The Rhinelander Mansion and Ralph Lauren.

The Rhinelander Mansion

Ralph Lauren use

Renovation

867 Partnership began renovating the building in 1984, converting the second floor to retail space and the third through fifth floors into office space. The facade was also restored. The fashion designer Ralph Lauren, head of the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, leased the basement and the first four stories in January 1985, with an initial lease of 20 years and an option to extend it another 29 years. Lauren had considered leasing the Charles Scribner's Sons Building and a Trump Tower storefront on Fifth Avenue before deciding upon the Rhinelander Mansion. He submitted plans that March to expand the mansion's rear and to renovate the exterior. Lauren planned to convert the house into New York City's first standalone Polo Ralph Lauren clothing store (at the time, all of his New York City sales were through other stores). One company executive said they wanted to "restore the charm and dignity the building had to create an interior that's elegant and clubby", and Lauren himself told Architectural Digest that "I've always thought that showing clothes in a townhouse would be the ultimate for me". Rhinelander Florist, Eat, and La Cuisiniere all had to relocate to accommodate the Polo Ralph Lauren store.

 

Naomi Leff & Associates were hired to design the house's renovation; this was a contrast to other Ralph Lauren stores, which had been designed by Ken Winslow. Polo Fashions executive Buffy Birrittella assisted Lauren with the renovation. The Rhinelander Mansion's renovation required as many as 400 workers at a time. As part of the project, workers installed furniture and decorations that were reminiscent of the house's original design, including oak floors and mahogany balustrades. Although many of the original architectural drawings and decorative details were no longer extant, Leff's firm restored some of the original decorations, such as stairways and plasterwork.The main entrance was moved to the corner of the building Ralph Lauren employees traveled to Europe to acquire antique decorations and furniture for the interiors. The renovation team also acquired materials such as 82,000 square feet (7,600 m2) of mahogany, in addition to felt walls and drapery. The interiors were fitted with such lavish displays as antique toys, rattan cages with live canaries, and real grass.[33] One commentator called the mansion's store "the first flagship store to actively engage with filmic fantasy as a whole of brand merchandising strategy".

 

Though the store was originally supposed to open in November 1985, it was delayed by factors ranging from constant bomb threats to stringent preservation requirements.The 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) store opened on April 21, 1986, following a preview event. According to Lauren, the project cost over $14 million,though other sources described the renovation as costing up to $18 million or $30 million. Leff's firm also gained media attention when the renovation was completed. Following the renovation, Polo Ralph Lauren requested a $4 million federal tax credit for the building's restoration, as the structure was on the NRHP. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), which had to endorse the tax credit, spent over a year reviewing Lauren's request, as many of the original decorative details had been covered up or even destroyed.

 

1980s and 1990s

Polo Ralph Lauren was the sole operator of the 867 Madison Avenue store, in contrast to other Ralph Lauren stores that had co-owners. Lauren intended to sell new clothing designs at the Rhinelander Mansion before selling them elsewhere.[ Originally, the first two stories were for men's clothing and accessories; the third floor was for women's clothing; and the fourth story was for home furnishings. The arrangement was deliberate: the store was marketed as primarily a menswear store, and Birrittella said that, while women would walk through men's clothing departments, the inverse was not true. After the Rhinelander Mansion store opened, Lauren said: "I saw families go upstairs and shop, and that's an experience." The Rhinelander Mansion store earned between $80,000 and $120,000 daily in its first month; within a year, the store had made $31 million. During Christmas holiday seasons, Polo Ralph Lauren replaced the house's awnings and redecorated its interior. The company spent more than $100,000 in 1988 to refurbish a room on the third floor for the women's collection, and it opened a "country store" on the fourth floor the same year.

 

The house was placed for sale at the beginning of 1989, and several foreign firms expressed interest in buying the mansion. An Irish company, Power Corporation plc, bought the house in mid-1989 for $43 million; Power Corporation's executive vice president called the building a "trophy property" because of factors such as the Ralph Lauren store's sales revenue and the consumer price index. At the time, Polo Ralph Lauren's rent was eight percent of the Rhinelander Mansion store's sales revenue.The Rhinelander Mansion flagship was one of Polo Ralph Lauren's most profitable stores in the early 1990s, and the store had outgrown the mansion.In 1991, the company leased space at 888 Madison Avenue, across the street from the mansion, for its sportswear division. The company decided to renovate 888 Madison Avenue, opening a Polo Sport store there in September 1993. Unlike the Rhinelander Mansion, the Polo Sport store was designed in a contemporary style. The opening of the Polo Sport store at 888 Madison Avenue further increased sales at the flagship store in 867 Madison Avenue.

 

Despite the flagship's popularity among tourists, as well as the location's high revenues (which reached $33.8 million in 1993), it operated at a net loss in the mid-1990s due to high expenses. The mansion's owner Power Corporation was also experiencing financial difficulties and discreetly placed the house for sale in 1992. The firm sought to resell the house for $46 million, but there were few potential buyers. By early 1997, Power Corporation was still negotiating to sell the house to one of several potential buyers, including Polo Ralph Lauren.The mansion was sold in November 1997 to an unidentified German entity for around $36 million. At the time, Polo Ralph Lauren was the sole tenant of the mansion, paying $3 million annually in rent. 867 Madison Avenue retained its country-club atmosphere through the end of the 20th century. A 1998 Los Angeles Times article noted that the flagship store's patrons were given complimentary drinks.

 

2000s to present

In the early 2000s, a Women's Wear Daily reporter wrote that the Rhinelander Mansion maintained its manor-like character, while the store inside had 50 salespeople "who behave more like servants at an English estate than typical retail clerks". Polo Ralph Lauren kept the mansion's drapes closed to entice visitors, while the decorations and artwork inside were swapped out every few weeks to attract repeat customers. By then, men's and women's clothing departments each occupied about half of the house's space. Polo Ralph Lauren acquired yet another building across the street, at 872 Madison Avenue, in 2004; that structure housed the store's baby-clothing department, which had opened the previous year. The boys' clothing department moved to another structure nearby, at 878 Madison Avenue, in 2004. A writer for The New York Times said in 2006 that the block of Madison Avenue adjoining the Rhinelander Mansion had become a "Disney-like mall of Ralph Lauren stores". Lauren also opened stores downtown to attract younger customers who did not travel to the Rhinelander Mansion.

