his white tuxedo,

his dinner jacket,

he is Frank Sinatra.
He's Cary Grant.

And he gets out there,
and he, you know,

he has these moves.

And when we dance,
he's spinning me around,

like we're Fred and Ginger.

♪ Sittin' on a rainbow ♪

Dylan Lauren:
He really knows
how to work it

and become the personality.

♪ What a world,
what a life ♪

My name is Bond.

James Bond!
Aah. Aah!

-(laughs)
-♪ I got the world
on a string ♪

♪ Sittin' on a rainbow ♪

Dylan Lauren:
He is very playful

when he's in a crowd
that he is close to.

♪ What a world ♪

♪ Man, this is the life ♪

♪ Hey now ♪

♪ I'm so in love ♪

(engine revving)

Brown:
Ralph always, I think,

identified with Steve McQueen.

That was The Wild Bunch
part of Ralph.

But I think his real,
kind of,

soul hero was always
Cary Grant.

Diane von Furstenberg:
Ralph Lauren always
wanted to be Paul Newman.

And always wanted
to be a cowboy.

Karl Lagerfeld:
He looks good as a cowboy.

I like, for him.

I would be ridiculous.
He's not.

Allen:
Ralph gets to play
Ralph Lauren.

And Ralph is exactly
what he wants to play.

He's good-looking.
He's a hero.

He can wear
any of that stuff.

The evening clothes,

or the cowboy clothes.

And he looks great.

Stewart:
He's a handsome man.

He photographs very well.

He's it.
He's Ralph Lauren.

And he's the face
of the brand.

Andrew Lauren:
Looking back at those pictures,

you know, you can see
the origins of this brand.

In some ways ,

the brand is iconic
for those great images

that are ingrained
in people's heads.

Emmanuelle Alt:
He has a very strong DNA.

And this is like, the gift.

The absolute gift for a brand.
Definitely.

Burns:
Public figure who's
in his own ads,

who lives his own lifestyle.

is also a very shy person.

And so it's important

to make a distinction
between the mythology

that he has spent
his entire life creating
for others,

because he wished
to have that for himself.

And the real person.

But there's not
that much daylight

uh, between them.

(horns honking)

-Do you like the belt?
-Klein: Designers,

when we
were all coming up,

just thought about
collections.

Fashion.

Ralph was thinking
about his brand.

No one else
thought about that.

He just separated himself

and his company from
the fashion business.

Because he was creating
his own world.

I think the thing
that had to be so
frustrating for him

was to create
the lifestyle fantasy,

and then walk into
a department store,

and see that it was
in this terrible,

awfully lit environment,

styled on a mannequin
in the wrong way,

and poof!

There went the dream
and the fantasy

that he was trying to bring
into people's lives.

I felt that there was
a need to create

and do what I
believed would Ralph--
was Ralph Lauren.

And Polo, in, in, in
a much larger scale.

And I saw this building
on 72nd Street

that has this
mansion-like feeling.

And I said,
"This is what I want."

(upbeat piano music plays)

Randolph Carter:
The mansion was like
a big, Hollywood set.

He could create the world

exactly the way
he wanted to.

So when people walked in,

it wasn't about buying.
It was about an experience.

Traub: Opening day,
he took us through a store...

with a grand staircase,
Oriental carpet.

A huge portrait of
an English gentleman

right on the landing.

He pointed to it and said,

"That's Grandpa Lifshitz."

I thought the store
was terrific.

And I said,
"How is it doing?"

He said,
"I think it's doing fine."

Klein:
He was the first designer

to open up retail stores.

He met with a lot of resistance
from department stores.

Because those people
thought he would be
in competition.

He knew, and he told them,

"Your business will grow
because of my
free-standing stores."

And he was absolutely right.

Foley:
Rhinelander changed

the structure of fashion
to a tremendous degree.

Because up until Ralph Lauren
opened that Rhinelander store,

designer-vertical retail
was not a thing.

And Ralph Lauren
had the audacity,

and it was audacious,
to open this amazing store

on Madison Avenue,
a few blocks from
Bloomingdale's.

