Even if you know nothing about fashion, you’ve heard the name ‘Ralph Lauren’.

He’s the fashion designer that notoriously claimed to “hate fashion”, and then went on to have one of the longest and most successful careers in the industry.

HBO is honouring Lauren in a new documentary, Very Ralph, that delves into what it took to create one of the world’s most identifiable brands.

Here’s CNN:

Directed by Susan Lacy, the film features interviews with a reflective Lauren who, at 80 years old, is still very much involved in the multibillion-dollar business that carries his name.

Reflecting on the film, Lauren told CNN in an email: “What I do is about living, and the HBO documentary, through the direction of Susan Lacy, has captured that through different lenses of memory and observation — my own, my family’s, those who have helped shaped it and those who have observed it over many decades. It will certainly be an important part of telling the story of who I am and what I did.”

What he did was build a fashion empire.

The trailer, if you’d like a preview:

Not bad for a kid from the Bronx.

Born in 1939 to Jewish immigrants from Belarus, Ralph Rueben Lifshitz changed his name to “Lauren” as a teenager to avoid the unwanted attention that came from having an unusual name. Lauren credits his artist father for passing on his creative talents, however he acknowledges that he has no skill for art. Design, however, is different.

Lauren spent some time in the military before working as a tie salesman at Brooks Brothers. He soon started making his own ties, with help from his extended family.

From ties to international fame, his is quite a story to tell.

I’ll let the documentary fill in the gaps.

[source:cnn]