 

The Rhinelander Mansion was sold again in 2005 for $80 million to Sloane Capital Group, an investment group led by the Irish investors Aidan Brooks and J. P. McManus. Although Polo Ralph Lauren had offered to buy the house, Sloane Capital had submitted a higher bid. The Rhinelander Mansion remained Polo Ralph Lauren's flagship through the late 2000s. Cheaper items were placed near the main entrance, while more pricey objects were deeper inside the mansion. Ralph Lauren opened an eyewear division within the mansion in 2006. Ralph Lauren announced plans in 2008 to rebuild the neighboring structure at 888 Madison Avenue into the company's second New York City flagship. The womenswear and home appliances departments were moved from the Rhinelander Mansion to the new flagship when the latter structure opened in 2010. The Rhinelander Mansion was converted into Ralph Lauren's flagship menswear store, while the company's eyewear and children's divisions were located elsewhere.

 

When the Rhinelander Mansion opened in September 2010, each story was occupied by different menswear brands.The first floor contained watches and Polo-branded items; the second floor had the Purple Label brand and a luggage department; the third floor accommodated a "world of heritage" department and the RRL brand; and the fourth floor was used by the Black label collection, the RLX activewear label, and a sportswear room. Ralph Lauren opened a shoe salon for men on the mansion's ground floor in 2013. At Lauren's request, the Polo division was relocated upstairs in the mid-2010s, resulting in decreased sales. The company instead displayed expensive accessories and objects in the storefront windows. In the 2010s, the Ralph Lauren Corporation also hosted shows outside its stores at Madison Avenue and 72nd Street.

 

Brooks and McManus continued to own the building through Tribeca Holdings, which agreed in 2016 to sell the building to an unnamed buyer at an undisclosed price.The store closed temporarily in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. In December 2023, Ralph Lauren renewed its lease for the building until 2034.

Inside Ralph Lauren’s Old-Money Comeback / Inside Ralph Lauren’s luxe reset—and the CEO who made it stick

Magazine·Ralph Lauren

Inside Ralph Lauren’s luxe reset—and the CEO who made it stick

 

Patrice Louvet brought discipline, premium focus, and modern marketing to steer the American icon out of its discount spiral.

 

Alex Fradkin for Fortune

https://fortune.com/article/ralph-lauren-luxury-fashion-retail-patrice-louvet/

Phil Wahba

By Phil Wahba

Senior Writer

 

October 2, 2025 at 5:30 AM EDT

17 min read

 

This April, designer Ralph Lauren commandeered Manhattan’s sumptuous Clock Tower Building for his eponymous company’s fall 2025 fashion show—and proceeded to pack the place with boldface names and influencers young and old, all curious to see what the brand had come up with.

 

On a pass through the room, maneuvering around the building’s marble Corinthian columns and grandiose staircase, you could spot Anna Wintour of Vogue, not far from actor Anne Hathaway (in a beige trench coat) and country star Kacey Musgraves (in a white tank top and cowboy hat). Nearby, Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Seinfeld and Veep fame was hanging out with Lauren’s wife, Ricky.

 

The show, “The Modern Romantics,” unveiled a collection of women’s wear—an area where the company is avidly boosting its presence. Models sported aviator jackets, cashmere wraps, and boots in styles that blended masculine and feminine, mixing hard materials like leather (lots of it) with soft ones like lace. The fashion press would later declare the event a home run. And once all 47 models had walked the runway, the 85-year-old Ralph Lauren himself appeared to rapturous applause on the mezzanine, taking it all in.

 

Watching the designer from below, beaming deferentially, was a dapper, bespectacled man sporting a natty pocket square: Patrice Louvet, Ralph Lauren’s CEO. Though he’s hardly tabloid famous, the fashionistas in attendance knew him well; he was deep in conversation with Wintour for part of the evening. And if Ralph Lauren the company is firing on all cylinders financially and culturally these days, it’s in large part thanks to Louvet, whose business acumen has complemented Ralph Lauren the man’s nearly infallible instincts.

 

Louvet, CEO since 2017, came from Procter & Gamble, a world of toothpaste and razor blades, but he has arguably saved the most important American fashion company from the threat of obsolescence. In the years before his arrival, Ralph Lauren—long a barometer for the financial health and cred of U.S. fashion—had seen declining sales and profits, and more worryingly, declining brand equity. In its quest for growth and a wider customer base, it had become a fixture at discount chains like J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, and T.J. Maxx—retailers that don’t exactly scream “timeless luxury.” And Ralph Lauren’s welter of overlapping sub-brands was confusing its customers.

 

“There are a number of levers you can pull to continue fast growth that you can convince yourself are not problematic,” Louvet tells Fortune, describing that spiral at company headquarters in Manhattan on a hot day in early summer. He’s dressed in an immaculate navy blue suit from Purple Label, the company’s luxury men’s wear line. “You say we will do a little bit more, it’ll be fine, then yet more the next quarter, and you keep dialing it up,” he continued. Until one day, like a frog that’s been boiled gradually, your brand equity dies.

 

For Louvet, the solution for a company with decades of history was to return to what made it coveted in the first place. “Ralph founded this company as a luxury company, and what we needed to do was go back to this mindset,” says Louvet, who’s 61.

 

Under Louvet, Ralph Lauren exited more than 1,000 U.S. department stores, reducing the brand’s very high exposure to that declining retail format. It has built more stand-alone stores and focused its product assortment on pricier items around which it can sustain its understated-but-upscale fashion narrative.