That was shocking.

So, a lot of people
would say in the press,
they'd say,

"Well, was Bloomingdale's
gonna drop Ralph Lauren?
Is..."

Well, Bloomingdale's
didn't drop Ralph Lauren.

They increased their order.
They doubled their order.

Givhan:
I don't think you
can overstate

the impact that he had

on the way that designers
retailed their brand.

It's sort of performance art
in which you can participate.

It's a stage set,

in which everything
is for sale.

Cohen:
The store not only
had the clothes,

but saddles.
You know, riding crops,

I mean, I don't know what to do
with a riding crop or a saddle.

I want, you know,
I want a pair of socks.

But it made me feel good.
It meant, "This is my store.

"My kind of people come here.

Equestrians."
You know, right?

Talley:
Oh, I might like
to look like that.

I might want to have
that tweed.

I may want to have
that riding boot.

I might want to have
that horse.

Well, I don't have a stable,

but I'll go get the bit,
the riding boots,

and I'll look really snappy.
It's jaunty.

You always have something
in a Ralph Lauren look,

that pivots what you feel
about yourself.

Which can give you confidence.

Even a Polo shirt
is aspirational.

Rainbow colors.

Who would not want
to aspire to that dream?

Jason Wu:
I moved to America;
I wanted the Polo shirt.

And that as an immigrant
for me was what America was.

By buying a shirt,

you can all of a sudden
be part of that club.

Kanye West:
I needed a way
to set myself apart.

What would be my magician's,
uh, cloak?

And it was the Polo shirt.
(laughs)

It said that I could, like,

travel from the South Side
of Chicago

to the beaches of Montauk.

Robin:
The longing that he taps into

is about belonging.

It's about feeling
that you have

not just attained some
kind of personal success,

but social success,

uh, cultural success.

Burns: And so then,
it isn't just him speaking

to the people
who already have it.

It's speaking to people
who want to have it.

And that's his story, too.

People know his story.

They know that
this is not a guy

who was born wealthy.

Um, you know,
he's self-made.

But because his narrative

has been so rooted
in this very WASP-y look,

there's been this sense that

everyone in that world
has also looked very WASP-y,

And that hasn't
really been the case.

Wool hat, with the horsey.

This is actually the retro,
reissue stuff.

It was a little cold outside.

Always Lo socks.

And then, you're not gonna
catch me without my Polo
drawers on.

Givhan:
These guys brought this
really rich, interesting

context to the brand
that wasn't there.

We took their style,
and we've made it our own.

The Lo Lifes were formed
in 1988 in Brooklyn.

Not too many people
say "Polo."

It's always referred to
as "Lo."

We were always into
hip-hop culture.

And the fashion of graffiti,

break dancing, DJing,
and everything.

And Polo became
an obsession for us.

They look like
mannequins from the store,

how much stuff they had on.

And I knew how much
this stuff cost.

These guys were wearing
like $400 jackets,

with $300 boots.

Howl:
Like everybody else,

we wanted the finer things
in life.

But a lot of people felt
the clothes weren't made

for us in the ghetto.

We were, we were poor,
you know?

And I didn't have no other way
of really getting the clothes.

I'm gonna take it.

♪ We don't have to buy shit,
take what I want ♪

♪ Everything is my shit ♪

Howl:
You go on boosting missions
with a couple of guys,

who can walk in the store
and come out with anything.

Down the leg, down the back,

in the shirt, in the shirt,
in the sleeve.

And when we would come back
to our neighborhoods

wearing these clothes,
you look like somebody.

You felt like somebody.

Beckford:
It was a way of saying
that you made it.

Y ou were successful.

Because it was so regal.
It was so royal. It was...

You know, it was the,
the top of the top.

♪ Polo Legend like
Manolo went over the limit ♪

♪ The loco livin', twistin' ♪

Givhan:
When rap and hip-hop
embraced Ralph Lauren,

they were essentially
saying that we're gonna
take this,

this symbol of what it means
to be a success in America.

