Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz in Bronx, NY on October 14, 1939. His parents were both Jewish immigrants from Belarus. At the young age of 16, Ralph changed his last name to Lauren due to being teased by other kids at school. Ralph attended Baruch College in Manhattan, where he had studied business for two years. He then took a sales job at Brooks Brothers for a short time and then became a salesman for a tie company. His first breakthrough was in 1966 when he designed a wide, European style necktie. The company he worked for, so he left to establish his own company, which included taking rages and turning them into ties, rejected Ralph’s ideas.
In 1970 he released a woman’s line, along with his menswear line,