 

Over eight years, Louvet has refashioned a company whose top line, $7.1 billion in the most recent fiscal year, is on a steady upward course, and whose profits and operating margins are at 13-year highs. Average unit retail, a metric that serves as a composite of the prices a company charges for all its products, has doubled. (It helps to be selling calfskin shoulder bags for $2,200. Suits like the one Louvet wore to our interview retail for a tidy $2,995.) Not everything is extravagantly priced—a perennial hit is the $398 U.S. flag cotton Polo sweater—but fewer items are discounted every year.

 

The luxury halo appears to have returned—just in time for a period when more people are dressing up again after years of wearing athleisure everywhere. “Ralph Lauren has always been synonymous with quality, and that really resonates with consumers today,” says TD Cowen analyst John Kernan. Savvy marketing has helped the 58-year-old company become a hit with Gen Z shoppers and influencers, a promising sign for the long term. One big recent coup: In the social media posts where Taylor Swift announced her engagement to football star Travis Kelce, both were wearing Ralph Lauren.

 

Louvet is quick to share credit, not least with the man whose name is on the door of every store and on every product. As executive chairman and chief creative officer, Ralph Lauren still plays a central role in how the company operates. Even more so than most CEOs, leaders who work with founders need emotional intelligence, and Louvet, by all accounts, has plenty; he knows how to lead without being the star of the show.

 

“Ralph founded this company as a luxury company. What we needed to do was go back to this mindset.”

Patrice Louvet on Ralph Lauren’s Revival

 

David Lauren, chief branding and innovation officer and the only one of Lauren’s three children to become a company executive, is among Louvet’s fans. “When you find someone who also brings a unique humility, kindness, self-awareness, and maturity,” he says, “it’s an amazing combination.

 

Ralph Lauren, born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx in 1939, has been famous for longer than most American shoppers have been alive. Though he never went to fashion school, doesn’t do his own sketches, and has no training in how to cut fabrics, he’s always had a sharp eye and no shortage of chutzpah. Lauren first won attention in 1967, with neckties that were wider than was fashionable at the time. When Bloomingdale’s told him it would buy his ties only if he narrowed them and replaced their Polo tags with Bloomingdale’s labels, he said no; a few months later, Bloomingdale’s relented.

 

Lauren has always said he wanted to see the clothes he saw in the movies in stores. And selling that fantasy—whether the WASP aesthetic of a Connecticut estate, or the preppy panache of upscale college kids, or the cowboy feel of his own Colorado ranch—has remained at the heart of his aesthetic vision. As filmmaker Ken Burns said in the 2019 documentary Very Ralph, “You’re not just buying an article of clothing, you’ve joined a narrative.”

 

Even so, says fashion historian Emma McClendon, Ralph Lauren has never tried to be cutting-edge. “What they’re attempting to be is the standard-bearer of American style,” she says. Being “timeless,” a word company executives use ad nauseam, is perhaps the cornerstone of its identity. By the 1980s and ’90s, Ralph Lauren’s suits became the uniform for many men on Wall Street, and Lauren has dressed first ladies from Nancy Reagan to Melania Trump, along with countless celebrities.

 

But over the decades, the company’s hyper-speed rise sowed the seeds of an existential crisis. Much of its growth was fueled by licensing deals. By 2000, some 26 outside companies were making and advertising the wares Lauren designed, limiting the company’s control over everything from quality to distribution to brand equity. And the company faced enormous pressure to keep the pace going after it went public in 1997.

 

Management delivered: Between 2007 and 2015, Ralph Lauren revenue rose 80%, to a peak of $7.6 billion. But the quest led the company down some ill-advised roads. By the late 2000s, convinced it could retain credibility while selling lower-end brands at discount chains, Ralph Lauren was everywhere from Saks Fifth Avenue to J.C. Penney. Trying to be all things to all people “is often the beginning of the end for luxury brands,” says Silvia Bellezza, a former LVMH executive who teaches marketing at Columbia Business School.

 

Ralph Lauren also took risks in its manufacturing, overproducing for fear of leaving revenue on the table—which in turn led to mass discounting of unsold goods. It was unclear what this company was anymore: one that competed in luxury with the likes of Brioni, or one that sold socks at $10 for a four-pack at T.J. Maxx.

 

As business began to erode, the Lauren family had one vital advantage: They held the vast majority of voting shares (85% currently). That control shielded Ralph Lauren from the drastic decisions that could have been imposed by an activist investor, and it gave the family the room it needed to fix the company.

 

In 2015, Lauren announced he was stepping down as CEO (but staying on as chief creative officer). He handed the reins to Stefan Larsson, who had seen wild success as global president of Old Navy, and whom Lauren encouraged to bring in fresh thinking. Larsson began the difficult process of reform: In 2016, Ralph Lauren laid off 8% of its staff, eliminating 1,200 jobs. It also began closing stores, including its new Polo store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue—a move that fomented a sense the company was in crisis.

 

But for a founder with such a strong point of view, ceding any measure of control proved to be difficult. Larsson was gone by May 2017, after only 20 months. Media reports at the time suggested that Lauren and Larsson agreed on where the company should be heading but not on how to get there. (Larsson, who is now CEO of PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, says he remains a big fan of the company. “I was honored to play a part in its journey, contributing to that strong foundation and heritage that Ralph and Patrice have so successfully tapped into,” he told Fortune.)

 

Enter Patrice Louvet. His nearly 29 years at P&G had endowed him with enviable brand-building chops and mastery of the intricacies of global supply chains. He also knew how to run a big team. Ralph Lauren’s workforce had ballooned to 25,000, generating an org chart that was bureaucratic and full of overlap; Louvet patiently simplified it. “The company was hungry for someone who could organize it into a smoothly functioning system,” says David Lauren. “A lot of creativity didn’t have an outlet.”