We're gonna turn it
on its head a little bit,

and we're gonna sort of
wear it on our own terms.

Howl:
Ralph Lifshitz came
from the Bronx.

He pursued the American dream.

It's what we did.

This was our way
of seeing America

further than
the last stop on the train.

-Ralph: I like this.
-Man: Black. Yeah.

I still like this.

Beyond the glamour of fashion,

there is the reality
of making a product,

selling it to the stores,
getting it delivered on time.

And then next year.
What are you gonna do
next season?

That's what I was looking for.
The offbeat thing
that doesn't...

Doing one collection is painful.

It's painful. It's not easy.

And my days are distracted.

I'm not just sitting there,

designing a dress.

I'm running from an ad meeting

to a, to a board meeting,

to another meeting.

David Lauren:
When you're in this industry,

you do have to keep
pushing forward.

You gotta get out there
and you're gonna be better
every season.

And he wants to
get better with age.

So he works harder.

This seems like
a fashion image.

Building this company,
I believed that there's...

One person can't do it all.

From the financial end of it,

to the artistic end of it.

It's, it's a team.

One person can't be
the great artist,

and the great genius,
financial genius,

and the Wall Street genius,
and the...

I, I might be the only guy.
But... (laughs)

(laughter in background)

What's in a brand name?

A Ralph Lauren Polo brand?

About $767,000,000.

That's how much was raised
in yesterday's initial
public offering

of stock in
Polo Ralph Lauren
Corporation.

Stewart:
Going public just
made him more famous.

Ring that bell on
the New York Stock Exchange.

It's a very exciting day.

And then your
stock is traded,

and then you have to deal
with your shareholders.

Year after year after year.

And you're under a tremendous
amount of more scrutiny

than you were before.

Traub:
He had a great concern

that something would
go out of the business

when it became public.

And even though
he clearly knew

he could make a lot of money,

the decision
weighed on his mind

whether it was a good
or bad decision.

Vanessa Friedman:
Going public is very
complicated

for any fashion company.

It places an undue burden on,

you know, a creative business
which is always gonna show

kind of ebbs and flows

in terms of how people
respond to new products.

-So that's like the star.
-So you got, so you have,
Ralph, you have got this...

Ralph:
You may not totally be free

to express what you want.

-This is what I want.
-And yet shareholders

invest in your business
because they believe in you,

and they want to see growth.

I don't know all of you,

but I would like to know...

But as you get bigger,

it's harder to control
the sales.

It's hard to control
the design,

and it's harder and harder
to control the company.

You have to choose

some sophisticated people
financially,

to help you grow.

Sometimes it works.

And sometimes it doesn't.

Wintour:
A lot of people have
come and gone

quite quickly over there,
because

they have tried
to introduce, um,

a new way of thinking,
and that's...

That's not possible for Ralph.

Ralph believes in
what he has created.

He believes in the Ralph Lauren

way of doing business.
And it's worked.

And he's, he's not
gonna move off that--

He's not getting
off that train.

Ralph:
I decided to go public

because I wanted to have
a bigger business.

The whole world was there,

and I felt like I had
something to say

that was international.

(upbeat jazz music plays)

Talley:
The first store that
he opened in Paris

was the talk of the town.

And now, there's
a Ralph Lauren store
everywhere.

In Milan.
There are stores in London.

There are stores everywhere.

Russell:
He has created this idea

of American style,

and what that means
around the world.

Alt:
I really love the fact
that he celebrates

his country.

It's very relative to what

his vision of America.

And, uh,
it's very exotic for us,

maybe, the French people.

Wu:
The fact that Ralph Lauren's
international name

is as important as the French
and the Italians

is very significant
for American fashion.

Wintour:
When you talk to
young designers,

and you ask them
which designers
they most admire,

and who they
might like to meet,

there's two names
that come back
again and again.

It doesn't matter what corner
of the globe that you're in.

It's Karl Lagerfeld,
and it's Ralph Lauren.

For me, it's
the American designer

who represents America
and American fashion best

for the rest of the world.

