What I learned from reading Ralph Lauren: The Man Behind the Mystique by Jeffrey Trachtenberg.
Ralph Lauren has built the most successful apparel company in the United States.
His favorite declaration about himself is, what you see is what you get.
When he describes his work, he insists that it does not constitute trendy fashion and that his customers care more about well made clothes than the latest party dresses from Europe.
He takes such distinctions seriously.
Once when I lumped him together with a handful of other designers during casual conversation, he snapped, don't put me with those designers.
My business is not compared to anybody else's.
This is an unauthorized biography.
I knew before starting this project that Ralph Lauren was guarded about his personal life.
I knew that he rarely appeared at society dinners.
This reserve is due to shyness, not modesty.
In practice, Ralph Lauren is a tough, intensely ambitious businessman who thinks his work has never received the recognition it deserves.
He has always possessed immense self confidence.
It is central to his character, an asset as valuable as his sense of color, fabric and style.
That explains why Ralph has always been willing to break the rules and to do things his own way.
At different times in his career, he has refused orders from top retailers.
For years, he griped that the retailers he did do business with didn't display his clothes with enough elegance.
Finally, he decided he was gonna do it himself.
Today, Ralph Lauren lives in a Fifth Avenue duplex, owns a 12,000 acre ranch in Colorado, a home on Log Island, a villa in Jamaica, and a 200 acre estate in Westchester County, New York, as well as a fleet of antique cars, he jets from home to home in his own Gulf Stream.
Ralph Lauren is one of the richest self made men in the United States.
This is the story of how Ralph Lauren built his business and why it succeeded.