 

After the Sturm und Drang preceding his arrival, Louvet’s people skills were just as big of a draw. One of his first moves might seem banal: creating a mission statement that galvanized the troops after the 2016 layoffs. Louvet, who has a multi-hour weekly lunch with Lauren to talk shop and life, marvels at how his boss regularly asks him big existential questions, like “Are you happy?” “No one at P&G ever asked me that. It’s an amazing question,” Louvet says. And he now asks the same question of his own direct reports.

 

However tight the partnership, Lauren ultimately calls the shots. Louvet’s contract contains a provision stipulating that Lauren has final say on brand and creative decisions, along with hiring and dismissals of top executives in design and marketing. (Larsson’s contract had no such provision.)

 

Louvet says he and Lauren simply found the areas in which each is best suited to lead: “It’s not written, ‘Patrice, you do this; Ralph, you do that,’ and yet naturally we have fallen into our respective roles.” Lauren himself is quick to hail their collaboration. “This company has never been a one-man show,” he said in a statement. “No one achieves this alone.”

 

Brand erosion has a way of going slowly at first, then snowballing. That was the situation Louvet inherited at Ralph Lauren. Sales fell $1.3 billion, or 18%, between 2016 and 2018, and profit was plunging. (Sales began to rebound in 2019 but tanked again during the pandemic.)

 

Some of Louvet’s changes involved making Ralph Lauren smaller to make it stronger. Building on Larsson’s work, he continued to get the brand out of department stores that were not showcasing it well. The company has exited about two-thirds of the North American department stores where it had a presence at its peak. In 2011, Macy’s alone sold $1 billion worth of Ralph Lauren goods, accounting for 22% of the fashion brand’s sales. Now it’s a fraction of that.

 

All the while, Ralph Lauren expanded its own store base. Its footprint remains relatively small: It has 269 company-operated stores worldwide. But at those stores, it tunes the setting for maximum impact. Lauren’s cinematic sensibilities inspire the look and establish a visual vocabulary that sets a Ralph Lauren blazer apart from a rival’s. The Ralph Lauren flagship, on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, exemplifies this approach. Sturdy wooden desks, leather armchairs, and horse-themed photography suggest an exclusive country club, but one with warmth. It’s a marked contrast to the department store vibe of the 2010s—think piles of unfolded Polo Bear sweaters strewn across tables.

 

Stand-alone stores also help Ralph Lauren build buzz. The women’s store, across Madison from the flagship, is home to the popular Ralph’s Coffee, which has lines around the block on most days. (It’s the original Ralph’s: There are now 30 worldwide, with more on the way.) The company has placed its luxury handbags right by the coffee shop, the better to entice upscale locals and tourists alike. Louvet hopes Ralph Lauren can become as dominant in handbags as it is in sweaters and polo shirts.

 

The company also sells antique jewelry and vintage clothing at that store, to add to the treasure-hunt fun so many retailers forsake in pursuit of efficiency. Back at the men’s flagship building, there’s a new, hyper-luxurious suite that the biggest spenders can use for private shopping or private events. Downtown, the popular Double RL store in SoHo sells leather jackets and jeans adored by creative types, albeit those who have a bit more money.

 

Dotting the world with stores is not in the cards. Louvet says the company will remain focused on its “gateway cities” (it currently has 30 and plans to add 20 over the next three years), while serving others via its website or its wholesale partners. But the elevated presentation at its own stores has allowed it to more clearly differentiate its subbrands. One of Louvet’s early moves was to sell mass-market brand Club Monaco, the better to strengthen the remaining brands’ identities.

 

“We sometimes get reduced to, ‘You’re the preppy style guys,’” Louvet says. “But actually this brand is multidimensional. You want to be a cowboy in Colorado? Double RL gives you that. And you want to be some dandy on Savile Row? Purple Label can give you that. You want to be a college kid at Boston University? We have rugby shirts.”

 

That clearer differentiation among brands allows Ralph Lauren to sell some of its Purple Label men’s dress shirts for $800 while selling similar-looking ones under Polo for $138—without confusing, or angering, shoppers.

 

The company has also gotten much better at marketing to those shoppers and gathering information about them. Ralph Lauren’s marketing budget is about 7.3% of sales, roughly double what it was a few years ago. It’s become more targeted and effective, seeking the young consumer who favors “old money” and classic looks but wants more affordable prices than Hermès or Balenciaga offers.

 

Ralph Lauren now has much deeper data it can analyze, not just for personalizing ads but to figure out what products would do best under what sub-brand. “We are more precise, more targeted, more intentional,” says chief product and merchandising officer Halide Alagöz. While roughly 70% of Ralph Lauren’s goods are similar year in, year out, that data helps the company reduce the risk of misfires for the other 30%, or simply to know if a new jean jacket might make more sense for RRL or for Polo.

 

Alagöz insists that the science of merchandising doesn’t choke off the art. New collections continue to reflect designers’ passions: For example, Ralph Lauren recently launched an acclaimed collection, Oak Bluffs, evoking the crisp style at historically Black colleges and in the Black enclave on Martha’s Vineyard. It also collaborated with Major League Baseball to create sweaters, satin jackets, and the like bearing iconic team logos.

 

Whatever the balance of art and science, the company is winning over young customers. Research firm Kantar’s BrandZ tracker found Ralph Lauren has the fourth-highest brand equity in the luxury apparel category among young people, a marked improvement from just five years ago.

 

This popularity has come much to Louvet’s relief. He recalls being asked by friends before starting his CEO job whether Ralph Lauren could still be relevant. “It was clear at the time that for the younger generation, the answer was no,” he says. Now, young people are dying for a table at the Polo Bar, a celebrity-packed eatery that is one of the hardest places to land a reservation in Manhattan. The bar features a $110 steak and a $495 martini: Timeless luxury, in food and beverage form.

 

In 2022, as Ralph Lauren began to recover from the pandemic, it unveiled a three-year growth plan, grandiosely titled “The Next Great Chapter.” Women are central characters in this story: The company is sharply focused on its nearly $2 billion women’s business, which represents only about 30% of apparel sales. Categories like handbags and outerwear are under-tapped, the company believes, as are markets like India and cities other than the gateways. “I am planting the seeds for my successor,” Louvet says.