David Lauren:
When you went to Japan,

crowds were assembling
to take his picture.

He's seen as an ambassador
of American culture,

and he reminds people
of what's great about
our country.

That's their slice of America.

Having that T-shirt

is their ownership
of United States.

I think if we have
anything close to
a national designer,

it's Ralph Lauren.

Hillary Rodham Clinton:
When the Star-Spangled Banner

was tattering to shreds,

I reached out to Ralph,
and next thing I knew,

he was pledging $13 million

to repair our
Star-Spangled Banner.

It was literally the flag
that was flying

when, um, our National Anthem
was written.

And it's because he got it.

He understands icons,
because he is one.

Friedman:
You couldn't grow up in America
in the '80s onwards

and not know the name
of Ralph Lauren.

He is the classic American,

mythological, entrepreneurial
success story.

You know, in any industry.

Diane Sawyer:
The official uniform

of the US Olympic team
has been unveiled.

Announcer (over PA):
Ralph Lauren will
throw out tonight's

ceremonial first pitch.

Ralph:
Being able to pitch
at Yankee Stadium

was unbelievable.

-(crowd cheering)
-Announcer (over PA):
Thank you, Ralph.

It is a key to our city.

Reporter:
Ralph Lauren will become
the first American designer

to be knighted by the queen.

Birrittella:
I think Ralph has won
every design award out there.

-(camera shutter clicking)
-Thank you very, very much.

Birrittella:
But it was the Lifetime
Achievement Award

that Audrey Hepburn
gave to Ralph

that was the high.

The high of--
The high of the highs.

Tonight,
we salute Ralph Lauren,

for his contributions
to American style,

design, and culture.

And to the way
he has added beauty,

comfort,

and dreams

to our lives.

(applause)

I think this looks very good.

Birrittella:
Ralph knows what he's achieved.

But he still comes from
that place of hunger.

He still wants to create
and excel.

He doesn't look at
the past success

and say, "Okay. I'm done."

Burns:
He's never satisfied .

He's restless.

And there's always
the next season.

There's always
the next collection.

There is nothing
to be rested on.

And the awards
and the accolades

are not as important
as the thing you're
working on now.

I don't like the belt.
That's, that--
I, I really don't like.

-You don't like the belt.
-No.

I don't like these
sneakers as much.

Something is not sharp enough.
I don't know what it is.
I don't know.

Foley:
He has been able to stay

very, very true
to his aesthetic,

while progressing
that aesthetic.

Which is one of
the hardest things to do,

if not the hardest thing
to do in fashion.

Okay.

Wintour:
He remains within
his own framework.

But Ralph is still in there,

pushing himself.

Always questioning,
he's always looking,
he's always thinking.

And I think that he's been
concerned sometimes

that he's not been hot enough.

But he says very clearly,

"I don't want to be too hot.

"And I don't want to be
too cold.

"I just want to exist.

I want to be like Nike,
or I want to be like
Coca-Cola."

And I think he's achieved that.

Goldberger:
Ralph Lauren has become
so established in the culture,

that it could be
the object of irony.

But that doesn't mean

it was created with
ironic intent by him.

Ralph Lauren does not have
an ironic bone in his body.

He really believes
all this stuff.

He really believes how
beautiful the world can be,

if we would only let it be so.

The thing about
Ralph Lauren's world

is that it's so
benignly aspirational.

He has really built
his entire empire on this idea,

anyone can enter the fantasy
American dream.

And I don't think
the American dream
ever goes away.

(Tony Bennett singing
"Stranger in Paradise")

♪ Take my hand ♪

♪ I'm a stranger in paradise ♪

Givhan:
But I do think that it
evolves and it shifts.

And our understanding of it
changes over time.

And I don't know that
his understanding of it,

I don't know that
that's changing.

And I think it's a problem
for a brand,

that I think is so much
more than just any
old fashion brand.

