The Ralph Lauren name is an iconic American fashion company made up of 17 fashion brands and four lifestyle brands with 493 stores across 30 countries as well as an online component. Over the years, labels have come and gone but they live on in our hearts (and on eBay) so keep reading to learn about two of his most luxurious labels, Black Label and Purple Label. One no longer exists while the other is the top label at the company. Care to guess which is which?

The Man, the Myth, the Legend

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Born with the moniker, Ralph Rueben Lifshitz, in New York in October of 1939, Ralph and his brother changed their last name to Lauren when they were teenagers. After completing high school, Lauren took business classes at night and worked in sales by day. One of these day jobs was working for a tie company, which inspired him to design his own neckwear. In 1967, Lauren went into business for himself, marketing his unique line of ties under the name Polo.

Lauren’s ties were wider and more colorful than the other ones on the market and they found their niche, first in small stores specializing in menswear and later on at Bloomingdale’s department store. His creations were characterized by a style that evoked the look of English aristocracy as it had been adopted by the preppy and sporty American East Coast elite.

His style really took off and became a nationwide phenomenon after he was asked to dress the male actors in the 1974 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby. The film evoked the lost, elegant era of the 1920s, providing the perfect backdrop for Lauren’s classic vision. 

His interest in timelessness, longevity, and style as opposed to the trendiness of fashion, inspired some of the more famous clothing worn by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. His vision appealed to a wide variety of people, and his label quickly turned into the empire we know today, including the Black Label and Purple Label, amongst others.