 

The positive reviews the women’s show garnered in April demonstrate that Louvet has much to work with. But in fashion, by definition, a brand can never sit on its laurels. “It’s got to stay fresh,” says Louvet. Indeed, his boss demands as much. “As soon as we’re done with a fashion show, [Ralph] celebrates for about 12 seconds, maybe 15, and then he’ll say, ‘What’s the next thing going to be, and how are we going to raise the bar?’”

 

Doing more with fewer brands

Ralph Lauren’s portfolio includes a dozen or so sub-brands—considerably fewer than a decade ago—and each has a particular target clientele. Here are the biggest, in descending order of fanciness

 

Ralph Lauren collection (women) and Ralph Lauren Purple Label (men)

The ne plus ultra brands on the roster, where the company competes with luxury heavyweights like Brioni and Hermès. Many items are hand-tailored, and quite a few made in Italy. (A Purple Label cotton-linen denim Western men’s shirt fetches $995, while a large calfskin tote goes for $4,400.)

 

Double RL

A reference to the initials Ralph Lauren and his wife, Ricky, share, Double RL is a high-end line inspired by vintage work wear and American West iconography. A comparable T-shirt that costs $50 at Polo costs about $80 at RRL. Mostly focused on men’s wear since its 1993 founding, Double RL is now going after the women’s market.

 

Polo Ralph Lauren

The company’s flagship brand. While far less expensive than Collection or Purple Label, Polo, with its immediately recognizable, ubiquitous polo player logo, is not exactly cheap, with some sweaters going for $400. The brand focuses on preppy looks that evoke an active lifestyle.

 

This brand is focused on more technical sports apparel, offering a range of moisture-wicking Polo shirts and outdoor gear such as pullovers and windbreakers. There is an emphasis on golf apparel.

 

Lauren Ralph Lauren

This women’s line caters to what Ralph Lauren calls “aspirational” luxury seekers, with lower prices than the company’s other brands.

REMEMBERING 8 years ago, when Ralph Lauren was in deep trouble : Inside Ralph Lauren's Soon-To-Close Flagship Polo Store / Stefan Larsson at Ralph Lauren

The period of former CEO Stefan Larsson at Ralph Lauren was challenging, often described in the media as a "disastrous" or difficult period, marked by significant financial struggles and a high-profile clash with the founder over the company's creative direction.

 

The Context of Larsson's Tenure

Appointment and Mandate: Larsson, a respected retail veteran credited with the success of Old Navy and H&M, was appointed CEO in late 2015. His primary mandate was to revitalize the brand, which was seen as stagnant and overly reliant on licensing agreements. He launched a "Way Forward Plan" that involved closing stores, cutting jobs and costs, and reducing lead times to market, similar to the fast-fashion model.

Financial Struggles: Despite the plan, the company's financial performance continued to decline during his short tenure. The company reported a 12% fall in revenue during the holiday quarter of 2017, and its stock price lost more than a fifth of its value between his appointment and departure.

Creative Clashes: The main reason for his departure, announced in February 2017 after less than two years, was a fundamental disagreement with founder and executive chairman Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren, who remained the creative director, wanted to maintain control over the product, marketing, and store experience, while Larsson sought control over all aspects of the business to implement his turnaround strategy.

 

Summary of the "Disastrous Period"

The period was seen as a "brand in crisis" by analysts due to:

Poor results: A series of declining sales and profits.

Internal strife: Public "management squabbling" and "significant internal wrangling" between the new CEO and the founder.

Uncertainty: The sudden departure of the CEO created significant uncertainty about the future direction of the company, further rattling investors.

Larsson ultimately left the company in May 2017 with a $10 million severance package.

10 British Manners Everyone Forgot

Brigitte Bardot - The Icon Who Walked Off Set Into the Wild - A rebel with a cause / From Sex Appeal to the Far Right, Brigitte Bardot Symbolized a Changing France

Brigitte Bardot, French screen legend, dies aged 91

 

Emmanuel Macron leads tributes to​ actor who became an international sex symbol ​and later embraced animal rights​ and far-right politics

 

Andrew Pulver, and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

Sun 28 Dec 2025 17.39 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/dec/28/brigitte-bardot-french-screen-legend-and-animal-rights-activist-dies

 

Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing the cause of animal rights activism and far-right politics, has died aged 91.

 

Paying tribute to Bardot on Sunday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, wrote on social media that France was mourning “a legend of the century”.

 

“Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory … her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom,” Macron said.

 

Bardot’s death, at her Saint-Tropez home, La Madrague, on the French Riviera, was announced by her foundation. “The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” it said.

 

Her cause of death was not made public. Bardot was briefly hospitalised in October for what her office called a “minor” procedure.

 

The town hall in Saint-Tropez, where Bardot had holidayed as a child and where she later shot the film And God Created Woman, said the actor had “helped make Saint-Tropez shine across the world”.

 

The town said Bardot was its “most radiant ambassador” and part of “the collective memory of Saint-Tropez, which we must preserve”.

 

Bardot shot to international fame in 1956 with And God Created Woman, written and directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim, and for the next two decades was said to have embodied the idea of the archetypal “sex kitten”. In the early 1970s, however, she announced her retirement from acting and became an outspoken campaigner on animal rights, and increasingly active politically on the far right.

 

Bardot’s incendiary comments about ethnic minorities, immigration, Islam and homosexuality resulted in a string of convictions for inciting racial hatred. French courts fined her six times between 1997 and 2008 for her comments, particularly those targeting France’s Muslim community. In one case, a Paris court fined her €15,000 (£13,000) for describing Muslims as “this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts”.

 

Jordan Bardella, the president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party (RN), which Bardot supported, wrote: “Brigitte Bardot was a woman of heart, conviction and character. An ardent patriot, devoted to animals that she protected throughout her life, she embodied a whole French era, but also above all a certain idea of courage and freedom.”