♪ That's a danger... ♪

Friedman:
His real adherence to

these narratives of America

that are core to his brand

can get a little stale,

particularly at a time
when I think a lot of people

who have not felt included
in a lot of these narratives,

are suddenly finding a voice,

and demanding that you
kind of rewrite

how we have thought about
all these stories.

And, you know,
this is not a brand
that rewrites.

Ralph:
The question is,
how do you move forward?

How do you develop newness?

And how do you stay
Ralph Lauren and
not lose your identity?

(indistinct chattering)

But I stayed true to myself.

And some of the criticism
was very painful.

It's like, "My God.
Maybe I'm not good.

Maybe I think I'm good,
but I'm not."

Look how nice that looks.

I've gone by my gut.

Not everything is genius.

And, yes, I would love
everyone to love it.

But I'm a big boy,
and I've lived through
critics...

from day one.

And I think that if I
listen to the critics,

I would have quit.

Let's put that on there.

This is my 50th year.

So think of this.

Fifty years, back and forth,
on the runway,

saying, "Oh, my God.
What am I gonna do
next year?"

We're searching for
what's been done,
or what's not been done.

Birrittella:
These are the pictures.

Ralph:
You're rolling the dice
again and again and again.

This collection is just
a culmination of everything

that you've always believed in.

Ralph:
This is not about every year.

This is just now.

And I wanted
this collection to be

like it was my last.

People say, "Ralph,

you don't worry about
your shows anymore.
You don't care about--"

I say, "Are you kidding?
I'm more nervous today
than I've ever been."

(indistinct chattering)

Friedman:
I was completely,
like, boggled by it.

I mean, I like, my eyes
were falling out of my head

because everywhere I turned
there was some, you know,
extraordinary person.

Anne Hathaway, Oprah Winfrey,

Robert De Niro,
Steven Spielberg.

You know, every American
designer practically.

And everyone was there
just to be happy for Ralph

and be proud of Ralph.

I honestly, like,
I thought it was wonderful.

Ralph:
You're never sure
that you got it right.

You think you got it right.
You feel it in your gut.

But I'm nervous
until the last moment.

(upbeat orchestral music plays)

Givhan:
Ralph Lauren's place in
fashion history is secure.

He represents something
that is more than just
a bunch of clothes.

Friedman:
It was a very big tent
embrace of everybody.

You know, colors, ages, sizes.

Like, everyone can be
a part of my world.

He took fantasies
of what America should be

and made entire worlds
out of them,

over half a century.

(applause)

(applause continues)

Wintour:
I think sometimes

he can't quite believe
that it's happened.

Sometimes,

he's still that little boy,

not quite believing that,
you know, "I am Ralph Lauren."

(applause)

Hardison:
That hug.

That to me said,
no matter who's in that room,

no matter who's shiny,
who's successful,

you always go back
to someone who really
knows who you were,

and who you came from,
and where you came from.

Chastain:
At the very end of the show,

he always goes to his family.

And I think that's so touching.

Because you know where
the priority lies there.

You have to have a full life

to be able to create.
You can't create
from emptiness.

And I think Ralph
has a very full,

beautiful, loving life.

Ralph:
When I saw
the children playing

and people from all over,

and the mixes of lives
and worlds...

I mean, I was emotional.

It was everything that
I believed in about life.

Fifty years.

(birds chirping)

(soft orchestral music plays)

Ralph:
I'm very excited about my work.

I feel vital and creative.

And I'm looking forward
to the future.

I care about what I do
and I love what I do.

You have to keep working.

I'm living the life
I dreamt about living.

And I enjoy
creating my own world.

But as you get older,

you don't need all the things
you thought you needed.

You need the good things.

Warmth.

The smell of
the country mornings.

And the way the fences look.

The color of the barn.

And life is wonderful.

When I built my house
in Bedford,

my mother said,
"What do you need this for?"

I said, "Mom, I want this
so I can have that little house

"down the hill with
a little red barn.

That's for my soul."

(birds chirping)

Sometimes you have
to fulfill your dreams

to know what your
real dream is about.

The real dream is family,

children,

having peace.

(upbeat orchestral music
playing)