Ralph Lauren Corporation is a publicly traded American fashion and lifestyle company founded in 1967 by Ralph Lauren in New York City. The company markets products across apparel, home, accessories, and fragrances, and is most known for its flagship Polo Ralph Lauren brand. Lauren started with men's neckties, launched the full Polo menswear line in 1968, and introduced the signature polo player logo and mesh polo shirt in the early 1970s. The company became publicly traded on the NYSE on 12 June 1997. Ralph Lauren remains executive chairman and chief creative officer; Patrice Louvet has been president and CEO since July 2017. The company operates 483 directly operated stores and 93 international licensed stores.

The brand is built on aspirational American lifestyle mythology - equestrian, preppy, country, safari, Western, and nautical references organised around coherent upscale Americana. Ralph Lauren functions as creative director as well as executive chairman. The brand's pattern vocabulary references British tailoring tradition (tartan, stripe, herringbone), Ivy League sportswear (polo shirt, cable knit), and Americana (Fair Isle, patchwork, Western print, Aztec geometric). Purple Label represents the highest formal expression of this vocabulary in fine textiles and made-to-measure suiting.

The brand opened its first standalone store on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills in 1972, and the flagship Rhinelander Mansion on Madison Avenue, New York (menswear) in 1986. A womenswear and home flagship opened across the street in 2010. International expansion began with a New Bond Street London store in 1981. In 1974, Lauren outfitted the male cast of The Great Gatsby from his Polo line. The company owned Club Monaco from 1999 until its sale to private equity firm Regent LP in 2021. A Haworth Lifestyle Design partnership announced December 2023 expands Ralph Lauren Home into standalone stores from April 2024. In December 2023, an artist in residence programme was launched; the inaugural collaboration was with Naomi Glasses, a Navajo 7th-generation weaver.

Full lifestyle brand spanning apparel (men's, women's, children's, golf, activewear), home (furniture, bedding, linens, china, crystal, decorative accessories, lighting, fabric, wall covering, floor covering, paint with 400+ palettes), fragrance, cosmetics, eyewear, watches, and jewellery. Ralph Lauren Home was the first complete home collection from an American clothing designer (launched 1983). Key sub-brands include Polo Ralph Lauren (core), Ralph Lauren Purple Label (luxury, 1994), Lauren Ralph Lauren (women's mid-range, 1996), Double RL / RRL (workwear and military heritage, 1993), Pink Pony (charity sportswear, 2000), Polo Golf, RLX Golf, and Polo Ralph Lauren Children.

Key licence partnerships:

• Luxottica - eyewear
• L'Oréal - fragrances and cosmetics
• Hanesbrands - underwear and sleepwear
• Designers Guild - fabric and wallpaper
• Kohl's / Hollander Sleep Products - bedding
• Theodore Alexander - home furniture (from 2024)

Ralph Lauren operates extensive licensing across fragrance (L'Oréal), eyewear (Luxottica), underwear (Hanesbrands), fabric and wallpaper (Designers Guild), bedding (Kohl's/Hollander), and furniture (Theodore Alexander). This licensing architecture extends the brand's surface design identity into home textiles, interior coverings, and lifestyle categories beyond apparel. Sports outfitting commissions - US Open tennis (from 2005), Wimbledon (from 2006, first external designer in the tournament's 129-year history), and Australian Open (from 2020) - generate bespoke seasonal uniform design work.

Ralph Lauren operates across price tiers - from mid-range (Chaps) through premium (Polo Ralph Lauren) to luxury (Ralph Lauren Purple Label) - with the majority of brand recognition concentrated in Polo. Distributed through 483 directly operated stores, international licensing partners, and online. Key flagship markets include New York, Beverly Hills, London, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, and Shanghai. The "Ralph Lauren Christmas" aesthetic trend on social media in December 2025 generated approximately $6 million in brand value from pop-up events in Seoul, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London.

Ralph Lauren is one of the most significant American brands for surface pattern design across both fashion and home categories:

• Home textiles and wall covering: Ralph Lauren Home (1983) includes fabric, wall covering, and floor covering - directly commissioning surface pattern design in licensed interior markets. The ongoing partnership with Designers Guild for fabric and wallpaper places Ralph Lauren-designed patterns in the interiors trade.
• Ralph Lauren Paint (1995): 400+ colour palettes represent an applied surface design programme extended from the fashion brand into interior finish - one of the most extensive colour and surface design programmes from any fashion brand.
• Fashion print heritage: Polo Ralph Lauren consistently deploys Americana-referenced pattern language - tartan, Fair Isle knit, Aztec and geometric prints (visible on archival down jackets), patchwork, Western motifs, and preppy plaid - across seasonal collections. Double RL draws on workwear and military heritage, incorporating aged fabric surfaces and vintage print character.
• Artist in residence (2023): The inaugural collaboration with Naomi Glasses, a Navajo 7th-generation weaver, introduces indigenous American textile tradition directly into the brand's product design.
• Olympic uniform design: Ralph Lauren designs US Olympic and Paralympic parade outfits. For the 2014 Winter Olympics, production involved 40 American vendors using Merino wool yarn from Oregon, dyed in North Carolina, and assembled in California - a documented domestic supply chain for a specific textile programme.