 

Le Pen, whom Bardot once described as “the Joan of Arc of the 21st century”, wrote on social media that Bardot was “exceptional for her talent, courage, frankness and beauty”. “She was incredibly French,” she said. “Free, indomitable, whole. She will be hugely missed.”

 

Such was Bardot’s role in the far right’s cultural pantheon that tributes were also paid to her from Italy’s government, where the deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, called her “a timeless star, but above all a woman who was free, nonconformist, protagonist of courageous battles in defence of our traditions”.

 

The Italian culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, said: “Brigitte Bardot was not only one of the great protagonists of world cinema, but also an extraordinary interpreter of western fundamental freedoms.” He said she “resolutely defended her vision of cultural and social values and civic engagement”.

 

Born in 1934 in Paris, Bardot grew up in a prosperous, traditional Catholic family but excelled enough as a dancer to be allowed to study ballet, gaining a place at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris. At the same time she found work as a model, appearing on the cover of Elle in 1950 while still 15. As a result of her modelling work, she was offered film roles; at one audition she met Vadim, whom she would marry in 1952, after she turned 18. Bardot was cast in small roles, with increasing prominence, playing Dirk Bogarde’s love interest in Doctor at Sea, a big hit in the UK in 1955.

 

But it was Vadim’s And God Created Woman, in which Bardot played an uninhibited teenager in Saint-Tropez, that consolidated her image and turned her into an international icon. The film was a huge hit in France, as well as internationally, and catapulted Bardot into the front rank of French screen performers.

 

As well as for cinema audiences, Bardot swiftly became an inspiration for intellectuals and artists; not least the young John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who demanded their then girlfriends dye their hair blond in imitation of her. The columnist Raymond Cartier wrote a lengthy article about “le cas Bardot” in Paris-Match in 1958, while Simone de Beauvoir published her famous essay Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome in 1959, framing the actor as France’s most liberated woman. In 1969, Bardot was chosen as the first real-life model for Marianne, the symbol of the French republic.

 

In the early 1960s, Bardot appeared in a string of high-profile French films, including Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Oscar-nominated drama The Truth, Louis Malle’s Very Private Affair (opposite Marcello Mastroianni) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt. In the second half of the decade, Bardot took up a number of Hollywood offers: these included Viva Maria!, a Mexican-set period comedy with Jeanne Moreau, and Shalako, a western with Sean Connery.

 

Bardot also had a parallel music career, which included recording the original version of Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus, which Gainsbourg had written for her while they were having an extramarital affair. (Afraid of scandal after her then husband, Gunter Sachs, found out, Bardot asked Gainsbourg not to release it. He went on to re-record it with Jane Birkin, to huge commercial success.)

 

Bardot found the pressure of stardom increasingly irksome, telling the Guardian in 1996: “The madness which surrounded me always seemed unreal. I was never really prepared for the life of a star.” She retired from acting in 1973, aged 39, after making the historical romance The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot. Her primary focus became animal welfare activism, joining protests against seal hunts in 1977 and establishing the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986.

 

Bardot subsequently sent letters of protest to world leaders over issues such as dog extermination in Romania, dolphin killing in the Faroe Islands and cat slaughter in Australia. She also regularly aired outspoken views on religious animal slaughter. In her 2003 book A Cry in the Silence she espoused rightwing politics and took aim at gay men and lesbians, schoolteachers and the so-called “Islamisation of French society”, resulting in a conviction for inciting racial hatred.

 

Bardot was married four times: to Vadim between 1952 and 1957; Jacques Charrier between 1959 and 1962, with whom she had a son, Nicolas, in 1960; Sachs from 1966-69; and to the former Le Pen adviser Bernard d’Ormale, whom she married in 1992. She also embarked on a number of high-profile relationships, including with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Gainsbourg.

An Appraisal

From Sex Appeal to the Far Right, Brigitte Bardot Symbolized a Changing France

 

In the decades after becoming a megastar, the French actress became as known for her politics as she once had been for her acting career.

 

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

Dec. 28, 2025

Updated 7:09 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/arts/brigitte-bardot-movies-songs-animal-rights.html

 

The actress, singer and activist Brigitte Bardot, who has died at 91, personified France in a literal way: In 1969, she became the first celebrity to be used as the model for Marianne, the symbol of the Republic that has adorned the country’s City Halls as well as official documents, stamps and coins since the French Revolution. Just over a year earlier, she had kicked off her TV special “Le Show Bardot,” wearing little besides thigh-high boots and a French flag, as the national anthem played and then quickly morphed into a peppy new pop tune.

 

B.B., as she was known, was a new France: bold, free and unconventional.

 

Yet Bardot wasn’t a consensual figure. You might even say she was among the first problematic stars of the modern era: Admired and reviled in turns, or even simultaneously, she was a star accused of being a bad actress, a cranky, unfiltered misanthrope doubling as an emblem of modernity and liberation, and a tireless crusader for animal rights who cottoned to the far-right National Front and was convicted multiple times for “inciting racial hatred.”

 

Bardot did not need anyone to cancel her, though: In a way, she did it herself, quitting acting in 1973 before she turned 40. Unlike many star retirements before and since, this one stuck. Many may argue that this left her with enough time on her hands to get in trouble, but for better or for worse, she wanted agency, and she got it.

 

Long before she became Marianne, Bardot carried an even heavier burden: She was synonymous with womanhood itself. After all, the movie that made her a star in her early 20s was the melodrama “And God Created Woman,” in 1956.

 

Under the direction of her then-husband, Roger Vadim, Bardot unleashed a sultry, unapologetic sensuality that made it feel as if she had suddenly opened wide France’s windows and let in a bracing gust of fresh air. Writing in The New York Times in 2018, A.O. Scott described the film as “a watershed in the cinematic history of sex, sunshine and a certain image of France.”

 

And this being France, it did not take long for Bardot to attract the attention of the intellectual and literary sets. Marguerite Duras wrote an article under the headline “Queen Bardot” in 1958. The following year, Simone de Beauvoir wrote a piece headlined “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome” for Esquire, an admiring article that mentioned the young actress’s love for animals and ended with the thought: “I hope that she will not resign herself to insignificance in order to gain popularity. I hope she will mature, but not change.”

 

After her breakthrough in 1956, Bardot was propelled into a whirlwind megastardom that she would never feel comfortable with. She was hounded by paparazzi, multiplied affairs and marriages in a quest for love, and made movies at a frenzied pace.

 

In her essay “Brigitte Bardot or the ‘Problem’ of Women’s Comedy,” the scholar Ginette Vincendeau pointed out that the attention surrounding Bardot tended to focus on her sex appeal, but that most of her hits were comedies, starting with “Naughty Girl” in 1956, that benefited from her playful naturalism and energy, and the way she subverted the stereotype of the “dumb blonde.”

 

While those films tended to be box-office gold, Bardot also successfully ventured into more serious fare, most notably Henri-Georges Clouzot’s noirish drama “The Truth” (1960) and Jean-Luc Godard’s intoxicating paean to cinema, “Contempt” (1963).

 

The 1960s were Bardot’s decade. In addition to her cinematic activities, she released her first single, “Sidonie,” in 1962 (it was featured in her first film with Louis Malle, “A Very Private Affair”) and then went on to build an impressive discography marked by nonchalant, bemused, piquant performances. A TV special that aired on Jan. 1, 1968 immediately acquired cult status, bolstered by imaginatively staged versions of new Serge Gainsbourg songs like “Comic Strip,” “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Harley Davidson.”

 

The French sociologist and philosopher Edgar Morin wrote in his book “The Stars” (1972) that Bardot had “admirable qualities of extreme innocence and extreme eroticism,” a paradox that made her intriguing. She had a reputation for being sexually brazen, for example, but she asked Gainsbourg not to release their steamy duet “Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus,” which they had recorded in 1967 when they were having an affair. He obliged, and then rerecorded it in 1969 with another paramour, Jane Birkin, and it became a hit. (The Bardot version finally came out in 1986.)

 

She was so fond of singing that she lingered in that career after she stopped making films: Her last single, “Toutes Les Bêtes Sont à Aimer” (“All Animals Are to Be Loved”), came out in 1982, about a decade after she withdrew from cinema.

 

The decisive moment came when she was making what would turn out to be her last feature, “The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot” (1973). She had noticed that one of the extras had a small goat, and learned that goat was destined for a barbecue. Horrified, Bardot bought the animal — an episode that she later said had compelled her to turn from acting to animal rights campaigning.

 

In a 1994 interview with The New York Times, Bardot said she had always loved animals: “But when I was making films, I discovered there was a difference between loving animals and fighting for them — and I didn’t have time to fight for them. So that’s why I gave up cinema. I stopped making films to look after animals.”

 

She holed up in the Mediterranean town of St.-Tropez, where she had two properties, one of which was famous from her song “La Madrague.” From there, she dedicated herself full time to a kind of radicalism not often displayed by celebrities.

 

“I only live in the world of animal protection,” she said in the 1994 interview. “I speak only of that. I think only of that. I am obsessed.” And not much else seemed to matter — in 1986, she helped finance the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, an animal protection nonprofit, by selling many of her belongings.

 

As the decades went by, Bardot became as famous for her politics as she once had been for her career. She regularly gave interviews and opined freely, usually to bemoan the state of the world in general and her own country in particular.

 

She believed, for example, that only the political right — all the way to the extremes of the National Front and its successor, the National Rally — could save a decadent France. Earlier this year, she expressed support for Gérard Depardieu and Nicolas Bedos, who have both been convicted of sexual assault. Among the French luminaries who mourned her on Sunday was the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who said Bardot “was quintessentially French: free-spirited, indomitable, uncompromising. We will miss her dearly.”

 

In a phone interview with Le Monde newspaper for her 90th birthday, Bardot said: “I don’t need anything. I have everything I need for the way I live. I don’t ever want more than what I have.”

 

As De Beauvoir had hoped, she did not change.

 

Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting from Paris.

William of Gloucester: Britain’s Most Daring Prince You’ve Never Heard O...

How Prince William of Gloucester, the Queen’s cousin and ‘the other Prince William’, became a tragic figure of royal history

 

On the anniversary of his birth, Tatler looks back at the life of ‘the other Prince William’, Prince William of Gloucester whose life ended in tragic circumstances

 

By Tatler

18 December 2025

https://www.tatler.com/gallery/who-is-prince-william-of-gloucester-namesake-of-the-prince-of-wales

 

Born on 18 December 1941, Prince William of Gloucester was the eldest son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott. Prince Henry was the third son of King George V and Queen Mary and younger brother of King Edward VIII (later Duke of Windsor) and King George VI. Lady Alice was the third daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch and Lady Margaret Bridgeman. At birth, Prince William was fourth in line to the throne. His parents welcomed another son, Prince Richard, in 1944.

 

Prince William spent his early childhood at Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire and later in Canberra, Australia, where his father served as Governor-General. On return to Britain, Prince William was educated at Wellesley House School in Broadstairs, Kent, and later Eton. A keen sportsman, Prince William played both cricket and football. Prince William received a history degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge, before completing a year in political science, American history and business at the prestigious Stanford University.

 

Unlike some members of the Royal Family, Prince William had a close relationship with his parents. ‘She is a human being and she must possess some faults. But so far as I am concerned she has no faults at all,’ he once reportedly said of his mother, while his fondness for his father was once described as ‘infectious’. He is said to have appreciated the freedom they granted him growing up, despite his relative seniority within the family.

 

In 1947, shortly before his sixth birthday, Prince William of Gloucester was a page boy for his first cousin Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) at her wedding to Prince Philip. The other page boy was Prince Michael (another first cousin through his father Prince George, Duke of Kent, who tragically died in a military air crash). In 1953, Prince William also attended the coronation of Elizabeth II.

 

When he returned to Britain, Prince William joined the Commonwealth Office and was posted to Lagos, then later Tokyo. He became the second member of the Royal Family to become a public servant, following his uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent.

 

Prince William never married but had a long-running, highly public relationship with a woman named Zsuzsi Starkloff. Born in Hungary, Starkloff fled to America in her early 20s and made a living as a model and flight attendant. A trailblazer, Starkloff later gained her pilot’s licence and became a flight instructor. A failed marriage to Ed ‘Starky’ Starkloff behind her, Zsuzsi moved to Tokyo, where she crossed paths with the young prince, who dubbed her ‘Cinderella’.

 

‘He was quite a man,’ Zsuzsi, who was five years his senior, reportedly later recounted. ‘Very manly. Very passionate. And mature beyond his years.’ Prince William was smitten and wrote to his parents to ask how they would feel if he proposed marriage. Zsuzsi was deemed ‘unsuitable’. The couple faced resistance from royals, including Queen Elizabeth II, who feared a repeat of the controversy around her uncle King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, or even her sister Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend. Princess Margaret, while not encouraging William, did sympathise with him in this regard, telling him to ‘wait a bit’ and to ‘see how everything looks’ once he returned to Britain.

 

William's diplomatic career was cut short by the failing health of his father, which had become critical after multiple strokes in 1970. William had no choice but to resign and return to Britain in order to take care of his father's estate and, as he put it, take on the full-time job of a royal prince. At the time, far more members of the Royal Family carried out duties on behalf of the monarch and Prince William of Gloucester stepped in to take care of responsibilities on behalf of his beloved father.

 

However, it wasn’t long before his life was cut short. In 1972, while competing in the Goodyear International Air Trophy, the wing of William's plane sheared off after hitting a tree. The out-of-control plane flipped over and crashed into an earthen bank, bursting into flames. The crash happened before 30,000 spectators, the fire took two hours to control, and the bodies were identified at inquest the next day from dental records.

 

Prince William had been the heir apparent to his father’s peerages, Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Ulster, and Baron Culloden. Upon his death, his younger brother Prince Richard of Gloucester became heir apparent, and succeeded to these peerages in 1974.

The British Royal You've Never Heard Of | Alexander Ogilvy / 8 things to know about Alexander Charles Ogilvy, the “hottest” British royal you’ve never heard of

8 things to know about Alexander Charles Ogilvy, the “hottest” British royal you’ve never heard of

 

Britain's most eligible bachelor (as he's been dubbed) is following in Prince William's shoes

 

By Jade Biggs Published: 01 December 2025

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a69591506/alexander-charles-ogilvy-royal-details/

 

You might not know who Alexander Charles Ogilvy is yet... but if social media is anything to go by, you certainly will soon.

 

Alex Ogilvy is being hailed online as the "hottest" royal you've never heard of, with social media users describing him as "Britain's most eligible bachelor" – a title once owned by Prince William, who broke the hearts of single women across the UK when he wed Kate Middleton.

 

Eager to learn more about Alex and, perhaps, whether or not he's got a local pub we could accidentally stumble into, we embarked on a deep dive into his life. Scroll on for all the details...

 

Who is Alexander Charles Ogilvy?

He is the son of James and Julia Ogilvy

Alex Ogilvy is the son of James and Julia Ogilvy, and the grandson of Princess Alexandra, the first cousin of and bridesmaid to the late Queen Elizabeth.

 

He is in line for the British throne

Alex Ogilvy is 60th in line for the British throne, meaning it's pretty (read: very) unlikely he'll ever be monarch. These are the royals who currently have the first 10 spots in the British line of succession: Prince William, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince Harry, Prince Archie, Princess Lilibet of Sussex, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Princess Beatrice, and lastly, her daughter, Miss Sienna Mapelli Mozzi.

 

He just graduated from the Royal Military Academy

In August of this year, Alex Ogilvy graduated from the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst, and he was pictured in uniform for his passing-out parade at the Berkshire school.

 

He is expected to appear at Trooping the Colour

Since his graduation, Alex Ogilvy has signed up to the prestigious Household Cavalry and has been commissioned into the Blues and Royals. This means he might ride in next year's Trooping the Colour parade.

 

He is single

Although Alex Ogilvy has been linked romantically to several it-girls in the past, he is thought to be single at the moment.

 

While studying Computer Science and Economics at Brown University, Alex reportedly pursued a relationship with Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, granddaughter of Robert F Kennedy, the assassinated presidential candidate. Per Tatler, Alex has also dated model and sustainability activist Isabella Charlotta Poppius, who is a regular on British Vogue's Best Dressed lists.

 

He just turned 29

Alex Ogilvy celebrated his birthday last month, turning 29 in November. Taking to Instagram to celebrate the big day, Alex's sister shared a sweet behind-the-scenes photo from her wedding.

 

"Wishing my lovely brother Alexander a happy birthday tomorrow," wrote Flora Vesterberg née Ogilvy. "Very proud of our British Army Officer (in the Blues and Royals cavalry regiment)."

 

She ended the post with: "It's been an extraordinary year for you."

 

Alex Ogilvy knows how to get hearts racing online, and he's found himself at the centre of attention on TikTok quite a few times. Clips of Alex arriving at the funerals of Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of Kent previously had viewers on TikTok talking about the "handsome" young royal.

 

Alex, if you're reading this, you've got some fans at the Cosmopolitan UK office!

 

Jade Biggs (she/her) is one of Cosmopolitan UK's freelance writers, working across all sections including entertainment, beauty, body, and sex and relationships. She previously held the position of Features Writer, covering everything from breaking news and the latest royal gossip, to the health and fitness trends taking over your TikTok feed. Jade has a degree in journalism and has been a journalist and content